USPS' "gas-guzzling" 8.6 mpg trucks spark investigation

Key Facts

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform said in a May 12 letter that it wants the USPS to provide more information about the service's "Next Generation Delivery Vehicle" plan, which initially involves an order for 50,000 vehicles.
The postal agency's plan to replace its existing fleet with mostly gas-powered trucks has raised concerns among more than a dozen states and environmental groups, with lawsuits filed last month that accuse the USPS of failing to meet environmental review standards.
The inquiry comes after the House on Wednesday advanced a bill that would invalidate the USPS' environmental impact statement (EIS) about the impact of the new trucks, and require the postal agency to create a new EIS before buying more vehicles, PUSHBACK COULD DELAY NEW TRUCKS The USPS said that it was "discouraged" by the bill, which it said could delay the rollout of the trucks by a year or more.
USPS Witnesses at an April hearing about the vehicle deal raised questions about whether the USPS "used flawed assumptions in its environmental and cost analyses to justify the purchase of gas-guzzling delivery trucks rather than electric vehicles," Maloney wrote in the May 12 letter.