A U.S. Postal Service employee prepares packages for Cyber Monday delivery in the SoHo section of New York, on Monday, November 29, 2021.
Angus Mordant | Bloomberg | beautiful pictures
The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday completed the final legal request for a plan to replace its delivery fleet with thousands of gas-powered vehicles, before a decision that was met with strong opposition from the government. Biden rights and environmental groups.
The Postal Service operates about 230,000 vehicles, making up a third of the country’s entire federal fleet. Earlier this month, the EPA and the White House Council on Environmental Quality urged the Postal Service conduct more up-to-date and detailed technical analysis and hold a public hearing about its plans.
The organization has now completed its evaluation, and is set to deliver its first new vehicle next year, including at least 5,000 electric vehicles.
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump’s Allies who is nominated for this position in 2020, pledged last year to convert 10% of new trucks to electric power.
“Our commitment to an electric vehicle fleet remains ambitious given the urgent vehicle and safety needs of our aging fleet and our fragile financial condition,” said DeJoy. said in a statement on Wednesday.
DeJoy added that the Post Office could buy more electric vehicles under the plan if it gets additional funding “from internal or congressional sources.”
Postal Service’s Plan Will Undo the Biden Administration pledges to replace the federal fleet of 600,000 cars and trucks with electric power and cut government carbon emissions by 65% by mid-century.
Although the recent increase in tram In the US, the transportation sector is one of the largest contributors to the country’s climate-changing emissions, accounting for about a third of all emissions each year.
By reversing the plan and electrifying new mail trucks, the Postal Service could prevent the government from burning 110 million gallons of fuel a year, according to the nonprofit Earthjustice.
“DeJoy’s plan for the postal fleet will take us back decades to a truck that’s ridiculously fuel-efficient,” said Adrian Martinez, senior attorney for Earthjustice’s Air Rights campaign.
“DeJoy’s environmental assessment was sketchy, based on questionable calculations and did not meet the standards of the law,” says Martinez. “We have not ended the war with this reckless decision.”
“Neither rain, nor sleet, nor good financial sense will stop the leaders of the Postal Service,” said Patricio Portillo, transportation analyst at the Resource Defense Council. The United States tries to buy dirty, polluting delivery vans,” said Patricio Portillo, transportation analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement.
“For the sake of clean air and cost savings, it’s time to return this package to the sender,” Portillo said.
