The USA Postal Service introduced Wednesday that it's going to proceed with a multibillion-dollar plan to modernize its fleet of mail vans with largely gas-powered automobiles — as a substitute of the electrical vans that President Biden and the Environmental Safety Company have referred to as for.
Mr. Biden issued an government order in January of 2021 calling for all federal automobiles to be zero-emission by 2035. Earlier this month, the Environmental Safety Company despatched a letter to USPS calling on the company to conduct a brand new environmental assessment and maintain a public listening to on its plan to modernize the fleet. The letter additionally claimed that USPS's greenhouse fuel emissions calculations for the proposed new fleet have been inaccurate. However neither the president nor the EPA have the authority to cease the Postal Service's plan, as it's an impartial company.
USPS introduced it plans to buy 50,000 to 165,000 new vans, with "at the least" 10% of the vans being battery electrical automobiles. USPS mentioned this plan is "essentially the most achievable given the Postal Service's monetary situation."
The bulk gas-powered mail fleet that Postmaster Basic and USPS Chief Government Officer Louis DeJoy plans to buy can have an improved gasoline effectivity of simply .4 mpg over the present fleet, which is sort of 30 years outdated, in accordance with The Washington Publish.
DeJoy mentioned in a press release that "the women and men of the U.S. Postal Service have waited lengthy sufficient for safer, cleaner automobiles to satisfy on our common service obligation to ship to 161 million addresses in all climates and topographies six days per-week."
Mark Guilfoil, USPS' vp for provide administration, added that the company "decided that EPA's request for a supplemental EIS [environmental impact statement] and public listening to wouldn't add worth to the Postal Service's already year-long assessment. Additionally it is necessary to notice that a supplemental EIS and public listening to usually are not legally required."
Some environmental advocates disagreed with the Postal Service's evaluation.
"DeJoy's environmental assessment is rickety, based on suspect calculations, and fails to fulfill the requirements of the regulation. We're not executed combating this reckless choice," Adrian Martinez, senior lawyer for Earthjustice, a nonprofit that focuses on litigating local weather points, mentioned in a press release.
Earthjustice additionally claimed that the brand new gas-powered vans worsen fuel mileage — 8.6 mpg — than the present vans obtained after they have been new.