HARTFORD, Conn. — The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) announced Wednesday it will use $12.7 million from the Volkswagen emissions settlement to assist in the purchase of 43 new electric-powered school buses for seven communities around the state.
The vehicles will replace diesel buses in Middletown, New Britain, Hamden, Stamford, Bethel, Ansonia and Griswold. Those communities have been identified as having been impacted more by air pollution.
The funds will also cover part of the cost of replacing a diesel-powered gantry crane in New Haven that is nearly 50 years old. The new crane will be among the first of its kind on the East Coast.
“The selected projects will provide direct benefits to residents in environmental justice communities where levels of fine particulate matter can be up to 20% higher than in less densely populated parts of the state,” said DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes. “Fine particulate matter is known to impact public health and can be an asthma trigger. According to a 2021 study of the most challenging places to live with asthma, New Haven is ranked 5th nationally. The selected projects will reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions while providing direct benefits to residents in environmental justice communities that have historically borne disproportionate impacts of air pollution from vehicle traffic.”
In 2015, Volkswagen admitted that it had deliberately installed software designed to cheat emissions tests and deceive federal and state regulators. Nearly 590,000 VW, Audi, and Porsche model year 2009 to 2016 diesel vehicles were sold nationwide, with nearly 12,000 vehicles sold in Connecticut.
As a result of a federal civil enforcement case against VW for violating the Clean Air Act, Connecticut was allocated more than $55.7 million to be distributed over a ten-year period for use toward offsetting the excess nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution emitted in the state by these vehicles.
The $12.7 million awarded will be matched by additional investments of $7.2 million from the recipients so that the total direct economic impact of the action is $19.9 million.
Democrats on the federal level have pushed for more EV school buses, proposing spending $25 billion to convert the nation’s fleet of gasoline- and diesel-powered school buses to electric vehicles, aiming at a component of President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan to improve children’s health.
The projects announced under this funding cycle of DEEP’s VW Diesel Emissions Mitigation Program are:
Waterfront Enterprises
- Replace one engine model year (EMY) 1973 diesel-powered gantry crane with an EMY 2022 all-electric equivalent. The crane will be located at the Port of New Haven, CT, which is in an environmental justice community.
- Award: $3,155,486.00
- Awardee’s Cost Share: $2,103,658.00
- Location: Port of New Haven, CT
First Student, Inc.
- Scrappage and Replacement of sixteen (16) engine model year (EMY) 2006-2009, Class 5 and Class 7 school buses, with EMY 2022 EV equivalents; charging infrastructure included. These buses serve three environmental justice communities.
- Award: $3,242,944.00
- Awardee’s Cost Share: $1,746,196.00
- Location: Bethel, Hamden, and Stamford, CT
- This is partial funding of an initial proposal to replace a total of 25 diesel school buses which also included buses in Middlebury and Tolland, CT
DATTCO New Britain
- Scrappage and Replacement of four (4) engine model year (EMY) 2009, Class 7 school buses, with EMY 2023 EV equivalents; charging infrastructure included. These buses serve an environmental justice community.
- Award: $1,060,479.00
- Awardee’s Cost Share: $571,027.00
- Location: New Britain, CT
DATTCO Middletown
- Scrappage and Replacement of six (6) engine model year (EMY) 2009, Class 7 school buses, with EMY 2023 EV equivalents; charging infrastructure included. These buses serve an environmental justice community.
- Award: $1,504,731.00
- Awardee’s Cost Share: $810,240.00
- Location: Middletown, CT
Student Transportation of America, Inc.
- Scrappage and Replacement of seventeen (17) engine model year (EMY) 2009, Class 7 school buses, with EMY 2023 EV equivalents; charging infrastructure included. These buses serve two environmental justice communities.
- Award: $3,743,915.00
- Awardee’s Cost Share: $2,015,954.00
- Location: Ansonia and Griswold, CT
The five projects selected for funding under this funding cycle, over their lifetime, will reduce almost 28.71 tons of NOx emissions and almost 5,589 tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. In addition to NOx and GHG, a total of 2.30 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and 1.38 tons of fine particulate matter, which contributes to asthma and other negative health impacts, will be cost-effectively reduced from environmental justice communities and other areas of Connecticut that bear a disproportionate share of air pollution.
NOx and VOC contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone, an air pollutant known to cause a number of adverse respiratory health effects, including significant decreases in lung function and inflammation of airways. Ozone forms when NOx and VOC from combustion sources like motor vehicles react in strong sunlight. DEEP has and continues to implement emission control programs to mitigate ozone’s negative impact on public health in Connecticut.
Doug Stewart is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dstewart@fox61.com.
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