Image Source: Marks, Alexander. United States Postal Service delivery truck in San Francisco residential area. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
Under pressure from unions and environmental groups, the U.S. Postal Service just announced that 40% of its new delivery vehicles will be electric.
In April the United Auto Workers and the National Resources Defense Council sued the U.S. Postal Service over its plan to buy tens of thousands of polluting fossil fueled trucks for its fleet rather than cleaner electric vehicles. Another suit filed in April by a coalition of environmental organizations demanded a redo of the USPS’ shoddy analysis of the climate impacts of its fossil fuel truck plans. The USPS was also sued by more than a dozen state attorney generals to halt its original procurement plan.
“Public pressure works, and today’s announcement from the Postal Service is proof of that,” noted Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign.
Union and environmental advocates of electric vehicles say the USPS announcement is only a beginning: Postal fleet purchases should be 100% electric.
Something that may help realize that goal: The just-passed Inflation Reduction Act includes $3 billion for the U.S. Postal Service to purchase zero-emission vehicles.