Jared Huffman introduces bill to replace USPS fleet with electric vehicles

North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) introduced legislation on Monday to provide $6 billion in funding to replace at least 75% of the United States Postal Service’s fleet with electric vehicles. The Postal Vehicle Modernization Act would require 50% of medium/heavy duty vehicle purchases to be electric or zero-emission through 2029 and would ban the purchase of non-electric vehicles after January 2040.

“It’s calling for at least 75% of these vehicles to be electric, but my expectation and hope is that number would end up being closer to 100%,” Huffman told the Times-Standard on Tuesday afternoon. “If the Postal Service does that, it provides $6 billion to support this vehicle fleet transformation and also to build out EV charging infrastructure at post offices all over America.”

The legislation stipulated that the USPS must provide at least one charging station at each postal facility for use of employees and the public by January 2026.

On Tuesday, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), introduced a resolution to halt a contract between the USPS-Oshkosh and conduct an investigation to ensure the contract complies with President Joe Biden’s Jan. 27 executive order that, in part, called to electrify the federal fleet.

“The challenge is that the Postal Service has awarded a contract for internal combustion vehicles and we’ve got to unwind that,” Huffman said. “The company that they contracted with — Oshkosh out of Wisconsin — has no experience building EVs, they have not even designed a prototype EV. So, that is why we’re moving with urgency to pass this bill but to also do whatever we can to stop this bad contract from going forward.”

According to Huffman and Kaptur, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced during testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee that only 10% of the new USPS fleet will be electric.

“There was a competing bid with an American-made company called Workhorse that makes electric vehicles for UPS and light, medium and heavy-duty trucks,” Huffman said. “They’ve actually designed an EV prototype for the Postal Service that’s a working electric vehicle. They can start manufacturing pretty quickly and that makes a heck of a lot more sense if we’re serious about clean vehicles than the contract that the Postmaster General awarded.”

Reached by email on Tuesday, Bay Area USPS spokesperson Augustine Ruiz told the Times-Standard he could not comment on the legislation but was supportive of shifting towards electric vehicles.

“When the US Postal Service selected the supplier for the production of its next generation of postal vehicles, we imagined an electric vehicle future, committing $482 million at contract award to prepare for it,” Ruiz said. “The challenge remains the Postal Service’s billions in annual operating losses, which is why we welcome and are interested in any support from Congress that advances the goal of a Postal Service vehicle fleet with zero emissions, and the necessary infrastructure required to operate it.”

Huffman acknowledged that the initial price tag of an EV would be more than a non-electric vehicle but said it will “save billions” and “slash emissions” in the long run.

“The vast majority of postal vehicles drive less than 100 miles a day, they’re ideal for electric vehicles,” Huffman said. “What’s really nice about that is that the size of the battery pack doesn’t have to be supersized. If you’ve just got a vehicle that’s going to do routes of less than 100 miles you don’t need a huge battery and that saves weight, cost and provides efficiency.”

The resolution started with 18 cosponsors and has gained support from much of the House, Huffman said. The bill is endorsed by Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

• Print
• Email
• Tweet