PORTLAND, Ore. — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded $20 million to the Beaverton School District for 50 new electric school buses on Tuesday, Jan. 30. It's the largest award in the Pacific Northwest this year under the EPA's 'Clean School Bus' program.
"Beaverton continues to score super high on our list," EPA region 10 administrator Casey Sixkiller said in a press conference on Tuesday. "That's because they've been an early adopter."
Sixkiller said Beaverton schools are leading the country in the transition to cleaner buses with a fleet that includes three types of bus models: clean propone, renewable diesel-powered, and electric. He said the addition of 50 new electric school buses will reduce students' exposure to harmful diesel particles.
The initiative is also geared towards helping communities in need, according to Sixkiller.
"Nationwide this is a program that we've prioritized for tier one school districts," Sixkiller said. "School districts that are serving underserved communities, communities of color, lower economic communities — Beaverton is doing just that."
BSD transportation maintenance supervisor Cliff Harrell said the initiative will also cut the school district's costs to maintain and operate a bus nearly in half.
“On electric buses you don’t have to do an oil change; you don’t have to service the transmission; you don’t have to change fuel filters; and that’s a lot of maintenance that we would normally do cost-wise." Harrell said. "On an electric bus, you're just doing an overall bus inspection."
The federal 'Clean School Bus' program started in 2022 as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It provides $5 billion over five years, between 2022 to 2026, to replace existing school buses with zero-emission and low-emission models.
So far, the EPA has awarded almost $2 billion to fund approximately 5,000 school bus replacements at over 600 schools, according to their website.
