EPA Awards Allegheny County $10 Million Grant To Replace Diesel With Electric Buses In Mon Valley

On April 10, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has selected Allegheny County’s Targeted Airshed Grant for funding. This grant will directly address environmental and health inequities in the Mon Valley through the replacement of diesel buses with new zero-emission vehicles for Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT).

"Allegheny County is always looking for new and unique ways to improve the area’s air quality," said County Executive Fitzgerald. "The $10 million in additional funding from the EPA will allow us to lower the emissions PRT buses produce in the Mon Valley. The grant will get the agency closer to the goal of a zero-emissions bus fleet by 2045."    

The $10 million grant will be utilized by PRT to replace four 40-foot diesel transit buses with electric buses. These new buses will serve riders in the Mon Valley area. 

The grant will also support the purchase and installation of two electric chargers along with necessary infrastructure in the garage to which the buses would be assigned.

The new zero-emission buses are anticipated to be purchased and put into service in 2026.

Zero-emission buses have been shown to contribute to healthier communities, especially communities that are classified as high need by environmental justice indexes, like EJScreen or the environmental justice index developed by the Allegheny County Health Department.

The Mon Valley is a major travel corridor. Pittsburgh Regional Transit operates 23 bus routes serving the Mon Valley carrying 52,400 riders on an average weekday. Seven routes operate on PRT’s Martin Luther King, Jr. East Busway which reduces trip times for riders traveling between Mon Valley communities, Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood and downtown. 

"Zero-emission buses reduce fine particulate pollution, or PM2.5 greenhouse gas emission, which improves public health and also provides a way for transit authorities to maintain and expand their transit systems in a reliable, cost-effective way," explained ACHD Acting Director Patrick Dowd. 

Based on data collected and analyzed by the ACHD, PM2.5 emissions from vehicles contribute about 25 percent of all air pollution in Allegheny County. 

The application for, and subsequent award of, this Targeted Airshed Grant is another effort in recent years to improve air quality in the Mon Valley. 

In 2021, the county adopted the Mon Valley Air Pollution Episode Rule. The rule requires major pollution emitters in the Mon Valley to reduce their emissions during strong surface temperature inversions. 

Over the course of the past ten-plus years, Allegheny County has seen a dramatic improvement in its air quality, with about an 80 percent reduction in hazardous air pollutants and a 32 percent reduction in PM2.5 pollution.

[Posted: April 10, 2023]  PA Environment Digest