NextEnergy helps make local school buses cleaner with retrofits

NextEnergy has done its good deed for the day and then some. The alternative-energy company based in TechTown has retrofitted 70 school busses to produce less pollution.

These older buses help move 180,000 students in the Howell, Hartland, Hamilton and Edwardsburg school districts. Older buses, like most other vehicle, produce more pollution than newer one. The retrofits are expected to cut between 20 and 90 percent of diesel fuel pollutants the buses produce. Diesel fuel fumes contribute to air pollution and are linked to asthma in both children and adults.

"There's nothing more important than minimizing health risks to our kids," says Jim Croce, CEO of NextEnergy. "Emissions control equipment and cleaner, more efficient fuels are a perfect combination for a better environment and what we at NextEnergy are committed to advancing through developing new technologies."

The EPA provided $95,000 of the $115,000 project to pay for the retrofitting, which will help make the exhaust from the buses as clean as it can be. NextEnergy began retrofitting the buses in 2006 and recently finished the project.

Source:J im Croce, CEO of NextEnergy
Writer: Jon Zemke