Originally this story Appears on Mother Jones and be part of Climate table cooperation.
The Story of the United States Postal Service planned fleet of gas-guzzling trains continue.
Sixteen states and two environmental groups — Earthjustice and the National Resources Defense Council—suing the USPS to prevent buying a fleet of gas-guzzling mail trucks. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has been fired in recent months for his decision to continue with a contract for 165,000 new post office trucks—90 percent of that will run on gas and reach just 8.6 miles per gallon.
In their suit, environmental groups pointed out that DeJoy did not begin an environmental assessment of the contract until the Post Office had issued an initial $483 million payment to Oshkosh Defense, the new truck maker. The Environmental Protection Agency has argued that the review itself was flawed.
The plaintiffs wrote: “Electrifying the Postal Service fleet would reduce smoke and particulate pollution in nearly every neighborhood in the United States. “Postal delivery routes are stop and go by nature, meaning gas-powered delivery vehicles do not operate directly outside people’s homes for most of the day. This everyday pollution affects nearly every person in the country, but the harmful effects of this pollution are most clearly felt by low-income communities of color, who are often forced to breathe in polluted air. mixed pollution sources. ”
Sixteen state attorneys general filed a separate lawsuit arguing that the USPS’ plan would get in the way of their own environmental goals. “The Postal Service has a historic opportunity to invest in our planet and in our future,” California attorney general Rob Bonta, who led the states’ lawsuit, said in a statement. Father. “Instead, it is doubling down on outdated technologies that are bad for our environment and bad for our communities.”
In March, U.S. Representative Gerry Connolly, in Virginia, introduce a bill that would require the USPS to commit to providing a new 75% electric vehicle fleet, but the proposal has yet to be pushed out by the committee.
“Once this purchase is complete, we will be stuck with over 100,000 new gas-guzzling vehicles on our neighborhood streets, serving households across our state and around the world,” said Bonta. country in the next 30 years. “We will go to court to ensure that the Post Office complies with the law and consider more eco-friendly alternatives before making this decision.”
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