The Postal Service will proceed with an $11.3 billion plan to replace its aging mail trucks with mostly gas-powered new vehicles, despite calls from the Biden administration to purchase more electric vehicles.
A post office truck is in North Haledon, NJ.
The USPS plans to replace its mail trucks after completing a required study of the proposal's environmental impact.
The USPS plans to spend $11.3 billion to replace its current mail trucks with up to 165,000 new vehicles over the next 10 years, but only 10% of them will be electric.
According to the Guardian, the new gas-powered vehicles would have worse fuel efficiency than the old ones.
The Environmental Protection Agency and White House Council on Environmental Quality wrote to the USPS in February asking them to reconsider the plan, with the EPA saying the environmental impact statement for the new trucks was seriously deficient.
The USPS was compelled to act prudently in the interest of the American public, and buying more electric vehicles is unrealistic, according to DeJoy.
DeJoy said in a statement Wednesday that the agency would pursue buying more electric vehicles as additional funding becomes available.
A lot of money: $900 million. The amount of climate damage the USPS vehicle plan would cause is based on the social cost of carbon dioxide.
DeJoy said in a statement Wednesday that their commitment to an electric fleet remains ambitious given the pressing vehicle and safety needs of their aging fleet as well as their fragile financial condition.
The Postal Service's proposal as currently crafted represents a crucial lost opportunity to more rapidly reduce the carbon footprint of one of the largest government fleets in the world.
What will this do to DeJoy? The controversy over the mail trucks has led to renewed calls for him to resign or be fired, with Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) saying the truck gaffe is an example of why he believes DeJoy. DeJoy can only be fired by the USPS Board of Governors, which is unlikely to kick him out. The board will soon be made up of a majority of Biden appointees after the president nominated two more board members in November, but at least one of them is a Republican, and it's unclear whether some of the others would be on board with firing DeJoy. The mail truck plan may be tied up in litigation because environmental groups are likely to try to stop it.
The mail truck proposal is the latest in a series of controversial moves by DeJoy, a long time GOP donor and Trump ally. The postmaster general imposed changes at USPS soon after taking office in summer 2020 that caused widespread mail delays and angered Democrats who feared the slowdown would impact mail-in ballots. The Postal Regulatory Commission objected to the 10-year plan for USPS that slows down some mail delivery, which went into effect in October. The USPS reform bill that Congress is moving forward with would remove several of the major obstacles that have hindered the agency's finances, though the Senate's efforts to pass the bipartisan legislation have stopped after Sen. Rick Scott stopped the chamber.
Biden officials want to hold up the USPS truck contract because of climate damage.
The plan to replace USPS fleet with gas-powered trucks is defended by DeJoy.
The US postal service is under fire for a plan to spend $11.3 billion on gas-powered vehicles.
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