EPA: New mail-delivery fleet needs more electric vehicles
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Postal Service plan to replace its huge fleet of mail-delivery trucks has too few electric vehicles and falls short of President Joe Biden's goals to address climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
In a sharply worded letter to the Postal Service, the EPA says its plan to make 10% of its next-generation fleet electric “underestimates greenhouse gas emissions, fails to consider more environmentally protective feasible alternatives and inadequately considers impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns.”
It called for a new environmental review, saying the current proposal is a "crucial lost opportunity to more rapidly reduce the carbon footprint of one of the largest government fleets in the world.''
A 10% commitment to clean vehicles, “with virtually no fuel efficiency gains for the other 90%, is plainly inconsistent with" Biden's plan to "move with deliberate speed toward clean, zero-emitting vehicles,'' Associate EPA Administrator Vicki Arroyo wrote in a five-page letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The Postal Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
But Postal Service officials said in a document submitted to EPA that full electrification of the 230,000-vehicle fleet would cost an additional $3.3 billion over the current plan. Money for a 100% electric fleet is included in Biden's sweeping, $2 trillion Build Back Better plan, but the proposal remains stalled in Congress because of objections by Republicans and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Biden has set a goal to slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% below 2005 levels by 2030, with a goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
The Postal Service plan to replace its aging fleet of mail...
