News


The U.S. EPA hit Volkswagen hard for deliberately designing software to cheat federal emission laws for diesel cars, such as this 2010 VW Golf TDI.


emissions, fuel consumption, fuel costs and wear and tear. Tere are a lot of good technologies out there and it’s important to look at the big picture.” Baczewski said that investments in emission control equipment “does a lot of good” but previous grants have also shown they can have drawbacks. “People who have done that in the


Student Transporters Urged to Do Homework to Obtain Funds Resulting From Volkswagen Emissions Cheat


WRTITEN BY ERIC WOOLSON S


chool districts seeking a piece of the federal government’s settlement with Volkswagen over the false reporting of vehicle emissions should move


quickly and explore a variety of options to most effectively spend the money for replacing older school buses, several industry sources said. Te $2.7-billion Mitigation Trust Fund is


part of a total $14.7 billion penalty that the U.S. government imposed on Volkswagen after the German automaker misled consumers and government regulators about the emissions of its model years 2009 through 2015 “clean diesel” 2.0-liter vehicles. Money from the settlement will be divided among public agencies to be spent on a range of improvements, including new buses, engine upgrades, idle-reduction systems, fuel-operated heating systems, diesel particle filters, catalytic converters and other emissions upgrades. Private bus companies with contracts to trans- port students are also eligible to apply for 100 percent of the cost of replacing or repowering older school buses. Paul Baczewski, national accounts manager


at Webasto Termo & Comfort North Ameri- ca Inc., said the settlement is “going to require guys like me going out and educating people”


26 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2016


because agencies will need to be proactive to receive funding. “In the past, a lot of these opportunities went to the school districts,” he said, referring to the Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) that delivers grant funds through a competitive pro- cess as well as pro-rated to the states. “With the VW issue, it’s not like the federal government is going to divide the pie. Local agencies are going to have to apply for the money. Tat means agencies are going to have to do some work.” John Dennehy, vice president of marketing and communications at Mississauga, Ontar- io-based at Espar Products, said the settlement is proof that “something positive can come out of something negative.” Te company’s pre-heaters, which bring vehicles to a desired temperature without the engine running, would be eligible for settlement funding. Dennehy encouraged grant seekers to “really do their homework and weigh all the options so there’s an appropriate balance of where the funding goes.” “A lot of funding in these cases goes to filters and catalytic converters on the exhaust side,” he said. “Engine-off technology can preheat diesel engines, defrost windshields and warm cabin interiors. Tese technologies reduce


past have found there’s no financial payback to the district in the long run and, in most cases, found out the maintenance was very expensive. As a result, a lot of people who have looked at emissions reductions have backed off and looked to idle-reduc- tion equipment,” he said. He noted that past DERA grant applicants were able to qualify for funds to retrofit idle-reduction equipment on buses with new or upgraded emissions systems. “How much we’re going to be able to stretch that is yet to be seen,” Den- nehy added. “It’s hot right now. We have


already seen state agencies apply for this money,” Baczewski said. “To my knowledge, we should start seeing funds flow late second quarter or early third quarter of 2017. Tat’s really not that much time to go through all the channels of estab- lishing a program, getting bids and applying for the money.” Max Christensen, state pupil transportation director at the Iowa Department of Education, agreed. “We, as an industry, are very


fortunate that some of this money will be coming our way, but we do need to be aware of the process for applying to get a share of it, and we certainly don’t want to procrastinate in doing so,” he said. “Tere likely will be quite a number of applica- tions, so I’m thinking the sooner we apply, the better.” ●


CELEBRATING25YEARS


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76