Wolf administration gives $2.7M to cleaner transportation projects, including ones powered by fossil fuels

• Rachel McDevitt
  BioRecent Stories

  

  I report on energy and the environment for StateImpact Pennsylvania at WITF.
  
  My work focuses on responses and solutions to climate change in the state legislature and communities around the state. I trace my interest in these issues back to my time as a Girl Scout and this episode of Rocko’s Modern Life.
  
  I look forward to winter just for the chance to ski a few times each season. I try to keep myself from doom-scrolling on my phone by keeping my hands busy knitting and learning to play the piano.
  
  I grew up in Cambria County, Pa. and graduated from Temple University. I started at WITF just after Christmas in 2014.

Rachel McDevitt / StateImpact Pennsylvania

A Mack LR Electric refuse truck is parked outside the state capitol on Sept. 28, 2021.

Pennsylvania is giving more than $2.7 million to transportation projects that promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Alternative Fuel Incentive Grants are awarded to projects that replace gasoline or diesel-fueled vehicles with ones that run on cleaner fuels, which can be fossil fuel-based.

The Department of Environmental Protection announced the 18 chosen projects in a news release Friday. Of those, four will use the money to buy natural gas-powered school buses or delivery trucks and one will build propane refueling stations.

The rest of the projects are focused on building electric fleets, building electric vehicle charging stations, and researching batteries for use in EVs.

The School District of Philadelphia is getting the largest share. It plans to use $600,000 to buy six electric school buses.

EC Power Group in Centre County gets the next largest, with $418,000 to aid research into high performance, lower cost batteries.

Executive director of PennEnvironment David Masur called the program “antiquated” for allowing investments in new fossil fuel vehicles and said it should be updated to make sure money goes to efforts that will make the greatest emissions cuts.

“We need to stop climate change and we keep investing in things that cause climate change,” Masur said.

The Wolf Administration said projects are anticipated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 600 metric tons per year.

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About StateImpact Pennsylvania

StateImpact Pennsylvania is a collaboration among WITF, WHYY, and the Allegheny Front. Reporters Reid Frazier, Rachel McDevitt and Susan Phillips cover the commonwealth’s energy economy. Read their reports on this site, and hear them on public radio stations across Pennsylvania.

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