California and 15 other states that want the US Postal Service to buy more electric delivery vehicles are suing to stop buying thousands of gas-powered trucks while the agency modernizes its mail delivery fleet.
Three separate lawsuits filed Thursday by 16 states and environmental groups in New York and California are asking judges to order a more thorough environmental assessment before the Postal Service proceeds with the next-generation delivery truck program.
Plaintiffs allege that purchasing fossil-fuelled delivery vehicles will harm the environment for decades to come.
“Louis DeJoy’s gas-guzzling fleet guarantees decades of pollution with every postcard and every package,” said Scott Hochberg, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, citing the Postmaster General.
A lawsuit was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, CleanAirNow KC and the Sierra Club in San Francisco. Attorneys general from 16 states and the District of Columbia filed another lawsuit at the same venue.
Another was filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and United Auto Workers in New York.
All three target the environmental assessment that underpins the Postal Service’s planned purchase of up to 165,000 next-generation delivery vehicles over the next decade.
The review process “was so shaky and flawed that it failed to meet the basic standards of the National Environmental Policy Act,” said Adrian Martinez, lead attorney for Earthjustice’s Right to Zero campaign.
“The crux of the matter in this case is that the postal service has done its job [environmental] Analysis too late, and even the analysis produced was incomplete, misleading and biased towards cleaner vehicles,” Martinez wrote in his complaint reviewed by the Washington Post.
He continued, “Amazingly, the Postal Service signed a contract and first paid millions of dollars for these vehicles before beginning its environmental analysis to justify its action, which is a flagrant violation [the National Environmental Policy Act].”
“The Postal Service’s improper handling will not only unnecessarily pollute every American community for decades to come, but also cost millions more in taxpayer dollars and leave the agency vulnerable to fluctuating fuel prices.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said it was crucial to stop the trial before it was too late.
“Once this purchase is complete, for the next 30 years we will be stuck on our neighborhood streets with more than 100,000 new gas-guzzling vehicles, serving homes in our state and across the country. There will be no reset button,” he said.
The Postal Service defended its actions, with spokesman Kim Frum stating in an email: “The Postal Service has conducted a thorough and thorough review and has fully complied with all of our obligations under[the National Environmental Policy Act].”
The postal service contract stipulates that 10% of new vehicles should be electric, but the postal service claims that more electric vehicles can be purchased due to financial prospects and strategic considerations.
In an interview with The Washington Post earlier this year, DeJoy said, “The policy of electrifying the nation’s fleet is a mission I will support. But I would be remiss to spend all my money on it.”
“I have many other needs. I have 500 plants that I need to address. I have a 30 year old IT…I need to spend at least a few billion dollars to make my assets relevant…I chose this batch. When it’s ready for the next batch, I’ll evaluate it,” he added.
The postal service’s fleet includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles. More than 141,000 of these are old models that lack safety features such as airbags, anti-lock braking systems and reversing cameras. The post office is in the process of replacing the ubiquitous delivery vans that entered service between 1987 and 1994.
The share of battery electric vehicles has doubled to 20% in the initial order of $2.98 billion for 50,000 vehicles. The new gasoline-powered vehicles would achieve 14.7 miles per gallon (23.7 kilometers per gallon) without air conditioning, compared to 8.4 mpg (13.5 kgf) for the older vehicles, the Postal Service said.
The states sued are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District of California, the District of Columbia and the City of New York also joined the lawsuit.