TRENTON, NJ – It’s no secret that Governor Phil Murphy (D-New Jersey) has used the Office of the Attorney General as a social and political weapon to push his progressive agenda, but now the governor’s administration is suing the United States Postal Service.
He’s not suing over increasing postal rates or complaints about the service. Instead, he has joined a California-led lawsuit because the U.S. Postal Service didn’t buy enough electric vehicles in their latest vehicle order.
In March, the Postal Service announced that it placed its initial Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) delivery order with Oshkosh, WI, based Oshkosh Defense at a cost of $2.98 billion. The first order is for 50,000 vehicles – a minimum of which will be for 10,019 battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
The remaining 39,981 will be gas-powered.
That decision prompted California Attorney General Rob Bonta to lead a multistate coalition, in a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service “challenging its flawed environmental analysis” for its Next Generation Delivery Vehicle Acquisition program.
New Jersey is one of 15 states and the District of Columbia to join the lawsuit. It’s not the first time Phil Murphy had his Attorney General sue the post office. In August of 2020, then Attorney General Gurbir Grewal sued the post office over the vote-by-mail election that coming November.
USPS CEO Louis DeJoy said the move is a much needed investment in upgrading the service’s fleet of vehicles, saying they increased their EV purchases from 5,000 to 10,019 to replace vehicles that are as old as 30-years-old.
“We are pleased to be moving forward with this much needed investment in our fleet,” said Postmaster General and USPS Chief Executive Officer Louis DeJoy. ”Since I came on board a year and a half ago, we have continuously evaluated and adjusted our vehicle purchase strategy based on our future network initiatives, ongoing review of BEV application to our operational strategy, and our financial outlook as we undertake our ongoing implementation of the Delivering for America plan. Based upon this work and our improving outlook, we have determined that increasing our initial electric vehicle purchase from 5,000 to 10,019 makes good sense from an operational and financial perspective. Many of our 190,000 delivery vehicles on the road are more than 30 years old and lack basic safety features which are standard in most vehicles today. The safety of the men and women of the Postal Service is our number one priority, and they have waited long enough for the NGDV. We owe it to our carriers and the communities we serve to provide safer, more efficient vehicles to fulfill our universal service obligation to deliver to 161 million addresses in all climates and topographies six days per-week.”
According to the lawsuit, the Postal Service has the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world, consisting of over 212,000 vehicles, many of which are near the end of their useful lives. The lawsuit alleges that the Postal Service’s plans to replace 90% of this fleet with fossil-fuel-powered, internal combustion engine vehicles fail to comply with even the National Environmental Policy Act’s (NEPA) most basic requirements and should be vacated.
“The Postal Service has a historic opportunity to invest in our planet and in our future. Instead, it is doubling down on outdated technologies that are bad for our environment and bad for our communities,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. “Once this purchase goes through, we’ll be stuck with more than 100,000 new gas-guzzling vehicles on neighborhood streets, serving homes across our state and across the country, for the next 30 years. There won’t be a reset button. We’re going to court to make sure the Postal Service complies with the law and considers more environmentally friendly alternatives before it makes this decision.”
“Postal Service vehicles are on the road six days a week in every community in the United States. While these vehicles play a critical role in delivering the nation’s mail, they also emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases and other hazardous air pollutants,” the lawsuit by Murphy’s administration claims.
California Attorney General Bonta, along with New York Attorney General Letitia James, is joined by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, as well as the City of New York and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, in filing the lawsuit.
The new vehicles provide postal workers with a new level of comfort and safety while reducing emissions fleetwide.
Unlike the current Long Life Delivery Vehicles (LLV) the NGDV will feature air conditioning, improved ergonomics, and some of the most advanced vehicle and safety technology — including 360-degree cameras, advanced braking and traction control, air bags, a front-and rear-collision avoidance system that includes visual, audio warning, and automatic braking. The vehicles will also have increased cargo capacity to maximize efficiency and better accommodate higher mail and package volumes.
The NGDVs will begin appearing on carrier routes in late 2023. The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its opera