21 hours Ago By Brad Plumer
The Trump administration is beginning to unfreeze funding for at least one federal program aimed at reducing the pollution that is driving climate change. Some school districts on Thursday said they were able to access millions of dollars in federal grants to buy electric school buses. That funding, approved by Congress and overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency, since January, when President Trump ordered a pause and review of climate and clean energy programs.
Only a portion of the school bus money has been released. Congress had initially approved $5 billion to help schools replace their worn-out diesel buses with electric models, which produce less pollution. Diesel powers most school buses in the United States, and its exhaust is linked to among children, including asthma.
Diesel buses also emit greenhouse gases. During the Biden administration, the E.P.
A. to 1,344 school districts, totaling $2.8 billion.
The second round of grants has now been unfrozen, several awardees said. But the third round of rebates for electric school buses is still on hold. And it is not clear whether the E.
P.A. plans to award the remaining $2.
2 billion authorized by Congress. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The electric school bus program had proved popular with many school districts, as well as some Republicans.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia, toured a new electric bus factory in her state last fall and that she was pressing the E.P.A.
to release the frozen funds. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
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