At a Gla

24-P-0012
December 27, 2023

The EPA Clean School Bus Program Could Be Impacted by Utility Delays

Why We Did This Audit

To accomplish this objective:

The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Office of Inspector General
conducted this audit to determine
whether potential supply chain or
production delays could impact the
EPA's efforts to disburse and manage
Clean School Bus Program funds
pursuant to section 71101 of the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs
Act amended the Clean School Bus
Program established by section 741 of
the Energy Policy Act of 2005. It
provides $5 billion over five years, or
through 2026, for the replacement of
existing school buses with clean and
zero-emission school buses. The 2022
Clean School Bus rebate was the first
funding opportunity for the program.

What We Found

We concluded that there were no significant supply chain issues or production delays that
impacted the EPA's efforts to disburse funds through the first round of the Clean School
Bus Program's funding. However, the Agency may be unable to effectively manage and
achieve the program mission unless local utility companies can meet increasing power
supply demands for electric school buses.

The EPA provided utility resources during the rebate application process but did not require
applicants to contact their utility provider to coordinate potential changes needed to connect
charging stations to utilities. While early coordination with utilities is not a requirement, it
could prevent the Agency from achieving its objective to remove older diesel buses and
replace them with clean buses. The increased demand on utility companies may impact the
timeliness of replacing diesel buses.

While utility infrastructure is not funded through the program, we found that there could be
delays in utilities constructing the needed charging stations to make the buses fully
operational in a timely manner. The EPA needs to ensure that utilities have constructed
and connected charging stations in a timely manner so that school districts' school bus
fleets, purchased through the EPA's 2022 Clean School Bus Rebate Program, are
functional. Utility installation delays must be addressed for taxpayers to reap timely health
and environmental benefits of the $5 billion invested in this program through the IIJA.

We did not make any recommendations in this report.

Increased power supply demands could delay electric
school bus deployment.

To support these EPA mission-
related efforts:

•	Improving air quality.

•	Operating efficiently and
effectively.

To address this top EPA
management challenge:

•	Managing grants, contracts, and
data systems.

Address inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or
OIG.PublicAffairs@epa.gov.

List of OIG reports.


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