History of the Washington State Clean School Bus Program

Thanks to funding enacted by the 2003 Legislature, approximately 7,500 diesel school buses, over three-quarters of the existing fleet statewide, are being retrofitted between 2003 and 2008 to make them cleaner for the children who ride them.  Reduced exhaust emissions from these retrofitted buses will also provide cleaner air for citizens to breathe throughout the communities the buses serve.

ESSB 6072, which was supported by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, provided about $5 million statewide in its first fiscal year, primarily to begin installing retrofit emission controls on existing diesel school buses. And the Legislature committed to continuing this level of funding for five years to clean up about 7,500 of more than 9,000 school buses in the state.  Washington's program is one of the largest state-funded, voluntary school bus retrofit program in the country.

Additionally, the Puget Sound, Northwest, Olympic and Southwest Clean Air Agencies were awarded a $366,000 Clean School Bus USA competitive grant in Spring 2003 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. By leveraging these federal retrofit funds for projects in four western Washington counties, the state's investment is stretched to clean up even more school buses and benefit as many of our state's school children as possible.