The United States Postal Service made the announcement Wednesday that it has finalized its plan to replace its vehicles with a fleet comprised largely of gas-powered vehicles, a move that has enraged climate advocates and that defies President Joe Biden’s promise to electrify the agency’s fleet.
The agency is currently purchasing under the supervision of Postmaster Louis DeJoy. up to 148,000 gas vehiclesDespite repeated requests from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (EPA) and the Environmental Protection Agency, they did so.
Biden’s climate plans will be undermined by the purchase. Had been pledged to fully electrify the agency’s vehicles as the current fleet is long past its prime. About one-third (33%) of federal vehicles are owned and operated by USPS trucks.
The agency arguesAn all-electric fleet would cost more than a fleet that is primarily powered by gas. Although this may seem cheaper upfront, long-term gas vehicles will likely be more expensive. The EPA claims that the agency has been using inaccurate gas price estimates in its analysis. The USPS also had an opportunity to purchase lighter trucks with better fuel efficiency, but it decided to buy trucks nearly twice the weight of the current vehicles. Of course, this decision will actively advance the climate crisis and the U.S.’s dependence on fossil fuels.
Wednesday’s decision frustrated climate advocates. “DeJoy’s plans for the postal fleet will drag us back decades with a truck model that gets laughable fuel economy. We may as well deliver the mail with hummers,” Adrian Martinez, attorney for Earthjustice, said in a statement. “DeJoy’s environmental review is rickety, founded on suspect calculations, and fails to meet the standards of the law.”
Martinez stated that Earthjustice is willing to fight the decision before the courts. Martinez also said that electrifying all of the fleet would save 110 million gallons annually. Other environmental groupsThey are ready to do the same.
Climate advocates argue that the new fleet would inadvertently lock up emissions for decades to follow. The EPA says that new gas-powered mail trucks are particularly inefficient energy-wise. would get only 8.6 miles to the gallon, which is hardly an improvement over the current fleet’s average of 8.2 miles per gallon.
Over the trucks’ 20-year life expectancy, the EPA wrote in a letter to the Postal Service, a 90 percent gas-powered fleet would emit as much carbon dioxide as 4.3 million passenger vehicles, or five coal power plants. According to social carbon cost analysis they would result in climate damages of $900 millions.
Climate advocates say that electrifying the USPS fleet is “low-hanging fruit.”
“It seems like a no-brainer to be using electric trucks for this sort of thing, like mail delivery,” Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist and director of climate and energy for the Breakthrough Institute, told Truthout. “And it’s a real shame that in a time when climate change is such an important issue, and our leaders like the Biden administration are stating that it’s such an important issue, we’re on the cusp of locking in two or more decades of gas guzzling vehicles, that, to be honest, are only marginally more efficient than the trucks that the Postal Service bought 20 years ago.”
Electrifying the fleet is technically feasible for the agency – most mail routes are only 20 miles on averageThis is well within the range that an electric mail truck could achieve with a smaller, more affordable battery. In 2009, electric vehicle technology was much less advanced than it is today, and the Postal Service did not have an electric mail truck. found that96% of routes are compatible with electric trucks.
The trucks wouldn’t create harmful emissions while they idle as postal workers make their deliveries, and their constant stopping and restarting is inefficient for gas vehicles. Further, the trucks park in the same hub every night, meaning that it would be easy to ensure that they’re all charged for the next day.
While the U.S. is making progress toward Biden’s goal of cutting emissions in half by 2030, transportation is a crucial sector to decarbonize.
“To have any chance of meeting the Biden administration’s goal of a 50 percent reduction by 2030, we really need to meaningfully cut emissions from transportation. And the Postal Service is a pretty big emitter,” said Hausfather. An all-electric fleet could not only reduce direct emissions but also make it easier to purchase similar products from other companies such as FedEx and UPS.
Wednesday’s announcement sparked calls, yet again, for DeJoy to be removed from his post. “Louis DeJoy is destroying the USPS. And now he’s tied the fleet to gas-powered trucks for 30 years, when we should be going electric,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon). “Louis DeJoy should be fired.”
The embattled Donald Trump-era Postmaster General has come under fireFor his recently-implemented 10-year program for the agency that is slated slow delivery and raise prices. DeJoy cannot be removed by the Postal Board. At the moment, it lacks the votes to replace him. NominatedDeJoy was pushed aside by enough Democrats in April, but DeJoy’s nominations are still in the Senate.
