New Mexico may receive $16.9 million from Volkswagen settlement

New Mexico is expected to get almost $17 million from a federal settlement with Volkswagen in a lawsuit declaring the automaker’s diesel engine emissions violated the Clean Air Act– cash that could be used to develop electric car charging stations and natural gas refueling spaces along highways.

However just if the state is ready to utilize the cash when it comes available.

About $10 billion in the settlement will assist owners of Volkswagen diesel vehicles purchase new, lower-emission vehicles. Another $2.7 billion is reserved for an ecological mitigation fund for minimizing nitrous oxide emissions, while $2 billion will spend for a zero-emission-vehicle fund.

Apart from New Mexico ($16.9 million), other Western states set to get funding are Arizona ($53 million), Colorado ($61 million), Nevada ($22 million), Utah ($32 million) and Wyoming ($75 million).

States can decide to put a few of the money into changing out old diesel-powered delivery trucks and school buses, in addition to freight trains, with more recent, more efficient ones that give off less nitrous oxides. States likewise might use the cash to help city governments purchase electric-powered public buses.