Topline:
Students across the Southland will have new rides soon. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates our air quality, will swap out nearly 300 older, high-polluting school buses with new electric ones.
The details: South Coast AQMD is awarding $78 million from clean air programs to school districts to pay for them, as well as install charging equipment. The buses are expected to roll out by the middle of next year.
Who’s getting them? The electric buses will go to 35 public school districts, most of which are in Los Angeles County (primarily LAUSD). Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties will also get a cut of the fleet.
Why it matters: About 87% of the new buses will serve communities that are disproportionately burdened by pollution and are more sensitive to it — that comes from the state tool CalEnviroScreen. South Coast AQMD says the swap will also reduce harmful emissions, such as smog-forming nitrogen oxides and particulate matter…