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School buses to be replaced through VW settlement funding

$6 million from the legal settlement in the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal is being used in Connecticut to fund 15 clean air projects.   First Student will receive some funding to replace 12 school buses.  First Student will get $668,398 from the settlement, with the awardee's cost share being $359,906.  The buses are for the Watertown, Ridgefield, Hamden, Weston and New Fairfield districts. 

This is partial funding of an initial proposal to replace a total of 90 diesel school buses in Bethel, Chester, Watertown, Ridgefield, Hamden, Weston, Somers, Branford, Vernon and New Fairfield.

All of the projects selected, over their lifetime, will reduce almost 68 tons of Nitrogen Oxide emissions and almost 5100 tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. In addition, 3.4 tons of fine particulate matter, which contributes to asthma and other negative health impacts, will be cost-effectively reduced from environmental justice communities and other areas of Connecticut that bear a disproportionate share of air pollution. 

Governor Lamont says the projects will go a long way in helping to improve air quality and protect public health in Connecticut, while also providing economic development opportunities.

 DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes says the transportation sector is responsible for approximately 70 percent of smog forming air pollution and 38 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Connecticut. 

Through each round of VW grant funding, DEEP is identifying new ways to overcome barriers and support the switch to electric vehicles. The next grant round will focus on electrification and be informed by both the Electric Vehicle Roadmap for Connecticut and the Public Utility Regulatory Authority Zero Emission Vehicles Docket. 

In 2015, Volkswagen publicly admitted that it had deliberately installed a defeat device – software designed to cheat emissions tests and deceive federal and state regulators – in nearly 590,000 VW, Audi, and Porsche model year 2009 to 2016 diesel vehicles sold nationwide, with nearly 12,000 vehicles sold in Connecticut. As a result of a federal civil enforcement case against VW for violating the Clean Air Act, Connecticut was allocated more than $55.7 million to be distributed over a ten-year period for use toward offsetting the excess nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution emitted in the state by these vehicles.

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