Washington, D.C. (May 12, 2022)— Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of the United States Postal Service, requesting information about the Postal Service’s acquisition of its Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) and urging the Postal Service to take steps to rapidly transition to an electric fleet rather than moving ahead with plans to buy tens of thousands of gas-guzzling trucks.
“Based on testimony at the Committee’s recent hearing on this topic and information obtained from the contractor building these vehicles, I am concerned that the Postal Service relied on flawed assumptions to justify the purchase of gas-powered trucks while underestimating the cost savings and environmental benefits from electric vehicles,” Chairwoman Maloney wrote.
Witnesses at the Committee’s April 5, 2022, hearing raised concerns that the Postal Service used flawed assumptions in its environmental and cost analyses to justify the purchase of gas-guzzling delivery trucks rather than electric vehicles. Jill Naamane from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified that GAO not only found the Postal Service underestimated the environmental benefits of electric vehicles, but that it used outdated estimates of gas prices, miscalculated maintenance costs for electric vehicles, and ignored the benefits of lower emissions from EVs.
Similarly, Joe Britton, Executive Director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, testified that the Postal Service’s assumptions about the cost of gasoline, the cost of electric vehicle (EV) chargers, and the range of EVs were all inaccurate, obscuring the potential savings from EVs.
The Committee’s April 5 hearing also raised troubling questions about whether the NGDV was designed to avoid emissions limits. At the hearing, the Executive Director of the NGDV at the Postal Service, Victoria Stephen, conceded that the weight of the NGDV had been set at exactly one pound higher than the weight that would subject the vehicle to strict emissions standards.
During the hearing, Chairwoman Maloney requested additional information from the Postal Service, including the analysis that was used to determine how many electric vehicles to purchase. The Postal Service has failed to produce that analysis.
“The Oversight Committee strongly supports the purchase of electric vehicles for the Postal Service’s fleet, which will position the Postal Service as an environmental leader,” Chairwoman Maloney wrote. “An all-electric Postal Service fleet would reduce costs, increase reliability, and improve the Postal Service’s ability to efficiently deliver mail and packages. Electrifying the next generation of Postal Service vehicles is also essential to achieving the nation’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fighting climate change.”
The Committee requests that the Postal Service immediately take the steps to advance the transition to an electric fleet, including a new total cost of ownership analysis and environmental impact analysis.
The Committee also requests the Postal Service provide the additional documents requested by May 25, 2022, including the complete, unredacted NGDV total cost-of-ownership analysis.