EPA Funding to Help Retrofit Diesel School Buses

Stimulus funding from the Environmental Protection Agency will be arriving in Kentucky to help clean up polluting diesel engines. State officials have decided to dedicate the funding to diesel-burning school buses.  The Division of Air Quality’s Elizabeth Robb-Schmitz says school districts must apply for the funding.  But priority will be given to schools in areas that do not currently meet federal air pollution standards.“We are also giving priority to school districts that are demonstrating green measures in their school district, for example, working on becoming a Kentucky Green and Healthy School, implementing idle reduction programs," says Robb-Schmitz.Some schools have moved to ban idling on school grounds, which can help keep soot and toxic chemicals out of the air.  Schmitz says the funding—one point seven million dollars—could be enough to retrofit more than three hundred school buses.