Multi-state lawsuit calls on US Postal Service to buy more electric trucks

Lawsuit claims USPS ignored environmental impact of new trucks

FOX 5's Katie Barlow reports that a new multi-state lawsuit filed Thursday is calling on the U.S. Postal Service to buy more electric vehicles.

D.C. and Maryland are joining several states in calling on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to buy more electric delivery vehicles.

Attorneys general from 16 states, including D.C. and Maryland, filed a lawsuit Thursday claiming that USPS did not take a legally required "hard look" at the environmental impact of their contract purchasing thousands of new gas-powered trucks. The suit is asking judges to order a more thorough environmental review before the Postal Service moves forward with the purchases.

Plaintiffs said that purchases of fossil fuel-powered delivery vehicles will cause environmental harm for decades to come. "Louis DeJoy’s gas-guzzling fleet guarantees decades of pollution with every postcard and package," said Scott Hochberg, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, referring to the postmaster general.

The Postal Service signed a contract with Oshkosh defense to purchase up to 165,000 new vehicles over the next decade. 10% of those vehicles are slated to be electric, but the remaining 90% will be reliant on fossil-fuels. The states filing the suit said that the Post Service didn't give enough consideration to environmentally friendlier options before signing the contract, which is required by law for all government agencies under the National Environmental Policy Act.

D.C. attorney general Karl Racine tweeted Thursday afternoon about the purchases of the new vehicles writing, "that's illegal and will worsen pollution in communities already struggling with environmental harms."

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said it’s key to stop the process before it’s too late.

"Once this purchase goes through, we’ll be stuck with more than 100,000 new gas-guzzling vehicles on neighborhood streets, serving homes across our state and across the country, for the next 30 years. There won’t be a reset button," he said.

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The lawsuit claims that USPS need more environmentally friendly vehicles because it "has one of the largest civilian vehicle fleets in the world," which are on the roads six days a week in every community across the United States.

In response to the lawsuit, a postal service spokesperson told FOX 5, "the postal service conducted a robust and thorough review and fully complied with all of our obligations under [national environmental policy act]."

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in California.

The new gasoline-powered vehicles are set to hit communities in late 2023. The Postal Service claims the new vehicles would get 14.7 miles per gallon without air conditioning, compared to 8.4 miles per gallon averaged by USPS's older vehicles.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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