Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

The Postal Service and the White House are Fighting Over How Many Electric Vehicles to Buy

White House, EPA issue sharp warnings to the Postal Service over its fleet plans.

The Biden administration is ramping up pressure on the U.S. Postal Service to buy an electric vehicle fleet, sharply criticizing the mailing agency for flouting its required due diligence and failing to adequately account for its environmental impact. 

In separate letters on Wednesday from the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency, Biden administration officials called on USPS to formally reassess its rationale for replacing 165,000 trucks and vans with internal combustion engine vehicles that have virtually no improved fuel economy from the decades-old vehicles it currently uses. Postal management’s process to date has violated the National Environmental Policy Act and CEQ regulations, EPA Associate Administrator Vicki Arroyo said.  

The Postal Service last year awarded its fleet replacement contract for the manufacturing of at least 50,000 and up to 165,000 vehicles to Oshkosh Defense. The initial deal is worth $482 million, but USPS eventually expects to spend billions of dollars on the new fleet. USPS has committed to making just 10% of the new fleet electric, though Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has indicated he would be willing to go much further if Congress provided the funds. 

EPA initially voiced concerns with USPS’ draft environmental impact statement, and Arroyo said those concerns were not addressed in the final version. The Postal Service withheld important data, declined to detail its economic and other assumptions and did not disclose specifics of the contract, she explained. Officials also underestimated the greenhouse gas emissions of the new fleet and the cost of mostly gas-powered vehicles, failed to consider all alternative options and neglected the environmental impact on local communities. 

The Postal Service’s approach prevented “the public, federal agencies, and decisionmakers from understanding and evaluating the Postal Service’s ability and flexibility to purchase additional clean vehicles,” Arroyo said. She added the proposal “as currently crafted represents a crucial lost opportunity to more rapidly reduce the carbon footprint of one of the largest government fleets in the world.”

EPA and CEQ both called on postal management to craft a new impact study that took in account their concerns. The EPA letter included a series of specific shortfalls in USPS’ existing assessment and suggested remedies. They also both faulted the Postal Service for already giving Oshkosh $482 million before it even issued an impact study, in violation of environmental laws and regulations. 

“The agency committed to walk down a path before looking to see where the path was leading,” CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory said in her letter. She called on USPS to “remedy deficiencies” in its plans, warning that it could face challenges from Congress and in federal court if it fails to do so. 

Some of the changes can be “swiftly incorporate[d],” Mallory said, while others would be more difficult to address. 

The White House and congressional Democrats have both proposed providing $6 billion for USPS to electrify its fleet, though the vehicle for that funding—the Build Back Better Act—remains in limbo. Biden has called on the entire federal government to switch to electric vehicles over the coming decades. 

Mallory noted that many of USPS’ competitors have vowed to go entirely electric and suggested that even absent congressional action, the agency should be able to move forward with purchasing electric vehicles through its cash reserves or a “credit strategy.” Postal management has warned for a decade about its low cash-on-hand, though that total has skyrocketed in the last two years and sat at $23 billion at the end of 2021. USPS is straddled with debt in large part due to missed statutorily required payments to its fund health care benefits for future retirees, but Congress is planning to vote on a bipartisan bill next week that would erase much of those negative balances. 

Kim Frum, a USPS spokeswoman, said the agency has already consulted with EPA throughout the development of its environmental impact statement and would review the agency’s concerns to see if they might “warrant further consideration.” She added, however, that management believes it has “fully satisfied” its requirements and the Biden administration is simply voicing policy disagreements. She reiterated that USPS would be willing to purchase more electric vehicles if it can do so in a manner that is “not financially detrimental to the Postal Service.” 

“While we can understand why some who are not responsible for the financial sustainability of the Postal Service might prefer that we acquire more electric vehicles, the law requires us to be self-sufficient,” Frum said. “For that reason, given our current financial condition, the total cost of ownership of our delivery vehicle fleet must be a part of our analysis.”

EPA and CEQ disagreed with that assessment and warned USPS not to move forward with purchasing vehicles before further consultation with the administration and a public forum to review its plans. 

“EPA has determined that the final [environmental impact statement] lacks disclosure of important underlying information, contains serious deficiencies, and the Postal Service should not proceed to a decision,” Arroyo said.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.