Fulton County Schools will receive a $1.96 million federal grant to replace diesel-fuel school buses with cleaner ones powered by propane.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that it awarded the school district a $1,962,097 grant from the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program.
The EPA said the grant will enable the school district to retire 85 diesel school buses and replace them with new propane buses. The agency said the buses that will be replaced date from 2001 to 2005. The total cost of the project is nearly $7.85 million; the school district will pay 75 percent of the cost, an EPA spokeswoman said.
The district will have 272 propane buses in its fleet after purchasing the newly funded buses, according to the EPA.
The project is intended to cut harmful diesel emissions and improve air quality and public health.
“The Fulton County school system has shown their commitment to reducing the impacts of diesel emissions with the early retirement of older dirtier school buses,” said EPA acting region 4 administrator Mary S. Walker, in a written statement.
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