Connecticut has named over a dozen private companies and government entities that will share in a $6.2-million grant that will help replace 85 commercial trucks and tractors with cleaner and more efficient models.
It’s the second round of funding the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has distributed from the state’s nearly $56 million portion of an emissions-cheating settlement with Volkswagen. The automaker admitted to installing software to beat emissions tests on 590,000 VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles in the U.S., including 12,000 in Connecticut.
The first round of funding — $12.2 million — was split fairly evenly among electric buses and fossil-fuel-powered vehicles. The latest funding round was skewed more heavily toward the latter, with replacement vehicles including those powered by diesel, compressed natural gas and propane.
Approximately $1.5 million from the second round will go toward the purchase of electric buses and bucket trucks for the Department of Transportation, Eversource, Yale and Dattco.
The Connecticut League of Conservation Voters issued a statement criticizing the allocations for fossil-fuel vehicles.
“When VW cheated on their emissions test, the settlement they signed with our state and others was intended to minimize the impacts of diesel fumes,” CTLCV executive director Lori Brown said. “Unfortunately, the majority of the second round of grant funds will go toward replacing old diesel-powered buses with more diesel.”
“While we are glad to see the state take some first steps toward electric vehicles, we are missing a huge opportunity to fully commit to electric vehicles,” she added. “By replacing old diesel-powered vehicles with new ones, Connecticut is only half heartedly protecting the air we breathe.”
For its part, DEEP said the vehicle replacements included in the second funding round, though focused on diesel, are still expected to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds — which both contributed to ground level ozone pollution linked to respiratory health effects — by a total of 72 tons. In addition, the newer models will cut carbon-dioxide emissions, which contribute to climate change, by nearly 5,100 tons.
Connecticut’s next round of VW funding, slated for next year, will focus more heavily on electrification, including a portion of money carved out for electric vehicle charging equipment, DEEP said.
The third round of grants will be informed by a recently launched grid-modernization proceeding by the state’s utility regulator, which includes a focus on spurring the adoption of electric vehicles.
“The transportation sector is responsible for approximately 70 percent of smog forming air pollution and 38 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in Connecticut,” DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes said in a statement. “Through each round of VW grant funding, we are identifying new ways to overcome barriers and support the switch to electric vehicles. We look forward to initiating subsequent grant rounds that attract innovative proposals for electric vehicle deployment, in partnership with municipal and private fleet owners.”
The largest recipients in the second funding round — which spurred an additional $10.4 million in grantee investments — include:
- $912,070 for Student Transportation of America in Naugatuck, which will replace 18 school buses with newer diesel-powered equivalents.
- $819,260 for Fishers Island Ferry District in New London to replace 1985 propulsion engines, gearboxes, auxiliary generator sets and other equipment in its M/V Race Point ferry.
- $668,398 for First Student (multiple locations) to replace 12 school buses with diesel-powered equivalents.
- $637,780 for East Hartford to replace four diesel-powered refuse trucks with two natural gas-powered trucks and two newer diesel models.
- $591,600 for USA Waste & Recycling (multiple locations) to replace eight diesel-powered refuse trucks with eight 2021 natural gas models.
