Grants Available to Help You Switch to Cleaner Transportation Vehicles

BY ANGELA MARCONI

›› Millions of dollars in grant funding are still available to businesses, nonprofits, and government entities in order to make the switch to cleaner transportation vehicles. Together with businesses and community partners, Delaware is transitioning to cleaner transportation and renewable energy sources that will reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions to benefit our health and help combat climate change in Delaware.

The funding comes from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust Fund, a $9.6 million settlement fund Volkswagen was ordered to establish by the federal government for placing emission “defeat devices” on almost 600,000 diesel vehicles sold in the United States between 2009 and 2016. The goal is to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from buses and heavy equipment vehicles in the First State.

Leaders of Waste Management of Delaware celebrated the company’s upgrade from diesel vehicles to trucks that operate on cleaner compressed natural gas.

The VW Environmental Mitigation Trust Fund has already helped several organizations. For example, the Delaware Department of Education leveraged the fund to replace 81 state-owned diesel school buses with buses that operate on clean diesel or propane. Waste Management of Delaware replaced 10 diesel solid waste refuse vehicles with trucks that operate on compressed natural gas (CNG). Most recently, The Teen Warehouse in Wilmington upgraded to an electric zero emissions bus.

In January, the state will have another phase of funding available, and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control would like to invest in businesses that operate diesel buses and heavy equipment vehicles such as ferries, tugs, construction equipment, forklifts, freight trucks and more, to upgrade to cleaner-fueled vehicles.

Proposals for projects that seek funding from this next phase of the VW Environmental Mitigation Trust Fund will be available in January 2022. For more information, visit de.gov/vwmitigation.

Angela Marconi is the director of the DNREC Division of Air Quality.