EPA Grants Baton Rouge Schools $773,000 to Replace Diesel Buses With Cleaner-burning Propane

BATON ROUGE, La. (Nov. 7, 2016) – The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program has awarded the East Baton Rouge Parish school system a grant of $773,000 to replace 30 of its diesel school buses over the next two years, with less polluting, more environmentally-friendly propane-powered school buses. According to the EPA, school buses travel about four billion miles each year, providing the safest transportation to and from school for more than 25 million American children every day. However, diesel exhaust from these buses has a negative impact on human health, especially for children who have a faster breathing rate than adults and whose lungs are not yet fully developed. While new buses must meet EPA’s tougher emission standards, many older…

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BATON ROUGE, La. (Nov. 7, 2016) – The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program has awarded the East Baton Rouge Parish school system a grant of $773,000 to replace 30 of its diesel school buses over the next two years, with less polluting, more environmentally-friendly propane-powered school buses.

BatonRougePropaneSchoolBuses
According to the EPA, school buses travel about four billion miles each year, providing the safest transportation to and from school for more than 25 million American children every day. However, diesel exhaust from these buses has a negative impact on human health, especially for children who have a faster breathing rate than adults and whose lungs are not yet fully developed. While new buses must meet EPA’s tougher emission standards, many older school buses continue to emit harmful diesel exhaust. The EPA’s National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance program, is a national program designed to help communities reduce emissions from older diesel school buses. School districts, fleet owners and operators, bus drivers, parents and students all have a role in helping to reduce harmful diesel emissions from school buses. The Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper reports (http://bit.ly/2fjlc1l) the grant was presented to the School Board on Nov. 3, 2016, and is expected to be approved at the district’s School Board meeting today. Propane autogas school buses are consistently less expensive to operate and require less vehicle maintenance than diesel engines. Propane school bus engines are quieter than diesel, making the ride to and from school a safer one for students. In additon to propane’s many environmental advatanges compared to diesel, including less pollution and fewer greenhouse gas emissions, propane buses reduce both short- and long-term negative health effects for passengers by improving air quality.
 A growing number of school districts across the USA are shifting a portion, or their entire school bus fleet, from diesel to propane to stretch strained budgets and promote cleaner air, according to officials from school districts and from private companies that operate school bus fleets. The $773,000 EPA grant represents roughly 25 percent of the estimated $2.8 million cost of the East Baton Rouge Parish school system buses. The school system will provide additional needed funding.

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