Last year, President Biden signed the Postal Service Reform Act which, among other things, gave the United States Postal Service (USPS) a $58 billion taxpayer and Medicare bailout.
The agency got a sweet deal with this legislation, as Congress gave it another financial lifeline without reforming the financial and accounting practices that failed the USPS in the first place. [bold, links added]
In fact, this legislation only exacerbated these problems by creating an integrated service network that gives USPS the authority to bundle expenses and earnings of its package business alongside its letter mail service, which makes it impossible to know where it makes money and where it does not.
Now, 83 House Democrats have set their eyes on their next environmentalist campaign: making the postal service’s fleet “at least 75 percent electric or zero-emission vehicles.”
At least, that’s the bar set by the Green Postal Service Fleet Act of 2022, introduced by Virginia Representative Gerry Connolly.
Earlier this year, USPS entered into a multi-billion-dollar contract with Oshkosh Defense for the production of the “Next Generation Delivery Vehicle.”
However, under Rep. Connolly’s legislation, the agency would be prohibited from implementing or carrying out the contract unless three-fourths of the fleet is green.
The Democrats’ campaign to impose the Green New Deal on USPS is not feasible and fails to make economic sense.
A March 2022 report by the USPS Inspector General makes two important points highlighting the challenges of making this environmentalist effort a reality:
(1) “The upfront cost of buying a new electric delivery vehicle is significantly higher than the cost of buying a new gasoline-powered vehicle. Electric vehicles also require the installation of chargers and related electrical infrastructure, which further adds to the upfront costs,” and
(2) “The upfront costs of vehicles and charging infrastructure are significant factors for the Postal Service as it determines the number of electric vehicles it will purchase in the future. External financial assistance would significantly change the cost-benefit analysis for the Postal Service. Congress is currently considering legislation that would help subsidize the purchase of electric vehicles and, in some areas, there will be incentives available to aid in the cost of installing charging infrastructure.”
So, when the Inspector General says that “external financial assistance would significantly change the cost-benefit analysis for the Postal Service,” what she’s really saying is that Congress is going to have to pony up billions of taxpayer dollars to make the USPS Green New Deal a reality.
President Biden’s Build Back Better plan contains about $6 billion for USPS to pay for electric delivery vehicles and for the corresponding infrastructure needed for charging stations.
Thankfully, this budget reconciliation proposal does not have 50 votes in the Senate and its chances of becoming law are slim to none.
Unfortunately, there are ongoing discussions on a narrow spending deal that doles out taxpayer funds for climate- and energy-related issues.
The Democrats’ tax-and-spend anti-fossil fuel agenda has exacerbated the inflation crisis that was caused by the trillions wasted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is imperative for Republicans to be loud and clear in their opposition to this radical environmentalist campaign: The USPS does not deserve one more cent from taxpayers and the last thing the USPS needs is a green fleet.
Read more at RealClearEnergy
So how soon will all those ploticians lead by Biden the Bungler all be using EV and live in Grass Huts?
This reminds me of Kamala’s idea that all school busses should be electric as well. She hasn’t seen the video of an electric bus fire (that I saw) in France a short time ago. That bus went up in flames in seconds because all the batteries were spread across the roof. Fortunately there were no passengers onboard at the time.
Those diesel USPS trucks are so loud I can hear them coming up to my mailbox, 100 feet from the house, even with all the windows closed. I wouldn’t mind a quieter truck with a gasoline engine.
This will result in more losses every year and the cost of stamps going to $5…each.
If we could some how harness all the idiotic ideas from the Government Burricrats we could power up the whole nation for 50 years
There are many rural routes where it isn’t practical have charging stations. I assume that is what the 25% fossil fuel mail trucks would be used for. The big problem that I’m sure those 83 House Democrats haven’t thought of is the routes where it is feasible to have charging stations. It takes 40 minutes to get an eighty percent charge. The postal worker has to be paid for that time. This means that the same routes will take longer. The extra time must be covered by over time or by hiring more people and providing them with additional expensive electric trucks. As we transition to a higher percentage of weather dependant energy, blackouts will become more common. This will leave postal workers stranded unable to charge their vehicles. The rest of the route will not get their mail. In addition, the postal worker must be paid until he returns to the station. That could be a long period covered by over time.