Wash. AG sues USPS over vehicle purchase

OLYMPIA — Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is suing the U.S. Postal Service for deciding in February to replace up to 165,000 USPS vehicles with gasoline-powered models rather than with electric vehicles.

Ferguson, who has filed suit against the Postal Service in U.S. Court in California, said the decision by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy violates the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to do a proper environmental review of the purchasing decision and examine alternatives, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.

“Postmaster DeJoy illegally leapt towards gas-powered vehicles without sufficiently considering alternatives. Postmaster DeJoy failed to uphold his responsibility to protect our shared environment,” Ferguson said in a press release.

Ferguson also alleges in the lawsuit that the USPS is ignoring important environmental impacst such as the effects of continued air pollution from fossil-fueled combustion engines on already-polluted poor and minority communities, the press release said.

In February 2021, DeJoy chose Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense to provide the replacement vehicles. The USPS operates a fleet of over 212,000 cars, trucks and delivery vans — one of the largest civilian fleets in the world, according to the press release.