{"id":89550,"date":"2025-08-17T12:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T12:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/89550\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T12:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T12:58:07","slug":"republicans-look-to-reverse-course-on-postal-services-electric-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/89550\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans look to reverse course on Postal Service’s electric vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A year after being lauded for its plan to replace thousands of aging, gas-powered mail trucks with a mostly electric fleet<\/a>, the U.S. Postal Service is facing congressional attempts to strip billions in federal EV funding.<\/p>\n

In June, the Senate parliamentarian blocked a Republican proposal in a major tax-and-spending bill to sell off the agency\u2019s new electric vehicles and infrastructure<\/a> and revoke remaining federal money. But efforts to halt the fleet\u2019s shift to clean energy continue in the name of cost savings.<\/p>\n

Donald Maston, president of the National Rural Letter Carriers\u2019 Association, said canceling the program now would have the opposite effect, squandering millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be shortsighted for Congress to now suddenly decide they\u2019re going to try to go backwards and take the money away for the EVs or stop that process because that\u2019s just going to be a bunch of money on infrastructure that\u2019s been wasted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, many in the scientific community fear the government could pass on an opportunity to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming when urgent action is needed.<\/p>\n

Electrified vehicles reduce emissions<\/p>\n

A 2022 University of Michigan study<\/a> found the new electric postal vehicles could cut total greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 million tons over the predicted, cumulative 20-year lifetime of the trucks. That\u2019s a fraction of the more than 6,000 million metric tons emitted annually in the United States, said professor Gregory A. Keoleian, co-director of the university\u2019s Center for Sustainable Systems. But he said the push toward electric vehicles is critical and needs to accelerate, given the intensifying impacts<\/a> of climate change<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re already falling short of goals<\/a> for reducing emissions,\u201d Keoleian said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been making progress, but the actions being taken or proposed will really reverse decarbonization progress that has been made to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many GOP lawmakers share President Donald Trump\u2019s criticism<\/a> of the Biden-era green energy push and say the Postal Service should stick to delivering mail.<\/p>\n

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said \u201cit didn\u2019t make sense for the Postal Service to invest so heavily in an all-electric force.\u201d She said she will pursue legislation to rescind what is left of the $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act allocated to help cover the $10 billion cost of new postal vehicles.<\/p>\n

Ernst has called the EV initiative a \u201cboondoggle\u201d and \u201ca textbook example of waste,\u201d citing delays, high costs and concerns over cold-weather performance. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou always evaluate the programs, see if they are working. But the rate at which the company that\u2019s providing those vehicles is able to produce them, they are so far behind schedule, they will never be able to fulfill that contract,\u201d Ernst said during a recent appearance at the Iowa State Fair, referring to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now,\u201d she added, \u201cgas-powered vehicles \u2014 use some ethanol in them \u2014 I think is wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corn-based ethanol is a boon to Iowa\u2019s farmers, but the effort to reverse course has other Republican support.<\/p>\n

Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, a co-sponsor of the rollback effort, has said the EV order should be canceled because the project \u201chas delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Postal Service maintains that the production delay of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicles, or NGDVs, was \u201cvery modest\u201d and not unexpected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe production quantity ramp-up was planned for and intended to be very gradual in the early months to allow time for potential modest production or supplier issues to be successfully resolved,\u201d spokesperson Kim Frum said.<\/p>\n

EVs help in modernization effort <\/p>\n

The independent, self-funded federal agency, which is paid for mostly by postage and product sales, is in the middle of a $40 billion, 10-year modernization and financial stabilization plan. The EV effort had the full backing of Democratic President Joe Biden, who pledged<\/a> to move toward an all-electric federal fleet of car and trucks. <\/p>\n

The \u201cDeliver for America\u201d plan calls for modernizing the ground fleet, notably the Grumman Long Life Vehicle, which dates back to 1987 and is fuel-inefficient at 9 mpg. The vehicles are well past their projected 24-year lifespan and are prone to breakdowns and even fires. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur mechanics are miracle workers,\u201d said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. \u201cThe parts are not available. They fabricate them. They do the best they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Postal Service announced in 2022 it would deploy at least 66,000 electric vehicles by 2028, including commercial off-the-shelf models, after years of deliberation and criticism<\/a> it was moving too slowly to reduce emissions. By 2024, the agency was awarded a Presidential Sustainability Award for its efforts to electrify the largest fleet<\/a> in the federal government.<\/p>\n

Building new postal trucks<\/p>\n

In 2021, Oshkosh Defense was awarded a contract for up to 165,000 battery electric and internal combustion engine Next Generation vehicles over 10 years. <\/p>\n

The first of the odd-looking trucks, with hoods resembling a duck\u2019s bill, began service in Georgia last year.<\/a> Designed for greater package capacity, the trucks are equipped with airbags, blind-spot monitoring, collision sensors, 360-degree cameras and antilock brakes. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a new creature comfort: air conditioning.<\/p>\n

Douglas Lape, special assistant to the president of the National Association of Letter Carriers and a former carrier, is among numerous postal employees who have had a say in the new design. He marvels at how Oshkosh designed and built a new vehicle, transforming an old North Carolina warehouse into a factory along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in that building when it was nothing but shelving,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now, being a completely functioning plant where everything is built in-house \u2014 they press the bodies in there, they do all of the assembly \u2014 it\u2019s really amazing in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where things stand now<\/p>\n

The agency has so far ordered 51,500 NGDVs, including 35,000 battery-powered vehicles. To date, it has received 300 battery vehicles and 1,000 gas-powered ones.<\/p>\n

Former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in 2022 the agency expected to purchase chiefly zero-emissions delivery vehicles by 2026. It still needs some internal combustion engine vehicles that travel longer distances.<\/p>\n

Frum, the Postal Service spokesperson, said the planned NGDV purchases were \u201ccarefully considered from a business perspective\u201d and are being deployed to routes and facilities where they will save money. <\/p>\n

The agency has also received more than 8,200 of 9,250 Ford E-Transit electric vehicles it has ordered, she said.<\/p>\n

Ernst said it\u2019s fine for the Postal Service to use EVs already purchased. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut you know what? We need to be smart about the way we are providing services through the federal government,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that was not a smart move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maxwell Woody, lead author of the University of Michigan study, made the opposite case. <\/p>\n

Postal vehicles, he said, have low average speeds and a high number of stops and starts that enable regenerative braking. Routes average under 30 miles and are known in advance, making planning easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the perfect application for an electric vehicle,\u201d he said, \u201cand it\u2019s a particularly inefficient application for an internal combustion engine vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

____<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A year after being lauded for its plan to replace thousands of aging, gas-powered mail…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1927,28,1687,1685,61355,12,61354,5040,793,61359,13015,13014,3319,21485,61358,61353,61357,61356,3508,2256,111,74,10705,795,3438,800,6662,1745],"class_list":["post-89550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ap-top-news","tag-business","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-donald-maston","tag-donald-trump","tag-douglas-lape","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-general-news","tag-gregory-a-keoleian","tag-ia-state-wire","tag-iowa","tag-joe-biden","tag-joni-ernst","tag-kim-frum","tag-louis-dejoy","tag-mark-dimondstein","tag-michael-cloud","tag-nc-state-wire","tag-north-carolina","tag-politics","tag-technology","tag-transportation-technology","tag-u-s-news","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-washington-news","tag-wi-state-wire","tag-wisconsin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}