U.S. Postal Service going ahead with plan to buy mostly gas-powered vehicles in defiance of EPA and White House
CBSN
The United States Postal Service announced Wednesday that it will proceed with a multibillion-dollar plan to modernize its fleet of mail trucks with mostly gas-powered vehicles — instead of the electric trucks that President Biden and the Environmental Protection Agency have called for.
Mr. Biden issued an executive order in January of 2021 calling for all federal vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035. Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency sent a letter to USPS calling on the agency to conduct a new environmental review and hold a public hearing on its plan to modernize the fleet. The letter also claimed that USPS's greenhouse gas emissions calculations for the proposed new fleet were inaccurate. But neither the president nor the EPA have the authority to stop the Postal Service's plan, as it is an independent agency.
USPS announced it plans to purchase 50,000 to 165,000 new trucks, with "at least" 10% of the trucks being battery electric vehicles. USPS said this plan is "the most achievable given the Postal Service's financial condition."
