Lawmakers: Congress will reclaim most electric vehicles in the Postal Service contract
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Lawmakers: Congress will reclaim most electric vehicles in the Postal Service contract

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

WASHINGTON – Congress plans to amend a U.S. Postal Service electric delivery vehicle contract in a way that would dramatically reduce the number of electric vehicles and increase the number of carbon-emitting vehicles built under the contract.

At a House Oversight Committee meeting on Tuesday, Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., criticized Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over his decision to deviate from his original plan in 2021 and use the Postal Service’s Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) contract To meet 90% internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and 10% electric vehicles, which is a plan closer to 70% electric vehicles and 30% internal combustion engines.

“When I came (to lead the Postal Service in 2020), we needed vehicles, the purchasing department made the selection, we ordered 50,000 vehicles on a 90/10 ratio, and I said let’s take a look at what electric vehicles do “us,” DeJoy said.

He had also faced opposition from Democrats in Congress to award the NGDV contract to Oshkosh Corp.’s subsidiary. (NYSE: OSK), Oshkosh Defense, to move closer to the goals of President Joe Biden, who issued an executive order in January 2021 to move federal fleets to zero emissions. The Oshkosh defense contract — $480 million over 10 years — is expected to result in up to 165,000 new trucks to replace the Postal Service’s aging fleet.

On Tuesday, DeJoy defended the current plan for a higher share of electric vehicles.

“I did not agree to add electric vehicles to our fleet until we had corresponding cost benefits to the organization,” he told lawmakers, noting that the cost benefit came after including more than $3 billion in vehicle and battery charging stations , provided for in the Inflation Reduction Act, “actually works for the Postal Service.”

But Timmons called the agency’s revised NGDV plan reckless and expensive. “And guess what: Congress is in the process of fixing it,” he told DeJoy, returning to a 90% ICE ratio and a 10% EV ratio.

“I look forward to working with the incoming Trump administration to right this ship and be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.” I want to protect the environment as much as anyone, but we are $36 trillion in debt US dollars. We need to be competitive in the global economy, and we can’t do that if we spend money we don’t have.”

Timmons, whose district includes the Oshkosh Defense facility in Spartanburg, S.C., where the NGDVs are manufactured, said the company told him it can “move back to 90/10; They don’t care.”

Unnamed sources claimed in a recent news report that Donald Trump’s transition team is considering terminating the NGDV contract entirely as part of a series of regulations targeting electric vehicles.

“However, I think it was inaccurate,” Timmons told DeJoy. “I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. They need new vehicles, and there is no reason why we should spend more than a billion dollars to impose a Green New Deal mandate on the postal service. I think there’s a very sensible policy on the horizon that I’m really excited about.”

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