Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The Healey-Driscoll administration has made a total of $11.5 million in funding available through a new competitive grant program for low- and zero-emission vehicle and equipment projects.
The grant program, administered by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, will use $7.5 million from the Volkswagen emissions fraud settlement and $4 million from the state’s Climate Protection and Mitigation Expendable Trust.
The Massachusetts VW and Refuse Truck Electric Solicitation, announced on July 26, is open to public and private entities with an eligible diesel vehicle, engine or piece of equipment operating in Massachusetts. The maximum grant award through the two-part solicitation will be $500,000.
The VW Electric portion of the solicitation will fund eligible electrification projects to offset nitrogen oxide emissions. Equipment that might qualify for replacement under this opportunity includes medium- and large-freight trucks; school, shuttle and transit buses; ferries and tugboats; airport ground support equipment; and forklifts.
The Refuse Truck portion of the program will provide funding to municipalities and entities that contract with municipalities to replace waste-serving refuse trucks with more efficient options, including plug-in hybrid and full electric versions. Eligible refuse trucks include waste haulers, waste trucks and recycling trucks.
Applications for the VW and Refuse Truck Electric Solicitation Grants are due by 5 p.m. on Sept. 26. Application information is available on the grant program website. Additional details, including full eligibility criteria, can be found in the solicitation guidance document. Questions can be submitted to vw.settlement@mass.gov.
The 2017 Volkswagen Settlement was a result of litigation brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and several states after the company sold 590,000 diesel cars (2009 through 2016) that contained “defeat devices” — software that could detect when the vehicles were being tested, allowing the diesel cars to pass laboratory and station testing even though they emitted nitrogen oxides up to 40 times the allowable limits during normal operation. Volkswagen was found to have violated the Clean Air Act and other regulations, resulting in agreements to pay billions of dollars toward environmental mitigation and clean-emissions efforts.
The Final Massachusetts Volkswagen Settlement Beneficiary Mitigation Plan was released in April 2023. The plan details how the Commonwealth will spend its $74 million allocation and incorporates feedback from a public comment period.