NEW YORK, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to grant 135 million U.S. dollars to California school districts and state and local governments to help them switch to battery electric vehicles.
The move follows Governor Gavin Newsom's August announcement of 500 million dollars in state aid to put 1,000 electric school buses on the road in California, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. Last year, the governor mandated that all new school buses sold starting in 2035 must be zero-emission vehicles.
The EPA money will go to 13 government agencies, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, Oxnard School District and Oakland Unified School District. Recipients must use the money to replace aging fossil-fuel vehicles, which will have to be scrapped.
The EPA said it will work with recipients to finalize the awards in early 2025. If the awards go through in time, the Los Angeles district will receive about 20 million U.S. dollars to replace 50 fossil-fuel school buses.
Each recipient will receive differing levels of grant money for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and workforce training, and receive different percentages of assistance with vehicle purchases, and as a result the per-bus costs for each will differ.
