On May 8, President Trump announced General Motors’ intention to sell its Lordstown Assembly plant to the Cincinnati-area Workhorse Group (a company that reported revenues of just $763,173 in 2018 and a net loss of $36.5 million) to build electric trucks. The deal is contingent on a multi-billion dollar potential agreement with the USPS to buy a “green” new fleet. While this may sound like good news to Ohioan plant workers, the USPS (and, yes, taxpayers) would stand to lose billions of dollars from a needlessly-expensive new fleet. There are better ways to bring automotive jobs to the heartland than gouging taxpayers and further worsening USPS finances.
Any sober-minded company would use the opportunity to purchase a new, economical fleet that gets employees and products from point A to point B with minimal disruption to delivery chains. Unfortunately, the USPS has a stated preference for hybrid or alternative fuel capabilities and has requested that half of all prototypes be “green” vehicles. A January report by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance estimates that this preference “would cost the agency an addition $172.41 million per year over its slated $821 million annual expenditure over the next decade to acquire new vehicles.”