The U.S. Postal Service, which has been criticized for its plan to buy tens of thousands of gas-burning delivery trucks, estimates that it could in fact go all-electric if Congress gives it at least $3.3 billion.
That is one of the conclusions of a final environmental impact statement that the semi-independent agency released on Friday.
At issue is the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle, a truck that the service plans to start using over the next decade. During that time, USPS plans to replace up to 165,000 trucks of its 212,000-strong fleet. One of the world’s largest civilian fleets is falling into disrepair, with most of the trucks having been put into service before Bill Clinton became president.
Early last year, USPS set a course to have almost all of the vehicles run on gasoline, with 10 percent set aside as electric. In August, the Postal Service said electric versions of new mail trucks would have higher costs and were “unfeasible and impractical” for the service’s longest routes (Energywire, Aug. 27, 2021).
That plan angered some congressional Democrats who said it countered President Biden’s goal of converting the federal vehicle fleet to electric, thus stimulating the market for EVs and helping to turn the tide on climate change. In December, Biden issued an executive order asking the U.S. government to buy only EVs by 2035.