The Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) announced Tuesday it is applying for federal grant funding to help five school districts pay for 14 electric school buses and 17 propane buses.
The department said it had submitted rebate applications for the buses through the federal Clean School Bus Rebate Program.
“We’re grateful for the support of the Delaware Department of Transportation and the Loudoun County School District in Virginia on this project. The expertise and advice of these partners helped us draft a strong proposal that, if successful, will help us continue our transition to a cleaner school bus fleet,” Secretary of Education Mark Holodick said.
The grant application covers 7 propane buses in Brandywine School District, 2 in the Caesar Rodney School District, 1 propane and 3 electric buses in both the Capital and Colonial School Districts and 6 propane and 8 electric buses in the Red Clay Consolidated School District.
Part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Rebate program, the grants incentivize the purchase of electric and propane school buses to help reduce carbon emissions. Both are more environmentally friendly than diesel engine buses. Delaware school bus fleets already include more than 100 propane buses. The 14 electric buses would be the state’s first.
The rebate program requires that new clean buses replace older school buses, with the primary category for replacement being diesel buses from 2010 and earlier. Delaware has taken steps to replace older school buses with newer, cleaner ones, resulting in 99 percent of state-owned buses being newer than 2010, and 76 percent being newer than 2016. If all of the rebate applications are granted, the state would replace all of the state-owned school buses that are older than 2012.