What if… all of these were electric vehicles? Photo: AP/STRF/STAR MAX/IPx (AP)
The US Postal Service is not going to give up gasoline without a fight, and now it’s getting one.
California Attorney General, Rob Bonta, the prosecution says. He filed a lawsuit against USPS today over the Postal Service’s plans to replace about 165,000 aging, fossil fuel-powered delivery vehicles with another round of gas-guzzling trucks. The lawsuit has the support of attorney generals from 15 other states and, as a bonus, Washington DC, New York City and environmental groups.
In the appeal on points of law, the States begin their introduction as follows:
The United States Postal Service has one of the largest fleets of civilian vehicles in the world. Its vehicles operate in every community in the United States, six days a week. While they play a crucial role in delivering national mail, these vehicles also pollute the communities in which they operate and emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases. As its current fleet of vehicles nears the end of their useful life, the postal service has a tremendous opportunity to convert its fleet to zero-emission electric vehicles, a change that would reduce pollution in congested communities and help address the climate crisis.
And they are not wrong. Replacing all old vehicles with new electric vehicles would prevent an estimated 537,415 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere through direct tailpipe emissions alone. And that’s according to the USPS’ own environmental impact statement on the subject. For comparison, removing that amount of CO2 from the equation is equivalent to almost 9 million trees growing for 10 years.
In addition to carbon emissions, the USPS estimated that moving to an all-electric fleet would also prevent nearly 1 million tons of harmful nitrogen oxides from entering the air annually, along with more than 11,000 tons of carbon monoxide and hundreds of tons of deadly particulate matter.
The Biden administration has previously committed to converting 100% of government vehicles to zero-emission models by 2035. But last year, the Post announced a new, gas-powered design for its trucks, which didn’t go down well. These upgraded vehicles would offer just a 0.4 mile per gallon improvement (up to a dismal 8.6 mpg) over the status quo, according to the EPA, which issued a letter asking the USPS to reverse its decision in February rethink. The White House Environmental Quality Council also weighed in, siding with electric options.
There are serious discussions to be had about the reach of EVs to cover rural areas or installing all those chargers, but ultimately the USPS has said it’s deciding against EVs on cost grounds. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy cited “grim financial situation(s)” in a February statement in which he claimed the USPS will keep its foot on the gas pedal.
DeJoy went on to explain that if they don’t get more money, 5,000 electric vehicles is all his agency can afford. “Without such funding, we need to make fiscally responsible decisions,” he said.
For context, the additional cost to the USPS of opting for EVs over new internal combustion vehicles would be just $2.3 billion — an absolute sap for the federal government that charges $6 million for each new, quasi-functional tank outputs that it builds, according to a Forbes report. Or, according to Bloomberg, $13 billion for an unsafe aircraft carrier alone.
And as the 30-year age of the current retirement fleet shows, decisions made now to save a few billion dollars will have long-lasting effects. “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,” AG Bonta said in a statement. He added: “We will go to court to ensure the postal service is complying with the law and considering greener alternatives before making this decision.”