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Controversial mail trucks

USPS sued by states and environmental groups over purchase of 8.6 mpg trucks

Lawsuits allege USPS purchase of inefficient vehicles violates environmental law.

Jon Brodkin | 406
A Postal Service delivery vehicle.
The USPS's new mail truck. Credit: United States Postal Service
The USPS's new mail truck. Credit: United States Postal Service

The US Postal Service is facing lawsuits from 16 states and several environmental groups challenging its decision to buy tens of thousands of gasoline-powered delivery vehicles instead of electric vehicles.

As previously reported, the Environmental Protection Agency says the gas-powered trucks being ordered by the USPS "are expected to achieve only 8.6 miles per gallon (mpg), barely improving over the decades-old long-life vehicles that achieve 8.2 mpg." The USPS countered that the vehicles get 14.7 mpg when air conditioning isn't being used and that the trucks' size will make it possible to deliver the same amount of mail in fewer trips.

The USPS plan is to buy 50,000 to 165,000 vehicles over 10 years. Of those, at least 10 percent are slated to be battery-electric vehicles (BEV). Amid controversy, the USPS last month said its initial order of 50,000 trucks for $2.98 billion would include over 10,000 BEVs for "specific delivery routes that present the best initial application for electric vehicles."

A lawsuit filed by California and 15 other states on Thursday said the USPS failed "to follow a process mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)," continuing:

Instead, the Postal Service first chose a manufacturer with minimal experience in producing electric vehicles, signed a contract, and made a substantial down payment for new vehicles. Only then did the Postal Service publish a cursory environmental review to justify the decision to replace 90 percent of its delivery fleet with fossil-fuel-powered, internal combustion engine vehicles, despite other available, environmentally preferable alternatives. In doing so, the Postal Service failed to comply with even the most basic requirements of NEPA.

States seek injunction

The lawsuit seeks an injunction forcing the USPS to stop the vehicle purchases "until it has complied with NEPA." It was filed against the USPS and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who was appointed by the USPS Board of Governors in 2020 under then-President Donald Trump.

All 16 states involved in the lawsuit have Democratic attorneys general. They allege that the USPS "violated well-established legal precedent prohibiting 'an irreversible and irretrievable commitment of resources' before completing the NEPA process by signing contracts with a defense company (Oshkosh Defense, LLC) to procure vehicles six months before even releasing its draft environmental review and a year prior to issuing the Final Environmental Impact Statement ('Final EIS') and Record of Decision."

The states also claim the USPS failed to consider and evaluate reasonable alternatives. "Specifically, the Postal Service did not properly evaluate several environmental impacts of its action, including air quality, environmental justice, and climate harms, by simply assuming that any upgrade to its vehicle fleet would have positive impacts on the environment," the complaint said.

States also alleged the USPS "failed to ensure the scientific integrity of its analysis by relying on unfounded assumptions regarding the costs and performance of electric vehicles, infrastructure, and gas prices, and refusing to identify the source of the data relied upon in the Final EIS."

Lawsuits in California and New York

California's lawsuit against the USPS was joined by New York State, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, the District of Columbia, New York City, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The states' lawsuit was filed in US District Court for the Northern District of California.

CleanAirNow, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club separately sued the USPS and DeJoy in the same court in California. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and United Auto Workers (UAW) sued the USPS and DeJoy on Thursday in US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

"Louis DeJoy's gas-guzzling fleet guarantees decades of pollution with every postcard and package, and we're hopeful the court will block it," Center for Biological Diversity attorney Scott Hochberg said. "The entire federal government is rushing to electrify, and the Postal Service can't be driving in the opposite direction."

EPA defended new vehicles

The USPS previously stuck with its decision despite criticism from the EPA and White House Council on Environmental Quality, saying in its analysis that the new trucks average 14.7 mpg when air conditioning isn't being used, while the older models "lack this important feature supporting carrier comfort and safety." The BEV has a range of 70 miles for a single charge, with or without air conditioning.

The USPS also said the EPA "should have acknowledged the significant size and weight difference resulting from the NGDV's [Next Generation Delivery Vehicle] purpose-built configuration, which provides a walk-in cargo area with large capacity necessary to support package growth and thus will require fewer trips to deliver the same volume of mail and packages."

Buying only electric vehicles "would result in about 200 percent fewer direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions" than under the plan to buy mostly gas-powered vehicles but "is not achievable absent additional funding," as it would cost an additional $2.3 billion for 75,000 vehicles, the USPS analysis said. The states' lawsuit said the USPS "evaluated only 10 percent electric and 100 percent electric vehicle options, while arbitrarily rejecting any consideration of fleets with a larger mix of electric vehicles."

“We must make fiscally prudent decisions”

"The Postal Service conducted a robust and thorough review and fully complied with all of our obligations under NEPA," a USPS spokesperson told Ars.

The USPS also said its initial order for 50,000 vehicles on March 24 includes a minimum of 10,019 battery-electric vehicles. The long-term contract for up to 165,000 vehicles "allows for future increases in the mix of BEVs should additional funding become available from internal or other sources, and if the use case for BEVs continues to improve," the USPS said.

The rest of the USPS statement was as follows:

The Postal Service is fully committed to the inclusion of electric vehicles as a significant part of our delivery fleet even though the investment will cost more than an internal combustion engine vehicle. That said, as we have stated repeatedly, we must make fiscally prudent decisions in the needed introduction of a new vehicle fleet. We will continue to look for opportunities to increase the electrification of our delivery fleet in a responsible manner, consistent with our operating strategy, the deployment of appropriate infrastructure, and our financial condition, which we expect to continue to improve as we pursue our plan.

Listing image: United States Postal Service

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Jon Brodkin Senior IT Reporter
Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry.
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