Uintah School District is diversifying its school bus fleet after being awarded nearly $4 million dollars through the EPA 2022 Clean School Bus Rebates program. According to the District’s announcement, the current fleet consists of 36 diesel buses and 27 propane buses. The funds will help the district purchase 10 new electric school buses and build the infrastructure to charge the buses. In exchange for the EPA funding, the District must remove 10 diesel buses from its fleet.
The District decided to apply for the funding upon encouragement to do so from the Utah Petroleum Association. “As local area oil producers, we wholly support and encourage any efforts made by the local area to reduce emissions that impact our air quality, and particularly those that lead to our winter ozone challenges, such as diesel emissions,” Utah Petroleum Association President Rikki Hrenko-Browning shared in a letter. “We support electrifying fleets and finding other tools to reduce emissions and improve air quality. We feel that together we can find and implement solutions that will allow for cleaner air and a cleaner environment while allowing local industry to thrive and compete on a global scale.”
Superintendent Dr. Rick Woodford shared in the District’s announcement that the addition of these 10 new buses saves taxpayers over $1 million dollars over the next 3 years that would have been used to purchase route buses on the District’s regular replacement schedule. The exact amount awarded is $3,950,000 dollars. Uintah School District is one of only two districts in the state to receive funding from the EPA.
