Governor JB Pritzker joined the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) to announced seven grant awards totaling more than $13 million for 46 new all-electric school buses. The funding will allow school districts and student transportation companies to retire older diesel-powered buses and provide the necessary charging infrastructure for the new electric buses, helping improve air quality to students and the surrounding communities. The grants are funded by Illinois’ allocation of the multi-billion-dollar Volkswagen (VW) Settlement and will be distributed by Illinois EPA’s Driving a Cleaner Illinois Program. The grant program was developed to distribute funding for various types of mobile source electrification projects. Illinois EPA has spent nearly $108 million in VW Settlement funds to date, funding 122 electric school buses and 65 direct current fast charging sites in the Chicago and the Metro-East, and seven other VW priority counties.  Driving a Cleaner Illinois Program recipients were selected through a competitive Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) process that was opened to school districts or commercial school bus providers located in the three priority areas outlined in Illinois’ BMP for the VW Settlement. Grants ranged from $200,000 to $17,700,000.