FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 10/13/2021

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, the Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) submitted a public comment regarding the United States Postal Service’s (USPS) draft environmental impact statement (DEIS). The DEIS evaluated the USPS’s decision to procure a new fleet of next-generation delivery vehicles composed of 90% internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) and merely 10% battery electric vehicles (BEVs). 

“The USPS DEIS demonstrates an illogical commitment to ICEVs over BEVs that hinges on incorrect information,” said Joe Britton, the Executive Director of ZETA. “The DEIS is a bad-faith analysis, and we urge the USPS to resubmit its DEIS after correcting its factual inconsistencies, errors, and omissions. The USPS should electrify their fleet to align with the Biden Administration’s stated goals and accrue real savings and emissions reduction.”

“The USPS cherry picked their models and data in order to weave a narrative justifying backward-looking technology,” Britton continued. “The USPS’s DEIS shows a clear bias against electrification by excluding data, relying on unrealistic assumptions, and mistaking simple facts. The USPS’s preference to procure an overwhelmingly polluting fleet will leave Americans worse off by ignoring the crucial cost savings, public health benefits, and necessary greenhouse gas emissions reduction that electrification will bring.”

ZETA released a statement analyzing the myriad issues in the USPS’s DEIS when the DEIS was first published. In recent months, ZETA has strongly criticized Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s decision to sign a $6 billion contract with Oshkosh Defense – a military defense contractor – to deliver gas-powered vehicles, which will lock the USPS into a carbon-intensive fleet for decades to come, despite President Biden’s executive order calling for USPS electrification. ZETA also outlined a roadmap for USPS electrification and endorsed the Postal Service Vehicle Modernization Act, which would provide an additional $6 billion for the USPS should they commit to electrifying at least 75% of the delivery fleet – a feasible fleet makeup even by the USPS’s own assumptions. This bill would give the USPS more funding for electrification than Postmaster DeJoy has previously estimated is necessary to electrify the fleet.
‍

About ZETA‍

The Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) is a federal coalition focused on advocating for 100% EV sales by 2030. ZETA is committed to enacting policies that drive EV adoption, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, secure American global EV manufacturing dominance, drastically improve public health, and significantly reduce carbon pollution.