Brattleboro’s share of a $314,406 Environmental Protection Agency grant to five communities will enable its 35 school buses to burn cleaner-burning biodiesel fuel this year.
Brattleboro; Cambridge, Mass.; Hamden, Conn.; Springfield, Mass.; and Syracuse, N.Y. will share in the grant under the EPA’s Clean School Bus USA program.
Brattleboro’s share of the money is $8,000, which it will use to pay the 12-cents-per-gallon premium that biodiesel costs over regular diesel.
Officials say the Brattleboro buses will use a blend of 95 percent diesel and 5 percent biodiesel, cutting carbon dioxide emissions from the buses by 5 percent, carbon monoxide by 2.8 percent and fine particulates by 2.5 percent.