{"id":32980,"date":"2022-11-22T09:14:51","date_gmt":"2022-11-22T14:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=32980"},"modified":"2022-11-22T09:14:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T14:14:51","slug":"senators-markey-and-carper-colleagues-call-for-usps-to-ramp-up-efforts-to-electrify-the-mail-delivery-fleet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2022\/11\/22\/senators-markey-and-carper-colleagues-call-for-usps-to-ramp-up-efforts-to-electrify-the-mail-delivery-fleet\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators Markey and Carper, Colleagues Call for USPS to Ramp up Efforts to Electrify the Mail Delivery Fleet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington (November\u00a021, 2022) \u2013 With the gift-giving holiday season approaching and Black Friday around the corner, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.),\u00a0Chair of the\u00a0Senate\u00a0Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety,\u00a0and Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, today led their colleagues Senators Sheldon\u00a0Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) in a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and United States Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors Chair Roman Martinez calling for USPS to dramatically increase mail delivery fleet electrification efforts, including the Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV), an effort that would improve service on some 177,000 routes across the country. USPS\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uspsoig.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/document-library-files\/2022\/RISC-WP-22-003.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">estimates<\/a>\u00a0that the adoption of a fully electric NGDV fleet would roughly triple reductions in greenhouse gas emissions compared to a fleet that is only 10 percent electric.<\/p>\n<p>USPS received an additional $3 billion in funds from the\u00a0<em>Inflation Reduction Act\u00a0<\/em>to invest in battery electric vehicles (BEV) and supporting infrastructure. The lawmakers urge USPS to make a commitment to increase its fleet electrification commitment to 95 percent\u00a0from 40 percent, leveraging the additional funding provided through the\u00a0<em>Inflation Reduction Act<\/em>\u00a0to not simply meet its previous commitment, but rather to make further progress towards a more ambitious benchmark. In the letter, the lawmakers also push USPS to ensure the manufacturing workers producing the mail delivery vehicles have an opportunity to collectively bargain and join a union.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWe urge USPS to use the $3 billion in new funding from the\u00a0<em>Inflation Reduction Act<\/em>\u00a0to further increase its vehicle electrification efforts and not merely spend the money on the 40-percent BEV commitment it had already made and had the resources to achieve,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>wrote lawmakers.\u00a0<strong>\u201cWith\u00a0<em>Inflation Reduction Act<\/em>\u00a0funding, USPS should aim higher and strive for at least a 95-percent electric mail delivery fleet that will reduce dangerous greenhouse-gas emissions, help usher in an era of ubiquitous clean car technology, and protect and create high quality union jobs in the domestic EV supply chain by insisting that the workforce producing the fleet affords workers the opportunity to collectively bargain.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This letter is the most recent action from Senator Markey in his push for USPS to increase fleet electrification efforts. In February\u00a02022, Senators Markey (D-Mass.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.markey.senate.gov\/news\/press-releases\/senators-markey-and-heinrich-congressional-colleagues-urge-postmaster-general-dejoy-and-board-of-governors-to-abandon-harmful-postal-service-procurement-plan-dramatically-increase-mail-delivery-fleet-electrification\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">led<\/a>\u00a0a letter calling for DeJoy and Martinez to abandon procuring a gasoline-powered delivery fleet for its NGDV. In May 2021, Senator Markey\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.markey.senate.gov\/news\/press-releases\/to-promote-environmental-justice-senator-markey-introduces-legislation-to-promote-equitable-distribution-of-vehicle-electrification\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">introduced<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0<em>Community Vehicle Charging Act of 2021<\/em>\u00a0to invest $375 million in a Department of Transportation grant program to install electric vehicle infrastructure, such as charging stations, for environmental justice communities.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/usps-news495.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-32684\" src=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/usps-news495-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/usps-news495-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/usps-news495-30x30.jpg 30w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington (November\u00a021, 2022) \u2013 With the gift-giving holiday season approaching and Black Friday around the corner, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.),\u00a0Chair of the\u00a0Senate\u00a0Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety,\u00a0and Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, today led their colleagues Senators Sheldon\u00a0Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-usps-news","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32981,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32980\/revisions\/32981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}