FITCHBURG – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) named Fitchburg Public Schools as part of a one of 17 school district in Massachusetts to receive $42 million in Clean School Bus Program Awards. Of that funding, $6.2 million was awarded to Fitchburg.
The EPA named Fitchburg as the only Worcester County recipient for this round of funding from the program. The EPA awarded Worcester Public Schools $5.8 million in March.
The program helps school districts replace fossil-fueled school buses with cleaner electric models. This round of funding will replace 166 fossil fuel-powered school buses with electric vehicles across the state.
“Every Massachusetts student deserves to breathe clean air, but diesel school buses are a major source of air pollution and can be harmful to young people’s health,” said Governor Healey. “We’re thrilled to see so many Massachusetts communities win federal funding to make the switch to cleaner electric school buses.
The state has also supported school bus conversions through the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
The Clean Schools Bus program was created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021. The most recent funding represents the third round of $5 billion that the EPA will disburse over a five-year period. The Clean School Buses program was the subject of the inaugural Federal Funds Partnership Meeting, a new initiative of the Federal Funds and Infrastructure Office to convene hundreds of municipal and tribal leaders across the state to share information about federal funding opportunities.
“These new electric school buses from the Biden administration are bright yellow symbols of how Massachusetts is fighting climate change,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren. “I wrote a bill to invest in cleaner transit options and fought for federal funding in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and now these electric school buses will help Massachusetts students breathe cleaner air.”
“From the cities of Witches, Fish, and Paper to the shores of Cape Cod, the Southcoast and Fitchburg, the Biden administration’s new investments in more than 160 clean school buses will deliver a cleaner, greener future for Massachusetts children, on and off the bus.” said Senator Ed Markey. “We fought hard to include this funding in the historic Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
