Clark County School District receives over $800,000 in grants to fund new low-emissions school buses
CLARK COUNTY, NV – As part of statewide efforts to promote clean transportation and improve urban air quality, the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) is pleased to announce that the Clark County School District is receiving $809,116 from the Nevada Clean Diesel Program and Volkswagen (VW) settlement funds for the replacement of 23 old diesel school buses with new, cleaner school buses. Check out this “behind-the-scenes” video clip to see one of the old school buses being destroyed: https://bit.ly/2yn89Gn. The new school buses will reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx), a harmful air pollutant, by more than 10 tons to help protect our children and neighborhoods from harmful vehicle emissions. In Nevada, vehicles generate approximately 70% of NOx emissions.
“The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection is committed to improving air quality and protecting the health and wellbeing of all Nevadans, especially our schoolchildren,” said NDEP Deputy Administrator Jeffrey Kinder. “Our school districts are great partners in getting older diesel buses off the road ahead of schedule and improving air quality for children all across the state.”
“The Clark County School District maintains the largest District owned and operated school bus fleet in the nation. The health and safety of our students and communities continue to be the driving force behind our efforts to be efficient, trusted and environmentally friendly," said Shannon Evans, Director IV – Clark County School District Transportation Department.
The NDEP grant to the Clark County School District aided funding received by the State of Nevada from the nationwide settlement finalized in 2017 against VW for installing emissions cheating devices on their vehicles. The automaker was required to pay out almost $3 billion to recover the environmental harm associated with their emission cheating diesel vehicles, of which Nevada received approximately $24.8 million. The Diesel Emission Mitigation Fund is one of the ways Nevada is spending this settlement money. Diesel Emission Mitigation Fund grants are available to public and private agencies for projects that reduce harmful diesel emissions and improve air quality in Nevada. To date, NDEP has awarded more than $8.7 million in VW Settlement grant funds to reduce approximately 755 tons of NOx emissions throughout Nevada.
NDEP distributes funds through the Nevada Clean Diesel Program, a program funded in part by the National Clean Diesel Campaign and authorized by the Diesel Emission Reduction Act. Nevada Clean Diesel Program grants are available to public fleets for projects that reduce harmful diesel emissions in order to improve air quality in Nevada.
To learn more, visit https://ndep.nv.gov/air/vw-settlement.