Elma, Lake Quinault school districts get $600,000-plus in Ecology grant money for electric buses

By Dan Hammock • May 1, 2020 3:30 pm
COURTESY OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR On June 17, 2019, Gov. Jay Inslee attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the first electric school bus in Washington at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma. The Elma and Lake Quinault school districts were recently awarded more than $600,000 in Ecology grant money to purchase two electric school buses.
COURTESY OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR On June 17, 2019, Gov. Jay Inslee attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the first electric school bus in Washington at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma. The Elma and Lake Quinault school districts were recently awarded more than $600,000 in Ecology grant money to purchase two electric school buses.

The Elma and Lake Quinault school districts have been awarded state Department of Ecology grants totaling more than $600,000 to help in the purchase of two zero-emission electric school buses.

Just shy of $12 million has been awarded to 22 different school districts across the state. The first of the new buses are expected to arrive later this year. Funding from Washington’s Volkswagen diesel emission settlement will pay for the buses.

The Elma School District will receive $325,000. Lake Quinault will receive $284,752.

The grants are intended to “cover the difference between and electric bus and a conventional diesel bus,” according to an Ecology spokesman. School districts can also use some of the funding to pay for charging stations, he said.

The Volkswagen settlements stem from the discovery that the carmaker illegally installed software on its diesel cars that activated emission controls only when it detected the emissions were being tested. In ordinary driving, the software allowed the engines to emit as much as 40 times the legal limit for nitrous oxides, violating the state and federal Clean Air Acts and threatening public health, according to Ecology.

Ecology is investing Washington’s $112.7 million share of the nationwide Volkswagen settlement in projects designed to cut air pollution and push the state’s transportation system toward zero-emission vehicles. In 2018 and 2019, Ecology awarded similar grants to transit agencies to purchase a total of 66 electric transit buses.

Diesel exhaust contains nitrogen oxides and other forms of toxic air pollution, said Laura Watson, Ecology’s director.

“Children face the greatest risks from diesel pollution, and giving them cleaner transportation to school is a priority,” Watson said. “These buses are an important first step toward helping every student in Washington start and end their days with an emission-free ride.”

Ecology provided a numerical breakdown of facts to highlight the benefits of electric buses:

· 400,000 – Number of zero-emission miles these buses will drive each year

· 19,200 tons – Lifetime reduction in carbon dioxide emissions

· 3,000 – Number of children these buses will carry each day

· 2007 – All of the electric buses will replace pre-2007 diesel buses, with older emissions controls

· 67% – Two-thirds of these electric buses will serve communities disproportionately affected by diesel pollution.

· 36 tons – Lifetime reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions

· 1 – Current number of electric school buses in Washington (in Tacoma’s Franklin Pierce School District)