Friend — this National Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re so excited to celebrate a big win from our partners at Chispa — an LCV program that builds the power of Latinx communities to achieve climate justice and environmental protections. 

Diesel fuel is a known deadly carcinogen. And yet, 18 million children ride to and from school every day on dirty diesel buses here in the United States. That’s why Chispa co-founded the Alliance for Electric School Buses, which includes over 30 organizations. 

Today, Chispa programs in five states are actively working as part of the Alliance to secure and equitably allocate additional federal investments to transition our nation’s 480,000 diesel school buses into a clean, electric fleet.

In their biggest win yet, Chispa activists in Nevada have won federal funding to transition to electric school buses in Clark County following years of advocacy. With 1,924 buses transporting 125,000 students daily, Clark County has the nation’s largest school bus fleet. 

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Thanks to your support, Chispa is successfully confronting these health problems using a range of tactics, including training community leaders, canvassing, phone banking, hosting house parties, storytelling, and lobbying elected officials.

These tactics work. The first round of federal funding for clean school buses was released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2022, doubling the number of electric school buses in use across the country and providing the following benefits to communities:

• Decrease in toxic diesel exposure for hundreds of thousands of children
• Fuel cost savings for school districts
• Quieter rides for children and bus drivers — and in communities
• Reduced CO2 emissions

The Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada is home to the nation's largest school bus fleet — with 1,924 buses transporting 125,000 students daily. The district introduced its first electric buses earlier this year after Chispa Nevada helped secure federal funding there.

Later this fall, additional federal grant recipients will be announced by the EPA, and Chispa and the Alliance for Electric School Buses will continue working to ensure that this funding reaches the communities that need it most. Read about Chispa Nevada's success and meet the leaders who helped drive Clark County's progress.

Thanks for all that you do to help power important partnerships like these, which bring environmental justice to communities hit hard by pollution and make our planet a cleaner, safer place.

Onward,

Gene Karpinski
President 
League of Conservation Voters