Postal workers load mail in Carlsbad, Calif., in this 2013 image. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia sued the Postal Service on Thursday to block its purchase of 148,000 mail trucks. Sixteen states and two top environmental activist groups are suing the U.S. Postal Service to block its purchase of 148,000 gas-guzzling delivery trucks over the next decade, alleging the agency has vastly underestimated the vehicles’ costs and adverse ecological impact.
Postal spokeswoman Kim Frum in an emailed statement said the agency “conducted a robust and thorough review and fully complied with all of our obligations under NEPA.”The Postal Service began studying the environmental impacts of the vehicles — which federal regulators estimate would emit roughly the same amount of Earth-warming carbon dioxide each year as 4.3 million passenger vehicles — after paying Oshkosh $482 million to begin production.
DeJoy in an interview last month said that “the economics that my team has come up with” are sound and support his agency’s purchase plan.The 10-percent electric commitment falls well short of President Biden and environmental activists’ goals. Biden’s plans call for the entire federal civilian fleet to go electric by 2035. The mail agency’s 217,000 vehicles make up the largest share of the government’s nonmilitary vehicles.
“What we’re asking the court to do is make them go back and redo the environmental analysis,” said Frank Sturges, an attorney for NRDC. “What the Postal Service actually buys, who they contract with, is a decision that should come out of the analysis after a victory in our case.”DeJoy has said his agency will buy more electric trucks if Congress allocates the money or if the Postal Service’s financial situation improves.
buying gas USPS trucks right now is the dumbest thing I can think of. Please stop this
America... the land of frivolous lawsuits. What exactly is illegal about purchasing gas-guzzling delivery trucks?