Three public school districts in the region are getting electric buses through a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program aiming to replace the country's aging, diesel-fueled fleet.
Cahokia Unit School District 187 and Granite City Community Unit School District 9 will each get 10 buses and East St. Louis School District 189 will get 25.
The districts are among 38 others in Illinois to get buses through the EPA's Clean School Bus Program. Funding for the program is provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was passed in 2021 and authorized $5 billion over five years for clean school buses.
The EPA announced in a news release Monday it is doling out nearly $1 billion to allow 280 school districts across the country to purchase more than 2,700 "clean buses," which are either electric or fueled on natural gas or propane. This is the second round of funding made available through the program and the first time any southwestern Illinois districts have benefited from it.
"Clean school buses not only provide students with safe transportation to and from school, but they also improve air quality throughout the neighborhoods they serve," EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said in the news release.
"This investment is only the start of our work to reduce air pollution, save money for our school districts and create a healthier future for our students," Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Springfield, said in a separate press release.
School districts in low-income, rural, and Tribal communities make up about 86% of the grant recipients, according to the EPA.
Some of the grants go to the school districts directly, while other grants go to third-party bus providers.
First Student is the recipient of the grant funding for Cahokia 187 and Granite City 9. Highland CSB 1 is the provider receiving the grant funding for East St. Louis 189.
Kevin Matthews, head of electrification at First Student, explained that some school districts own and operate their buses, while other districts outsource their student transportation needs to companies like First Student. In those cases, First Student will receive the money from the EPA, purchase the electric buses and charging infrastructure, and deploy them at the school districts.
The cost of an electric bus depends on a variety of factors, Matthews explained, including the type of bus and battery size. In general, an electric bus costs 2.5 to 3.5 times the cost of a fossil fuel bus, he said.
Sydney Stigge-Kaufman, executive director of communications and strategic partnerships at East St. Louis 189, said the district is excited about the ripple effects the electric buses could have on students' health.
The buses will contribute to cleaner air, which will have significant value in a community where a large proportion of the student body has asthma, she said.
School buses that use diesel are major sources of air pollution, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Diesel emissions contain pollutants like soot, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, which can have negative cardiovascular and respiratory health effects. Diesel exhaust is also carcinogenic.
Research suggests that reducing students' exposure to diesel emissions can have positive effects. A 2019 study in the Economics of Education Review, for example, found that when school districts retrofitted their diesel engines, there were significant improvements in students' respiratory health as well as in academic performance, especially English test scores.
Some other metro-east school districts already have electric buses.
In 2019, Triad Community Unit School District 2 received a state grant — funded by a 2016 settlement in the Volkswagen emissions-cheating case — of $650,000 to purchase three electric buses and associated charging infrastructure.
Then in 2021, Triad 2 received more than $790,000 through another round of the VW grant program to purchase three additional electric school buses and charging stations.
During that same round of funding, Collinsville Community Unit School District 10 and Edwardsville Community Unit District 7 each received an electric school bus and charging station through First Student, which received a total of more than $425,000.
© 2024 the Belleville News-Democrat (Belleville, Ill.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
