House panel to grill USPS on plan to buy gas-guzzling trucks
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy placed the order for the first 50,000 NGDVs on March 24; 20 percent of that purchase was for electric vehicles.
The Postal Service̵[ads1]7;s plan falls well short of White House goals to move the entire federal civilian fleet to electric vehicles by 2035. The mail agency’s 217,000 vehicles make up the largest share of the government’s civilian vehicles.
Transportation is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, and even rising sales of electrical vehicles – which account for about 5 percent of new vehicle sales – have yet to make a significant dent in the auto market. Electric vehicle proponents had hoped the Postal Service purchase would provide a boost for the industry.
Victoria Stephen, the head of the Postal Service’s NGDV program, will testify before the panel, Committee Chair Carolyn B. Maloney (DN.Y.) announced Thursday, as will Postal Service Inspector General Tammy Whitcomb.
Whitcomb’s office released a report earlier this month that found that electric vehicles would be well-suited to mail delivery duties and would save the financially beleaguered agency money in the long-term.
“It is critical for our environment and our future that the Postal Service rapidly transition to an electric fleet,” Maloney said in a statement. “The federal government should be leading the way, not falling behind private companies that are already moving forward to save money and curb climate change by electrifying their fleets.”
Key Democrats on the committee, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) and Gerald E. Connolly (VA), have previously pressed federal officials on lagging plans to electrify federal vehicles.
But postal leaders contend a largely electric fleet would be too pricey, citing the high upfront cost of EVs and associated infrastructure. The Postal Service’s environmental impact statement for the NGDVs calculated that gas-powered vehicles would be more cost-efficient over their projected 20-year life spans. Independent auto and environmental experts have said the agency’s figures are inaccurate, and that the mail service would save money in the long term on lower fuel and maintenance costs even if EVs have higher upfront costs.
The inspector general’s report backed up those arguments.
“Electric vehicles are generally more mechanically reliable than gas-powered vehicles and would require less maintenance,” the report said. “Energy costs will be lower for electric vehicles, as using electricity to power an electric vehicle is cheaper than using gasoline. Our research confirms that electric vehicle technology is generally capable of meeting the Postal Service’s needs. ”
The NGDVs are hardly an environmental improvement over the agency’s LLVs. With the air conditioning running, they get 8.6 mpg, which is an 0.4 mpg higher than the existing vehicles. Experts say the industry standard for gasoline-powered delivery vehicles today is 12 to 14 mpg.
Electric vehicles would offer 70 miles per charge, the agency said, figures that auto experts and government regulators claim vastly underestimates their capability.
When it awarded Oshkosh the truck contract in February 2021, the Postal Service said the company could convert gas-powered vehicles to run on batteries as the agency’s financial condition and EV technology improve. But postal officials have said they have “no plans” to retrofit any of the vehicles.
The Environmental Protection Agency projects that greenhouse emissions from the Postal Service’s new gas-powered trucks would total nearly 20 million metric tons over the vehicles’ projected 20-year life span, roughly matching the annual emissions from 4.3 million passenger vehicles.
In an interview with The Post, DeJoy said he was not opposed to purchasing more electric trucks, but funding for the vehicles should come from Congress and not out of the Postal Service’s accounts. He said he was focused on replacing the agency’s failing fleet, not electrifying it.
“From my standpoint, my mission is delivering mail and packages,” he said. “The policy of electrifying the fleet of the nation is a mission that I will support. But II would be negligent to spend all my money on doing that. ”
The 10,019 electric vehicles the Postal Service requested in its first order from Oshkosh correspond to 10,019 mail routes that DeJoy said he knows are a “slam dunk” for the trucks.
“That is how I make decisions as we move forward,” he said. “When I go to buy the next amount we will reevaluate.”
Policymakers across on both sides of the aisle agree that the mail agency’s aging trucks are unsafe and in dire need of replacement. The Postal Service’s fleet of “Long Life Vehicles,” or LLVs, is 30 years old. The trucks have neither air bags nor air conditioning. They’re known to catch fire after hundreds of miles of overuse.
They’re also unfit for the Postal Service’s changing business. DeJoy has positioned the agency to compete more heavily on package shipping with such competitors as UPS, FedEx and Amazon, whose founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. LLVs are far too small to handle the Postal Service’s pandemic influx of parcels. And where the agency’s mail business has declined by 45 percent since 2008, its package business has more than doubled. NGDVs have far more cargo area to hold packages.
Congressional appropriators are split on how – or whether – to fund the new postal fleet. The mail agency has roughly $ 24 billion of cash after lawmakers in 2020 approved an emergency $ 10 billion pandemic grant. And Congress in March voted to overhaul the agency’s finances, relieving it of $ 107 billion in past-due amounts and future payments.
Republicans, loath to approve spending for President Biden’s climate goals, have said DeJoy should press on with his mainly gas-powered fleet. Democrats appear to be split between authorizing more funds for electric NGDVs and battery charging stations, and encouraging the Postal Service to spend the money it already has.
The Biden administration’s original “Build Back Better” social spending package contained $ 6 billion for electric postal trucks and battery chargers. Biden’s 2023 budget proposal includes $ 300 million for electric mail vehicles and charging stations.
“The Postal Service has like a quarter million vehicles today, and all those vehicles rely upon an infrastructure that currently exists, which is get gas and diesel fuel vehicles,” Kan said. “If we buy 10,000 electric vehicles and we deploy them to Montana or to some rural parts of the country, there may not be the electrification of the grid to support these vehicles.”
“The biggest pitfall in any longstanding procurement is rushing too fast ahead and getting ahead of the capability of your organization to absorb the technology,” Tangherlini added. “So what I would like to understand is how has the Postal Service plans for the accommodation of a change in this technology?”
Anna Phillips contributed to this report.