Grants Launch Clean Air Projects in Southern Indiana

North Spencer County School Corp. will replace two older diesel-fueled school buses with new propane-fueled school buses.

The replacement of old school buses and waste management trucks are part of an effort in southern Indiana to reduce diesel emissions. Several community organizations and one business in Spencer County will share nearly $240,000 in funding from South Shore Clean Cities Inc., a U.S. Department of Energy nonprofit organization.  The grants are expected to reduce diesel emissions in the southern Indiana region by more than 1,200 pounds per year for the next five to seven years. 

South Shore Clean Cities also assisted two of the awardees in securing additional grants totaling $69,280 through the Indiana Office of Energy Development’s Propane School Bus program and Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s DieselWise program.       

The Rockport Spencer County Cleaner Air through Diesel Emission Reductions (RSC-CADER) grant awardees are:

* North Spencer County School Corp., which will receive $76,359 to replace two older diesel-fueled school buses with new propane-fueled school buses.

* Spencer County Solid Waste Management District, which will receive $75,000 to replace an older recycling compactor truck with a comparable new cleaner diesel truck.

* City of Cannelton, which will receive $35,094 to replace an older refuse collection/compactor truck with a comparable new cleaner diesel truck.

* Perry County Port Authority, which will receive $26,802 to replace their older rail maintenance truck with a comparable propane-fueled truck. This rail maintenance truck spends much of its time traveling the Hoosier Southern Railroad between Cannelton and Lincoln City, Indiana.

* Bestway Express Inc., which will receive $26,000 toward the replacement of two diesel-fueled semi-tractors with comparable compressed natural gas-fueled semi-tractors.