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Graeme Jennings/CNP/Zuma
No one, not even the president or the Environmental Protection Agency, is going to get in the way of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s fleet of gas-powered post trucks.
Despite the EPA’s objections, DeJoy’s Postal Service has A $6 billion contract was finalized with Oshkosh Defense for 165,000 new, state-of-the-art mail trucks—90 percent of which would be gas-powered vehicles earning 8.6 miles per gallon. This is against the Biden initiative to make federal vehicles electrical. It also goes against logic. Gas-powered vehicles fuel climate change. This is increasing wildfires and the severity of tropical thunderstorms. Electric mail trucks wouldn’t solve the climate crisis, but they’d be a step in the right direction.
“As we have reiterated throughout this process, our commitment to an electric fleet remains ambitious given the pressing vehicle and safety needs of our aging fleet as well as our fragile financial condition,” DeJoy StatementToday’s release. “As our financial position improves with the ongoing implementation of our 10-year plan, Delivering for America, we will continue to pursue the acquisition of additional BEV as additional funding—from either internal or congressional sources—becomes available.”
As I This was written earlier in the monthBiden has suggested federal agencies stop using gas-powered trucks. But he doesn’t have the power or authority to compel USPS, an unincorporated agency, to do this. The biggest problem with DeJoy’s acquisition of gas-powered trucks—aside from contributing to climate change—is that it ran afoul of procedure. DeJoy did not initiate an environmental review after the contract was awarded to Oshkosh Defense. The EPA argued that the Postal Service had not conducted an environmental review when it did.
DeJoy may continue to move forward with his plan to buy new trucks, but the insufficiency in the environmental review could be enough for the court to invalidate the contract. Bloomberg suggests. Next up: the inevitable lawsuits of environmental groups.
According to the EPA, the new gas-powered trucks could cause $900million in climate damage, while electrifying their fleet could save them billions over the long-term. But as Patricio Portillo of the Natural Resources Defense Council said today, “Neither rain, nor sleet, nor financial good sense will stop the leaders of the US Postal Service from trying to buy dirty, polluting delivery trucks.”
