Seventeen AGs Filed Lawsuit against USPS for Replacing Fleet with Gas-Powered Trucks

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro led a coalition of 17 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for planning to replace the majority of its truck fleet with fossil-fuel powered vehicles. The AGs argued that this action violated the National Environmental Policy Act, since USPS committed to this plan before completing its environmental impact statement, and since the complete EIS “significantly underestimates the climate impacts of maintaining a massive fleet of gas-powered vehicles for potentially the next several decades, rather than electrifying its fleet in the near term.” The complaint also emphasized the agency’s failure to consider the effects of this plan on environmental justice communities, given that many USPS distribution facilities are located in communities already overburdened by pollution.

• Documents: Complaint
• Document Type: Complaints
• States: California Connecticut Delaware Illinois Maine Maryland Michigan New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island Vermont Washington Washington, D.C.
• Agencies: U.S. Postal Service
• Issues: Clean Air & Climate Climate Cross-Cutting & Administrative Environmental Justice Fossil Fuels Greenhouse Gas Emissions National Environmental Policy Act Oil and Gas Public Health
• Era: Biden Administration
• Outcome: Pending
• Action Type: Litigation