Good morning everyone! Feel free to say hi and introduce yourself in the chat. Welcome!

Hello. John Kashatus from the Pennsylvania Department of Education

Good morning,

Good Morning, Leslie Henry. Greater Egg Harbor Reg H.S. Dist.

Good morning, John Sweet, Pennsylvania Utility Law Project

I am Dr Rudy Shankar, Director of the Energy Systems Engineering program at Lehigh University, Bethlehem PA. Glad to be here!

Good morning everyone! Feel free to say hi and introduce yourself in the chat. Welcome!

Hey there, my name is Jake Murphy. I work as a Director for TransPar. We work with two districts in PA to manage their transportation programs

Tammie Peffer - PA Dept of Education, Environment and Ecology Content Advisor/Green Ribbon School Coordinator

Rhea Courtney Bozic environmental scientist specializing in sustainable transportation consulting.

how can we access the recorded video after the meeting?

Good morning. Jim Rouland - Regulatory Policy Manager at PPL Electric Utilities Corporation.

Having audio issues? Try calling in.Dial:+1 301 715 8592Meeting ID: 874 3212 3642Passcode: 42659210

Dennis Rowan - S.E. PA Chapter Head of DRIVE electric PA. Managing partner, REIV2G network, planning for EV and E Bus integration.

Please add your questions in the chat for Q+A

Hello, Dan Lang - Director, Bus and Sustainable Transportation with Hatch Consulting

Hi Everyone, I'm Caroline McCallum, Program Director with EPACT, supporting Tony in growing clean and alternative transportation deployments in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Hello All, James Whitesel, Director of Facilities at Unionville-Chadds Ford School District.

Hello All, Howard Harris - Sr. Consultant, Clean Transportation with VEIC

Hello Everyone, Forrest Tarver, Director of Transportation at the Upper Darby School District

Will this presentation be available after the meeting?

We can email a link to the presentations after they are posted

We will send the link to the attendee list

That would be great. Thank you

Please add your questions in the chat for Q+A

I may have misunderstood, but I thought I heard you say that an applicant can only apply for a max. of 25 buses. How does that make sense if a city, like Philadelphia may have a fleet of over 1000 buses, and a tiny rural county may not even have 25 buses?

When you say must meet one of the three "priorities" does that mean if you don't, no use submitting, or could there still be funds for schools that don't meet any requirements?

Can Michelle repeat her statement regarding "We don't want to discourage anyone from applying". She kind of froze there earlier.

We can ask during Q+A though Alison may be the best person to answer that.

Apologies! Technical difficulties! I'm back now.

on the other alternative fuels will the EPA fund infrastructure? I.e. propane fueling stations and CNG stations

That is the approach EPA is taking with this 1st funding mechanism - and one of the requirements of the bipartisan infrastructure law is to try to have a broad geographical distribution of applicants - EPA will be taking lessons learned from this first funding mechanism - the rebate - to enhance and improve future funding mechanisms over the next 5 years - please feel free to raise this concern via our cleanschoolbus@epa.gov email since EPA-HQ is tracking comments/questions raised there to enhance this clean school bus program long-term

Is a "spare" bus completely ineligible under the program if it is not used 3 times per week, or may they be submitted, but be considered a lesser priorities? It seems scrapping a 2006 that's not often used would still be better than scrapping something newer than 2010.

In terms of applying - even though EPA has created a prioritization list of school districts based on the priorities specified in the bipartisan infrastructure law - ALL school districts are able and should apply for this and all future funding programs - we do not wish people to believe they will not qualify/obtain funding if they are not on the list - there are $5B dollars we wish to distribute over the next 5 years -

Do you have support materials for State Depts of ED so we can inform our districts?

EPA will only fund for this first funding mechanism - the rebate - electrical infrastructure for electric school buses only - we won't be funding infrastructure for alt. fuels at this time

As Emmet just mentioned, you do not need to meet the prioritization guidelines but you do need to meet the eligibility requirements of: State and Local governments that provide bus services, eligible contractors that are for profit, non-profit, and not for profit entities that have the capacity to sell clean or ZE school buses or related charging or fueling infrastructure to school bus owners or (2) arrange financing for such a sale, Nonprofit school transportation associations, Indian tribes, tribal organizations, or tribally controlled schools responsible for the purchase of school buses or providing school bus service for a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) funded school

Support material can be found at https://www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus

do you have press release info for press offices?

Here's the direct link to the EPA Clean School Bus website for support materials: https://www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus/school-bus-rebates-clean-school-bus-program

Is there any chance the funding will be higher than the current year limits for propane buses in the future?

Are older CNG buses eligible for scrapping? Like pre 2010?

assuming you get max funding do you have any data around how much each bus will cost a district? Asset, infrastructure costs

We have them.

So if a school District Contracts with a private company for their transportation services, the dealer where they get their buses from would be the applicant? Not the School district or transportation contractor?

I would recommend asking the question to cleanschoolbus@epa.gov on if funding may increase for future funding - they are looking for input/concerns for future funding mechanisms

Do you have a list of approved vendors for the buses?

Also, can you explain more about how buses 2021- 2011 would be eligible? Or are they not?

Surely there are many healthy buses that could be converted to full electric operation. Would such investments be considered with this funding?

A dealer could submit the application if the school district did not wish to submit it for the private fleet owner - but that private fleet owner should be communicating with the school district to ensure they are ok they are doing that since only allowing one application per school district for this first funding mechanism

Can you just get funding to buy a new vehicle(s) and not trade an old one in? We are just starting to look into building a fleet of buses

EPA is considering the possibility of funding for retrofits from diesel to electric - to see if it seems to make sense for future funding

Who can bid on this program?

Great information, thank you! Are conversions of any bus sizes and classes from diesel to electric eligible?

Our district has 121 buses, most being diesel. The issue we have moving forward to electric is we have three different bus parking yards, all at our schools parking lots. Is there grant money to help us to combine our fleet into one yard if we start to switch over to an electric fleet?

For this rebate program public school districts can apply, for-profit, not-for-profit, or nonprofit entities that have the capacity to1) Sell clean or zero-emission school buses or related charging or fueling infrastructure to school bus owners or2) arrange financing for such a sale.School bus dealers and original engine manufacturers (OEMs) that meet these criteria are eligible contractors.

If you are a private fleet owner you may need to reach out to the public school district you may have a contract with to understand their internal bidding processes - private fleet owners must be able to serve that public school district for 5 years upon delivery of the buses

This funding is only for replacing the buses and electrical infrastructure - you may wish to reach out to your local utility to understand the best approach if thinking of electrifying your fleet

Can you break out the number of buses put into service by each of the power categories mentioned on this slide?

You need to have some form of a bus as specified in the program guide related to the model year already in-house since the goal of this law is to replace these older higher emitting vehicles form the roads - it is not for creating new fleets or fleet expansion

In terms of newer buses - please refer to the just released program guide - but here is the information from the slide for you do not have 2010 or older diesel buses:

If a fleet has no eligible 2010 or older diesel school buses and is requesting zero-emission school bus replacements, the fleet can either: Scrap 2010 or older non-diesel internal combustion engine buses; orScrap, sell, or donate 2011 or newer internal combustion engine buses

You cover Delaware ?

Can you provide a link to apply for the MEEP program please.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) who have been collaborating with EPA on some of our earlier CSB webinars - I believe - will be having some form of bus manufacturer list to help out entities - WRI has its own electric school bus initiative - so I encourage you to subscribe to their listserv to get valuable information from them - they have also indicated they are available to assist entities along the electrification of school bus fleets process - here is their link: https://www.wri.org/initiatives/electric-school-bus-initiative

Information on the MEEP Program can be found here: https://ep-act.org/MEEP and https://vacleancities.org/mid-atlantic-electric-school-bus-experience-program-meep/

There are other resources EPA has been trying to gather from Dept. of Energy (DOE) - and some of those resources can be found at:

https://www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus/charging-and-fueling-infrastructure-resources

Here is the link to find your local Clean Cities coalition if it was not in the slides so far: https://cleancities.energy.gov/

Delaware Clean Cities contact: 302-735-3366Breanne.Preisen@delaware.gov

Mdavid I can pass along your information to some contacts in HQ - again I would also recommend you reach out via the cleanschoolbus@epa.gov email since those monitoring that email may have more and/or better people they may be able to connect you to

PECO EVsmart page: https://www.peco.com/SmartEnergy/InnovationTechnology/Pages/ElectricVehiclesL3.aspx

Does Met-ED/First Energy participate in or support this program?

NJ Clean Cities Coalition point of contact for those entities from NJ who may be participating on this webinar: Chuck Feinberg; 973-886-1655; chuck.feinberg@gmail.com

Some of the resources I mentioned previously may help on trying to figure out costs - typically an electric school bus on average may be 3X more than a conventional diesel bus - though it may slighter less than that 3X average if it is a smaller size bus -

infrastructure costs will vary depending on what your electricity needs will be - we would recommend to speak to your local utility for that aspect

Tom, Please contact me Tamara Peffer tpeffer@pa.gov. I'd like to provide the schools I work with, in MetEd/First energy with contact info if possible.

For folks in New Jersey, can someone mention programs or contacts from PSE&G for these programs?

Dawn.Neville@pseg.com, Edmund.Howell@pseg.com

If awarded EPA funding, but a local school board does not approve a purchase after seeing the total award vs. cost of vehicle, is it a problem for a school district to back out at that time?

EPA Question for you (our guest): Are there other challenges that are stopping you from applying for the funds?

Place your answer in the chat :)

what if a propane bus was purchased and delivered in 2022 prior to 5/20/22. is that bus eligible under this program?

EPA Question for you (our guest): Are there other challenges that are stopping you from applying for the funds?

New Jersey (NJ): Atlantic City Electric (ACE): EVsmart Make-Ready Programs: EVsmart-ACE@icf.com or 855-861-0151, option #4” • NJ: PSE&G: EV Charge Program: PSEG-Electric.Vehicles@pseg.com or 1-800-249-1837 • NJ: Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L): Customer service at 1-800-662-3115 • NJ: Rockland Electric (RECO) Utility Company: Customer service at (877) 434-4100 or ev@oru.com • NJ: Vineland Municipal: VMEU@VINELANDCITY.ORG or 856-794-4230

Ultimately, our school board will determine whether they are interested in having us submit an application (likely considering approximate costs after grants). No other barriers are currently in place.

very informative, thank you

please look at the program guide to understand the eligibility requirements if you just purchased a new propane bus to see if it would be eligible for replacement under this new CSB rebate