Mayor Eric Adams announces the city has been awarded a total of $77 million | Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
NEW YORK—New York City has received $77 million in competitive grants from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to electrify school buses and build an electric truck charging depot.
A $61.1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Grant Program will add 180 new electric school buses to the city’s fleet and quadruple the number of electric school buses in New York City.
In addition, a $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program will help build a groundbreaking, freight-focused electric truck and vehicle charging depot at the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, the busiest heavy trucking destination in New York state. The city was also awarded $1.5 million from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation’s Ride and Drive Electric Program to support planning and coordination efforts to electrify New York City’s electric school bus fleet.
The Adams administration said these investments align with Mayor Eric Adams’s vision in his State of the City address in January: to grow the city’s green economy and build electric vehicle charging infrastructure at the Hunt’s Point Produce Market. Previously, the Adams administration also secured over $1.6 billion in federal funding to create high-quality, sustainable, and equitable infrastructure in New York City, including more than $120 million awarded to New York City last week to expand green space and improve infrastructure in historically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens.
“These grants will help us put more electric school buses on our streets, turn one of the world’s largest food distribution centers into one of the world’s greenest facilities, deliver cleaner air for our children, and help undo a long history of environmental racism in the South Bronx, Adams said. “This is what it looks like when leaders from City Hall to the halls of Congress work together to ‘Get Stuff Done’ for New York City.”
In partnership with DOE and MOCEJ, the $61.1 million award to electrify New York City’s school bus fleet will benefit two companies — NYC School Bus Umbrella Services and J.P. Bus and Truck Repair — and help the city reach its goal of an entirely zero-emission school bus fleet by 2035 through its “PlaNYC: Getting Sustainability Done.” NYC School Bus Umbrella Services — the city’s nonprofit school bus company — won $29.5 million for 100 electric school buses and 100 chargers to be used citywide. J.P. Bus and Truck Repair won $31.5 million for 80 electric school buses to serve districts 18, 19, 20, and 21 in Brooklyn — including Coney Island, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatlands, Midwood, New Lots, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, and Windsor Terrace.
This is the second round of Clean School Bus Program grants awarded to the city following an $18.3 million grant for 51 electric school buses last year.
Mayor Adams announced today that DOT and NYCEDC won a $15 million grant from USDOT to build a first-in-the-nation freight-focused electric truck and vehicle charging depot at the Bronx’s Hunts Point Food Distribution Center. The “Recharge Hub” will offer electric trucks and passenger vehicles access to fast and regular chargers, providing a convenient way for electric trucks to recharge through Hunts Point or the Bruckner Expressway. The grant will also support the development of an onsite, multipurpose building to host workforce development programming, community events, and a rest area for drivers.
The Adams administration said that expanding access to electric chargers and the hub would reduce the need for fleet owners to make expensive charging upgrades at their own locations, remove a significant barrier to electrification, and encourage greater adoption of electric vehicles by trucking companies. Once constructed, the hub can charge over 3,000 trucks and 4,000 passenger vehicles annually, eliminating an estimated 5.1 million tons of CO₂. This funding will help replace diesel trucks with electric cars, reduce air pollution, and address longstanding public health inequities in Hunts Points, specifically in the South Bronx, home to disproportionately high air pollution and asthma rates.
The Adams administration previously secured $110 million from USDOT’s Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) Grant Program to invest in resiliency and freight upgrades to the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market.
“The pollution created by diesel-powered trucks and school buses not only creates unhealthy air that often impacts disadvantaged communities the most; it is also a significant contributor to climate change and the extreme weather that threatens public safety,” said New York City Chief Climate Officer and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Rohit T. Aggarwala. “This is why PlaNYC, our sustainability action plan, called for seeking federal funds for the electrification of our school bus fleets and for the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure to encourage freight operators to transition to electric fleets — both steps towards environmental justice and a healthier, safer New York.”
–With Ricky Rillera/PDM
