The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) announced another grant program available for school districts to replace old diesel school buses with newer propane, diesel and natural gas models. The total grant amount is $17 million, reported Red Lake Nation News.
This is the third round of grants approved for cleaner fuel buses, due to high demand by school districts and bus companies in Minnesota.
The grants are funded by the national Volkswagen Mitigation Trust Fund to target the removal of higher-emissions diesel vehicles.
The funding is divided into two categories, with 60 percent going to bus operators in the Twin Cities area and the remaining amount for the rest of the state.
The MPCA’s first grant program in 2018 awarded more than $2 million for school buses across 21 districts, with half of them being propane and the rest clean diesel. Previous grants have targeted air quality improvements through replacing or upgrading older diesel vehicles and equipment.
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