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On Thursday, Pritzker’s office announced the Illinois State
Board of Education awarded a $19.9 million grant from the Clean
Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program funded by federal tax dollars
as part of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Troy Community Consolidated School District 30-C is set to get
32 school buses and charging infrastructure. Joliet Township
High School District 204 and Zion-Benton Township High School
District 126 will each get 10 school buses and charging
infrastructure. Six other districts will also get at least one
bus and charging infrastructure.
Each bus comes to about $284,000.
“[T]hese districts will receive electric school buses, charging
infrastructure, and workforce training – reducing harmful
emissions and improving air quality,” Pritzker said in a
statement.
The grant also funds two full-time ISBE employees to support the
program’s implementation and work with districts on other “green
energy” initiatives.
Thursday’s announcement comes after Pritzker commented on the
performance of electric bus manufacturer Lion Electric, which is
in line to get state tax credits for operating a facility in
Joliet.
“If they reach the goals that they’ve set with us, and there’s
an agreement that gets set, hiring a certain number of people,
fulfilling on a certain amount of investment, then they receive
the benefit of those tax credits,” Pritzker said last week at an
unrelated event. “But if they don’t, then they haven’t lived up
to their part of the agreement, the state does not owe them
anything. But look, I’m very disappointed in their progress.”
Pritzker laid the blame on President-elect Donald Trump for the
sluggish EV market.
“There’s an awful lot of pressure that’s been put on electric
vehicle companies as a result of Donald Trump’s rhetoric and
promises that he’s made to kind of tear down the electric
vehicle … industry development,” Pritzker said.
Whether Lion Electric would be the supplier of such buses as
part of the $19.9 million program wasn't clear. The Illinois
State Board of Elections said each district will purchase the
buses according to their own local procurement rules. |
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