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16 states, D.C., climate activists sue USPS to block truck purchase

April 28, 2022

READ FULL ARTICLE AT » The Washington Post

Sixteen states, the District of Columbia and 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.

The suits brought by the state attorneys general, Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council contend that the mail service relied on faulty assumptions and miscalculations to justify spending as much as $11.3 billion on gas-powered vehicles that get 8.6 mpg, which is only incrementally better than the 30-year-old vehicles now in use.

Postal officials hoped the truck procurement would go smoothly and signal that the mail agency was evolving to meet new business opportunities and joust with its private-sector rivals. But the agency’s purchase plan would have only 10 percent of the new fleet dedicated to electric power, well below benchmarks set by FedEx, UPS and Amazon.

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