The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has agreed to purchase nearly 150,000 gasoline-powered mail delivery trucks, an $11.3 billion investment.
The Washington Post reported that the USPS will replace its delivery fleet with 90 percent gas-powered trucks and 10 percent electric vehicles. According to the contract, the new fleet will provide merely a 0.4-mile-per-gallon fuel economy improvement over the current USPS fleet.
The Post reported that the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency have asked USPS to reassess its plan. Biden has pledged to convert the federal fleet to clean power.
USPS vehicles account for nearly one-third of the federal government-owned vehicles, according to the Post. The new trucks are scheduled to start operating in 2023 and stay in service for at least 20 years.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy issued a statement saying he’d be open to more electric vehicles “if additional funding – from either internal or congressional sources – becomes available.”
An attorney for the environmental law firm Earthjustice criticized the decision to the Post, citing “a truck model that gets laughable fuel economy. We may as well deliver the mail with Hummers.”
Dave Lubach is Managing Editor for the Facility Market.
.jpg)
