16 states sue to block USPS plan to buy hundreds of thousands of gas-guzzling mail trucks

Photo by George Rose/Getty Images

The United States Postal Service was sued this week by 16 states and several prominent climate activists over its plan to purchase 148,000 gas-guzzling delivery trucks over the next decade.

The USPS replaced 90 percent of its delivery fleet with fossil fuel-powered, internal combustion engine vehicles despite other alternatives, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by the state attorneys general of California, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, Washington,

The USPS complaint is on Scribd.

USPS, under the leadership of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, has been at odds with environmentalists over the need toelectrify the agency's fleet. The next-generation mail truck was unveiled by the USPS in February 2021. The current mail trucks that have been in service for more than two decades were built by another defense contractor.

The postal service said it would purchase 165,000 next-generation mail trucks, but only 10 percent of them would be battery-electric. The USPS decided there was no legal reason to change its plans despite President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats urging the agency to increase the number of EVs. The service said earlier this year that it would increase its initial order of EVs from 5,000 to 10,019, making sense from an operational and financial perspective.

The states accuse the USPS of relying on faulty judgement and an incomplete process to acquire gas-powered vehicles that only get 8.6 miles per gallon while using air conditioning compared to an industry average of between 12 and 14 miles per gallon for fleet vehicles.

The USPS is open to increasing its order for more electric vehicles in the future if additional funding becomes available to do so.

The Postal Service is committed to the inclusion of electric vehicles as a significant part of its delivery fleet even though the investment will cost more than an internal combustion engine vehicle.

USPS has lost more than $90 billion since 2007, and Congress recently approved a $50 billion rescue package. DeJoy wants to cut billions of dollars in funding and slower first-class mail delivery as new standards.