Nearly $200K To Montco School District To Replace Diesel Buses

LANSDALE, PA — The North Penn School District is receiving state grant dollars from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to upgrade its bus fleet to lower emission vehicles.

The DEP announced that the district was one of only two across the commonwealth to receive funding that comes from Pennsylvania's share of a national settlement with Volkswagen Group of America for cheating on U.S. EPA emissions tests.

North Penn School District is getting $199,435 to replace seven of its older diesel school buses with seven new propane-powered buses, with the move expected to annually remove 3.9 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other pollutants from the surrounding environment.

The only other school district to receive money from the DEP was the School District of Philadelphia, which is poised to get $936,000 to replace six old diesel school buses with six electric buses and charging equipment.

"With Driving PA Forward Truck and Bus Fleet Grants, DEP is helping school districts, municipalities, and businesses switch to cleaner transportation, so that Pennsylvania's kids, employees, and communities can breathe healthier air as they go about their day-to-day lives," DEP Acting Secretary Ramez Ziadeh said in a statement. "This comprehensive approach to reducing vehicle emissions will help improve Pennsylvanians' health while also helping to slow climate change."

The DEP said that in replacing older polluting engines and equipment with newer, cleaner technologies, the expectation is that nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and hydrocarbon pollution would start to be removed from the air in greater numbers.

This type of pollution from motor vehicles contribute to ground-level ozone, also known as smog, and can have a detrimental effect on individuals with health conditions such as asthma and other breathing related illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the DEP stated.

"Zero-and low-emission vehicles also lower carbon dioxide emissions, helping to lessen climate change," the DEP said in a news release.

Aside from the Philadelphia and North Penn School Districts, grant dollars were also given to the City of Pittsburgh and Sysco Leasing, a business that has locations in Philadelphia and in Jackson Township, Butler County in western Pennsylvania.

Pittsburg will receive $1.374 million to replace eight old diesel garbage trucks with four electric ones and four compressed natural gas ones, along with related equipment, and Sysco Leasing is getting just over $463,000 to replace 21 old diesel freight trucks with 21 new clean diesel freight trucks at its two company sites, according to the DEP.

The DEP said that the Driving PA Forward Truck and Bus Fleet Grant program is expected to take a total of 42 old diesel trucks and buses off of Pennsylvania roadways and replace them with either electric, propane, compressed natural gas and new clean diesel vehicles.

Most of the projects are located in more highly populated counties where large amounts of traffic contribute to pollution and corresponding poor air quality.

The Driving PA Forward Truck and Bus Fleet Grant program was launched in 2018 and uses funding from Pennsylvania's $118.4 million settlement with Volkswagen.