Source: Hannah Weingberger, Crosscut, June 18
Since the U.S. federal government issued a notice of violation to Volkswagen in September 2015, the German automaker has been forced to pay out more than $30.4 billion to settle claims that it intentionally deceived regulators gauging emissions in its diesel vehicles. Of that, VW set aside nearly $3 billion for states to reduce diesel dependency and related pollution.
Nearly one year later, the state of Washington has announced its first allocation of that funding, through the Washington Department of Ecology, distributing $13.3 million among six transit agencies purchasing 50 zero-emission electric buses. The department has also begun steps toward putting some of the settlement money into electric school buses.
Washington state received $112.7 million from the federal settlement, the sixth-largest portion of all states.