The White House is dedicating more than $1 billion toward reducing public bus emissions this year, a sum that administration officials say will help the country meet President Joe Biden’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.
Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law carved out $5.5 billion to expand the Department of Transportation’s Low- and No-Emission Transit Vehicle Program, $1.1 billion of which will be allocated for 2022. Transportation will also direct $2.2 billion in unused American Rescue Plan funding to help 35 transit entities in 18 states keep tens of thousands of employees on the payroll.
The Environmental Protection Agency will also award $17 million in grants to fund zero-emission electric school buses.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced the programs alongside Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during Monday remarks at the White House.
“Our transportation sector has reached a turning point,” the vice president said. “We have the technologies to transition to a zero-emission fleet. Our administration — together, all of us — is working to make that possibility a reality. We can clean our air and protect the health of our children. We can connect all of our communities with affordable, accessible, and reliable public transportation. We can address the climate crisis and grow our economy at the same time, and I’m here today to say together we all are doing just that.”
“The Biden-Harris administration will modernize public transit that connects people to their jobs, school, healthcare, and loved ones, freight trucks, and ports that move goods through the American economy, and the iconic American yellow buses that bring children safely to school leveraging investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and American Rescue Plan investments, as well as a new proposed rule that would set heavy-duty vehicle emissions standards,” a White House official added. “Together, these actions will deliver better transportation for the American people while reducing air pollution that has long overburdened low-income communities and communities of color. They also boost American leadership on the zero-emissions transit, trucking, and port technologies of the future — to create good-paying, union jobs, improve public health, and confront climate change.”
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You can watch Harris’s remarks in full below.
