Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and nine other Dem senators urged the Postal Service to establish a long-term goal of electrifying virtually all of its delivery vehicles in order to cut “dangerous” carbon emissions. However, the agency previously discovered that purchasing electric vehicles (EVs) would cost more than $2 billion more than replacing its fleet with new gasoline-powered trucks.
According to a letter, the 10 Senate Democrats instructed the Postal Service to use cash included in the Democrats’ climate spending package to go beyond its prior objective of electrifying 40% of its vehicles and instead electrify “at least 95%” of its fleet. According to a February analysis, the Postal Service estimated that it would pay $11.6 billion over 20 years to electrify its whole fleet and $9.3 billion to acquire a small part of EVs in addition to gas-powered trucks.
The senators wrote, “With Inflation Reduction Act funds, USPS should set its sights higher and strive for a minimum of 95 percent electric postal delivery fleet that would decrease harmful greenhouse-gas emissions and help usher in the new age of ubiquitous clean automobile technology.”
According to The Washington Post, the Postal Service committed to boost its vehicle electrification efforts in July after Washington, D.C.,16 states, and four environmental groups have filed lawsuits over the service’s past plans to electrify only 10% of its fleet. Originally, the service intended to update its fleet by making 90% of its new cars gas-powered.
President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August, allocating $3 billion to assist the Postal Service in purchasing more electric vehicles, including $1.29 billion for new electric delivery vehicles and about $1.71 billion for buying and installing any related infrastructure that would be required. The Postal Service paid $2.95 billion in March for 50,000 new cars, 10,000 of which were electric.
During his first week in office, Biden promised that all post office cars and the entire government fleet would be electric.
According to an August letter, 15 Democratic attorneys general and Democratic California AG Rob Bonta demanded that the Postal Service stop buying gas-powered delivery vehicles because the emissions that were produced by such trucks disproportionately harm minority or low-income communities.
Comments are closed.