Energy Bill Passes With Bayh Provision for Cleaner, Safer School Buses
Energy Bill Passes With Bayh Provision for Cleaner, Safer School Buses
Senator says cleaner buses will mean increased safety, better health for nation's children
July 29, 2005
Washington, D.C.- U.S. Senator Evan Bayh today announced that a provision he authored to help our nation's schoolchildren by replacing old, polluting school buses with safer, cleaner ones was included in the Energy bill approved by the Senate this afternoon. Bayh's Clean School Bus provision will provide $55 million a year for the next two fiscal years for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help school districts purchase new, environmentally-friendly buses and retro-fit newer buses to run cleaner. The bill will now move to President Bush's desk for his signature.
"Our children deserve to ride to school on the cleanest, safest school buses possible," Senator Bayh said. "My Clean School Bus provision will help communities replace polluting buses with cleaner-running models, which will cut down on air pollution and help reduce the causes of childhood asthma."
Bayh's Clean School Bus provision will provide much-needed funding for an EPA effort that helps school districts purchase alternative fueled buses or ultra-low sulfur diesel buses to replace their old school buses, with emphasis on replacing those built before 1977. Increased demand for cleaner buses has overwhelmed the EPA over the last two years, due to a lack of funding to purchase the buses. In 2003, the EPA was able to accept only 17 out of 120 grant applications to purchase new buses or retro-fit existing ones because of funding limits. Under Bayh's provision, the government will pay for between 25 and 50 percent of the acquisition costs.
Every year, the nation's school buses release three thousand tons of soot and more than a million tons of other pollutants into the environment, contributing to a variety of respiratory illnesses, including childhood asthma. Almost half of all Americans suffering from asthma are under the age of 18, and twenty-five million children ride on school buses each year.
Indiana has approximately 13,000 school buses. Nearly one-fourth of these buses were built before 1991 and are not required to meet today's pollution or safety standards. Forty-seven Indiana buses were built before 1977 and have the least pollution control and safety requirements. Bayh's bill will not only provide cleaner, safer buses for Hoosier communities, but will also bring greater job security to Hoosiers who will build the new, environmentally-friendly bus engines. Both Cummins and International Trucking (Navistar) will make the cleaner engines that will be used in the new buses.
Bayh has been advocating for cleaner buses over several years, first introducing legislation similar to his Clean School Bus provision in 2001. It was during this time that the EPA's clean bus program was started, an effort Bayh has since worked to support by providing funding for cleaner, safer buses in the Senate.
http://bayh.senate.gov/~bayh/releases/2005/07/29JULY05PRA.htm