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“We have a statutory requirement to deliver mail and packages to 163 million addresses six days per week and to cover our costs in doing so – that is our mission. As I have said in the past, if we can achieve those objectives in a more environmentally responsible way, we will do so,” DeJoy said in a statement.
The new trucks will replace the fleet of 30-year-old vehicles that do not have air conditioning or airbags and only get around 8.2 mpg, the Post reports.
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DeJoy told the Post the agency plans to exclusively purchase zero-emission trucks by 2026.
“The $3 billion provided by Congress has significantly reduced the risk associated with accelerating the implementation of a nationwide infrastructure necessary to electrify our delivery fleet. While most of the electric vehicle funding will continue to come from Postal Service revenues, we are grateful for the confidence that Congress and the Administration have placed in us to build and acquire what has the potential to become the largest electric vehicle fleet in the nation,” DeJoy said.
John Podesta, White House senior adviser for clean energy innovation, told the Post, “I think it puts pressure on them to up their game, too … If the Postal Service can move out with this kind of aggressive plan, the public expects these companies that have made these long-term announcements to catch up in the near term.”
Companies such as FedEx, UPS, and Amazon founder and Post owner Jeff Bezos have all promised to make considerable inroads in net-zero carbon emissions in the coming years.
The Post reports that it took lawsuits from Democrats in Congress and environmental activists to change the Postal Service’s initially weak commitment to cleaner electric trucks after DeJoy’s initial plan to only transition 10% of its fleet.
“I told him that I thought the original plans were completely inadequate … I just think we thought it was critical to our success and the overall [climate change] program. So we stuck with it, pushed it, he pushed back, and we pushed back,” Podesta told the Post about DeJoy’s resistance.
Those who were once profoundly disapproving of DeJoy’s limited plan celebrated the announcement Tuesday.
“In the course of a year, we’ve gone from a USPS plan to buy trucks with the fuel economy of a late 1990s Hummer to a visionary commitment to modernize mail delivery in the United States with electric trucks … We’re grateful to the Biden administration for stepping in to put us on course for an electric future,” Adrian Martinez, an attorney at climate activist group Earthjustice, said.
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