The current
delivery trucks used by U.S. Postal Service (USPS) went
into service sometime between 1987-1994, meaning some
vehicles have gone nearly four decades
without replacement. Now, the USPS has finally gotten
the sign-off to order new delivery vehicles! This is
good news for our postal service workers, and long
overdue. But only 10% of the proposed new
vehicles are going to be electric-powered, meaning the
rest will be running on dirty fossil fuels... until
they, too, are eventually replaced far in the
future. Given how long the USPS went without
receiving new equipment, we cannot wait any longer to
make the necessary changes to a clean energy-powered
fleet. Who knows how many years it
will be before the upcoming vehicles are replaced
again!
Another
dire climate report came out just recently, again
condemning the world's wealthiest countries for doing so
little to mitigate devastating climate impacts.
Cars and other vehicles are a major source of
greenhouse gas emissions, worsening the climate
crisis. We are running out of time to update
our infrastructure and move towards clean energy — and
every single effort counts. There is no excuse for a
federally-funded agency to be so far behind the science
on climate change. For the government to be ordering
hundreds of thousands of vehicles that are still
dependent on gasoline, an outdated and inefficient
fossil fuel, is disappointing. Sign the petition to
tell the USPS to update its contract with its vehicle
manufacturer. It must demand that a higher percentage of
its new fleet is made up of electric-powered
vehicles!
