On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the state would use more than $68 million in settlement funds to purchase electric transit buses.
The funding, part of the Volkswagen settlement, would purchase 227 electric transit buses in 13 counties to replace diesel buses in Alachua, Broward, Duval, Escambia, Hillsborough, Leon, Marion, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco, and Pinellas counties, the governor’s office said. The funds were awarded by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
“This funding will help lower emissions while also bringing our transit bus fleets to more modern standards,” DeSantis said. “This is a win-win for air quality and advancing the state’s efforts to bolster growing electric vehicle usage.”
DEP also awarded grants to seven school districts to purchase another 218 electric school buses in Broward, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties. The governor’s office said that introducing electric school buses into heavily populated areas where mobile sources of pollution exist will help reduce harmful emissions and improve air quality.
“Florida continues to be a national leader in air quality and is proud to be the most populous state in the nation to have met all of EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards,” said DEP Secretary Shawn Hamilton. “Through collaboration with partner agencies and the private sector, we are able to implement projects to protect air quality and support the needs of our communities.”
The funding for these projects comes from DEP’s Florida Beneficiary Mitigation Plan, created to outline how the state would spend $166 million from a settlement with Volkswagen and others over violations of the Clean Air Act. Between 2009 and 2016, diesel motor vehicles equipped with “defeat devices” designed to cheat on federal emissions tests were sold in the U.S. by Volkswagen and other car manufacturers. The EPA brought civil complaints against the companies and, in 2016, won a more than $14 billion settlement.
Florida’s plan includes how to spend the money focused on constructing new electric vehicle charging stations, procuring electric buses, and providing funding for Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) projects.
So far, DEP has awarded grants to install 150 electric vehicle charging stations along the state highway system and reduce emissions in and around the state’s ports.