Electric buses will soon be on the way for the Christian County Public School system.
Wednesday afternoon, CCPS officials confirmed the district has been awarded up to $2.37 million in rebate incentives to purchase six electric school busses for the campus — an award that also includes up $120,000 of infrastructure costs to cover both the housing and charging of the vehicles.
This award is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Clean School Bus” Program, which is supremely dedicated to the replacement of older, fossil-fuel buses whose emissions “aren’t environment-friendly.”
CCPS Transportation Director Mike Brumley called the award a “tremendous opportunity” for the district, with expectations of fuel cost savings to be “substantial” over time.
Per the EPA, the first round of funding is coming from President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which created a $5 billion over five years investment for low- and zero-emission busses.
Nearly 2,000 applications were filed nationwide, including Trigg County Schools, requesting nearly $4 billion for more than 12,000 new buses.
Districts must fully decommission and retire any buses that are replaced, and not make them available for resale.\
During an August Trigg School Board of Education meeting, Director of Transportation Aaron Eagleson noted that engine blocks must be drilled as part of the grant, and that the surplus of buses typically garner a paltry $500 to $1,800 at public auction.
Perhaps fortuitously, Hopkinsville will soon be the home of electric vehicle battery components producer, Ascend Elements.
