U.S. Postal Service sued over massive gas-guzzling mail truck order
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EarthJustice and the Center for Biological Diversity have teamed up to sue the U.S. Postal Service over its Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) order of 50,000 mail trucks, just 10,019 of which will be electric. The order has been controversial since it was initially announced, though the USPS initially requested that just 10% of its NGDVs be EVs and has since ordered a slightly larger amount amid public outcry. That still isn’t good enough, given the Biden administration’s vow to purchase only zero-emissions vehicles for the federal government starting in 2035 and overall goal of the government hitting net-zero by 2050. The lawsuit contends that the way the USPS went about seeking to replace 165,000 vehicles was entirely unlawful because the agency failed to first conduct an environmental review.
“The Postal Service performed its NEPA [environmental review] analysis too late, and the analysis it did finally prepare was incomplete, misleading, and biased against cleaner vehicles,” the lawsuit notes. It’s easy to see how the Postal Service, which only began its NEPA process after it selected a contractor for its vehicle order, prioritized gas-guzzling vehicles over EVs. Per the lawsuit, the final EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) included high costs for batteries but suspiciously low assumptions for gas prices, as well as misleading data about EV capabilities that fail to take into account “expected advancements in battery technology over the next decade.” Because the agency was so worried about what it believed to be high upfront costs for EVs, it now appears as if it’ll be stuck with a majority of NGDVs hitting the road, and getting just 8.6 miles per gallon.
“We’re taking the Postal Service to court over its failure to electrify its vehicle fleet,” Katherine García, director of Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign, said in a statement. “Instead of moving forward with common-sense and available technology to mitigate the climate crisis, clean up our air, and create good union jobs, USPS has decided to keep polluting communities at a time when federal agencies should be leading the way on electrification. It’s an unacceptable decision, and we won’t let it slide.” Sierra Club is a named plaintiff in the lawsuit, along with groups like CleanAirNow KC. The groups are hoping that a judge vacates the USPS’s final EIS and Record of Decision and forces the agency to comply with what’s required of the National Environmental Policy Act, which would likely call for more—if not a majority—of the NGDVs ordered by the USPS to be electric.
EarthJustice and the Center for Biological Diversity aren’t the only organizations looking to sue the USPS over its NGDV order. Also on Thursday, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a joint lawsuit with United Auto Workers, contending that the NGDV order is essentially “based on an unlawfully deficient environmental analysis conducted after the Postal Service had already decided on a course of action.” “If allowed to stand, it would lock in decades of fossil fuel consumption and pollution in communities across the United States, resulting in higher maintenance and fuel costs, worse air quality, and increased climate impacts,” the suit continues. “If the Postal Service undertook a supplemental environmental analysis, it could reach a different conclusion and instead invest in much-needed EVs that would reduce air pollution, mitigate the causes of climate change, provide union jobs, and save the Postal Service money.”
Attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C. have also come together to file a petition against the USPS, similarly claiming that the agency “failed to comply with even the most basic requirements of NEPA.”