Democrats Want Investigation Into Postal Service’s Gas Guzzlers Contract

WASHINGTON — A gaggle of Home Democrats known as Monday for an investigation into a call by Postmaster Basic Louis DeJoy to buy as much as 165,000 gasoline-powered mail vehicles over the Biden administration’s objections that the multibillion-dollar contract would undermine the nation’s local weather targets.

The contract, price as much as $6 billion over 10 years, can be the Postal Service’s first large-scale car buy in three a long time.

In a letter to United States Postal Service Inspector Basic Tammy Whitcomb, lawmakers questioned whether or not the Postal Service had complied with a legislation requiring environmental critiques of main federal actions.

Each the Environmental Safety Company and the White Home Council on Environmental High quality have stated that the Postal Service had made the incorrect resolution to purchase gasoline powered vehicles based mostly on a flawed environmental evaluation.

The Postal Service estimated that the brand new automobiles would get 29.9 miles per gallon. A separate evaluation by the Environmental Safety Company discovered the automobiles might obtain lower than half that: simply 14.7 miles per gallon. And with the air-conditioning working, the brand new vehicles would solely get 8.6 miles per gallon, the E.P. A. stated.

The E.P.A. stated the evaluation didn’t take into account any possible alternate options to gas-powered automobiles and that the Postal Service issued a contract for the automobiles earlier than even finishing its flawed evaluation.

Carolyn Maloney, the chairwoman of the Home Committee on Oversight and Reform, and different Democrats on the panel requested Ms. Whitcomb to find out if the Postal Service made “inaccurate or unproven assumptions” concerning the environmental impression of combustion engine automobiles, together with underestimating their greenhouse gasoline emissions.

“Postal automobiles serve a public objective — serving to to ship the mail six days every week throughout the US — and should accomplish that in an environmentally sound method,” the lawmakers wrote.

President Biden has ordered all federal companies to section out the acquisition of gasoline-powered automobiles and purchase solely zero-emissions vehicles and vehicles by 2035 as a part of his agenda to hurry the transition away from fossil fuels and deal with local weather change. The Postal Service, nonetheless, is an unbiased company that’s not certain by the administration’s local weather guidelines.

The Postal Service owns greater than 231,000 automobiles, one of many largest civilian fleets on the earth. The distinctive white, crimson and blue vehicles roam the nation from congested cities to quiet rural cities. An all-electric fleet wouldn’t solely ship environmental advantages and assist an rising manufacturing sector, however function a strong image of an administration that’s decided to hurry the transition away from fossil fuels.

The Postal Service has argued it couldn’t afford an all-electric fleet and that 10 % of the brand new vehicles can be electrical whereas 90 % can be gasoline-powered.

Sue Brennan, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service, stated in an announcement that the company is dedicated to electrifying its fleet and stated it would “proceed to pursue the acquisition” of extra electrical automobiles as its monetary place improves.”

The Construct Again Higher Act, Mr. Biden’s centerpiece legislative agenda, consists of about $6 billion to assist the Postal Service pay for electrical automobiles and charging stations. That invoice is stalled in Congress.

Environmental teams and different authorities companies have known as the Postal Service’s resolution flawed, saying it depends on unrealistic assumptions — like gasoline at $2.19 a gallon. That’s properly beneath the $4.33 common gasoline value People are paying within the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however it’s also far decrease than the typical pump value earlier than the battle.

Congress earlier this month permitted a $107 billion monetary overhaul of the Postal Service, and it presently is awaiting Mr. Biden’s signature. Neither the Home nor Senate model, each of which handed with broad bipartisan help, included amendments that might pressure a change within the company’s truck contract.