EPA Awards $12.5 Million to Schools for New, Fuel-Efficient School Buses

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $12.5 million to schools across the country to replace older diesel school buses “with newer, cleaner ones”.

Newer buses have “diesel engines more than 90 percent cleaner” than the old ones. Diesel engines on these older school buses “emit large amounts of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, which are linked to instances of aggravated asthma, lung damage and other serious health problems.”

EPA Administrator Kurt Thiede noted how “[d]iesel exhaust can be especially harmful for children, whose lungs are still developing.”

The $12.5 million will cover the replacement of 632 school buses.