The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency delivered the first of five electric school buses to a West Virginia school district on Sept. 14 as part of the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebate Program, which awarded more than 380 other school districts across the U.S.
The Wirt County Schools District in partnership with Matheny Motor was one of three West Virginia schools that were awarded the rebates under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which includes nearly $2 million in funding to purchase a total of five electric school buses across the three schools.
The Wirt County School District was also given $20,000 for charging infrastructure needed to support the electric buses.
“It’s not often that little Wirt County finds itself at the focus of this much attention,” said John McKown, Superintendent of the Wirt County School District. “Today is the culmination of the work of many individuals that have made this grant and today’s commissioning of our new Thomas electric school bus possible. We’re excited to add this bus to our fleet.”
EPA said they are awarding $1 billion to 389 school districts for electric and low-emission school buses across the country.
The first phase of the funding opened on May 20, 2022, and closed on August 19, 2022.
See the full list of winners here.
EPA anticipates announcing the next round of Clean School Bus Rebates in Fall 2023. The second phase of the funding, EPA’s Clean School Bus Grant Competition, closed on August 22, 2023, and the agency expects to announce the competition selectees from the $400 million Clean School Bus Grant Competition later this year.
