DEQ Diesel Grant Program Provides Free Retrofits for Qualifying Oregon School Buses

The folly of the Volkswagen Group of America became Oregon’s pot of gold. Through a generous grant approved by the Oregon State Legislature in 2017, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) began releasing funds to reduce harmful diesel bus emissions through their School Bus Replacement and Emission Reduction Project. Your school district could qualify to receive 100% of the funds needed to purchase and install of exhaust controls!

The story behind your chance to update your school district’s bus fleet began when Volkswagen of America sold diesel passenger cars in the U.S. with devices that violated federal motor vehicle emission standards. To resolve the resulting lawsuits, Volkswagen agreed to provide more than $2.9 billion dollars to the Environmental Mitigation Fund. Of this money, $72.9 million were allocated to the state of Oregon to spend over a period of ten years.

Thus, the birth of Oregon’s School Bus Plan was born to address correcting the emissions on least 450 diesel powered school buses by retrofitting exhaust controls or completely replacing the buses. Qualified buses must have at least three years of useful life, operated in Oregon for the last year as a primary bus, and continue to operate in Oregon for three years. The bus vehicle model year ideally should  be 2004, 2005, and 2006 engine years but DEQ will consider older school bus engine years and approve on a case by case situation.

In January of 2018, The DEQ actively notified school districts to participate in this grant program by invitation, and this year, the grant money is open to all Oregon school districts that were not previously selected to receive the funds.

The assistance amount covers up to 100 percent to purchase and install exhausts controls, or up to $50,000 or 30 percent to replace the bus completely with an Oregon minimum standard bus, whichever is less.

Why scrap a bus that can be retrofitted at no cost to you? Your existing diesel school buses can continue to provide years of service while meeting today’s air quality standards through the DEQ Diesel Grant Program.

Follow these 3 easy steps to bring new life to your fleet of diesel school buses without any expenditure:

1. Complete and submit the application for the Oregon DEQ Diesel School Bus Replacement Program

2. Download and complete the Grant School Bus Fleet Information Spreadsheet

3. Contact the Advanced Emission in-house exhaust specialists, Bob Gaffney and Stephen Davis, for retrofit consultation

Here at Advanced Emission, we are known for keeping diesel vehicle fleets rolling without interruption. Our retrofits and replacement parts have extended the lives of thousands of vehicles rolling across America. Why not take advantage of bringing new life back to your diesel buses without any cost to you? Your retrofit and replacement exhaust systems are just a phone call away at (559) 240-6076.