Hawaiʻi has been awarded funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2021 Diesel Emissions Reduction Action (DERA) School Bus Rebates.

Roberts Hawaiʻi has been awarded $200,000 in the latest round of funding for the DERA School Bus Rebates program that helps fund the replacement of older-model diesel school buses with cleaner models that meet or exceed current emission standards.

The DERA award for Robert’s Hawaiʻi is part of $17 million in federal funding for schools and bus fleet owners across the United States to replace older diesel school buses. Since 2021, EPA has awarded – or is in the process of awarding – over $73 million to replace more than 3,000 diesel school buses nationwide.  The DERA grant will go towards the purchase of ten new, more efficient buses serving Hawaiʻi Department of Education routes on Maui and Hawaiʻi Island.

The funding announcement of ongoing school bus rebate opportunities was coupled with the announcement of a new Clean School Bus rebate program through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that will be available later this year. The new program will provide an additional $5 billion over five years to replace existing school buses nationwide with low- or zero-emission school buses – a significant boost compared to the existing programs.