Governors BRIEFS: California Students Start Riding Clean Buses and $1.2 Billion Invested In Supply Chain

California Charging Ahead With Zero-Emission School Buses

SACRAMENTO – Thousands of California kids are now riding to school in zero-emission school buses. According to a new report published Oct. 12 by the California Air Resources Board or CARB and the California Energy Commission or CEC) , 1,800 zero-emission buses are operating or on order in California — more than double the number of clean school buses in the rest of the U.S. 

There are more than 560 clean school buses operating on California roads — 327 of which are in the state’s most pollution-burdened communities — with more than 1,200 on order, bringing the state’s total to 1,800 buses. By comparison, 888 zero-emission school buses have been awarded, ordered, or deployed across the U.S. outside of California, as of 2021, according to a CALSTART report.

To date, the state has invested more than $1.2 billion to clean up old, diesel-burning school buses with an additional $1.8 billion going out over the next five years for zero-emission school buses and associated charging infrastructure.

The funding is part of the California Climate Commitment, a record $54 billion investment in climate action, which includes $10 billion for accelerating California’s transition to zero-emission vehicles with significant consumer rebates and funding for charging infrastructure.

In addition to state funding, late last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it would nearly double the funding awarded through its Clean School Bus Program this year to $965 million following increased demand, with school districts from all 50 states applying for 2022 Clean School Bus Rebates.

Click Here to Learn More About School Bus Cleanup

Gov. Newsom Invests $1.2 Billion in California’s Supply Chain to Support the State’s Ports and Freight Corridors

SACRAMENTO – With the focus turning to long-term supply chain improvements, the California State Transportation Agency today issued final guidelines and a call for projects for the $1.2 billion in one-time state funding for port and freight infrastructure projects to build a more efficient, sustainable and resilient goods movement system.

Finalized in the state budget at the end of June, the port and freight infrastructure program aims to make long-term upgrades that will increase the capacity to move goods throughout the state while lessening environmental impacts on neighboring communities.

Seventy percent of the program funding will go to projects that support goods movement through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – the busiest ports in the Western Hemisphere – and 30% will fund ports and goods movement infrastructure in the rest of the state.

The Port and Freight Infrastructure Program is a result of the executive order Gov. Newsom issued last October that called on state agencies to develop longer term budget proposals that support port operations and goods movement. The program builds off the successful short-term actions by the state to address supply chain congestion.

Project applications are due Jan. 13, 2023, and CalSTA expects to announce the funding awards in March 2023. 

Details: here.