My new post: US Postal Service trucks average 28 years old & badly need to be replaced. Electric mail trucks would be cheaper to fuel, easier to maintain, & produce radically less noise, air, & carbon pollution. Sounds like some good stimulus spending! vox.com/energy-and-env…
The Postal Service is the single most popular agency in the US federal government. I wonder how many Americans know that Republicans are about to -- intentionally, knowingly -- allow it to go bankrupt and crumble entirely.
1. Since I'm given to believe that not everyone reads entire articles (shame on you), here's a quick thread drawing on my piece: reasons electric vehicles would work well for the Postal Service.
2. Internal combustion engines run on a series of explosions, which waste a ton of energy as waste heat. The conversion of electricity to movement is about 90-95% efficient; converting liquid fuels to movement tops out at 40-45%, usually much lower.
3. Consequently, electricity is a cheaper vehicle fuel, everywhere, already. Says the DOE: “On a national average, it costs less than half as much to travel the same distance in an EV than a conventional vehicle.” USPS could save several hundred million $$$/year on fuel costs.
4. EVs have greater torque than ICE vehicles -- they are way faster off the line. Also, they can generate energy for themselves through regenerative braking. EVs are perfect for stop&start driving. Hm, what vehicles need to start quickly & stop a lot? Mail trucks!
5. EVs are quieter than ICE trucks and emit zero air pollutants. Electric mail trucks would reduce noise & air pollution in *every district in the country*. As public spending goes, it would be massively egalitarian.
6. EVs also emit less greenhouse gases than ICE trucks. And yes, before you start, that's true *everywhere in the country*, today, already, even in places with carbon-intensive grids. It will only be more true as the grid gets cleaner in coming years.
7. EVs contain fewer mechanical parts, in less direct contact (also: no explosions!), so they are much, much cheaper & easier to maintain. That's not nothing for an agency with a bunch of 30yo trucks & a $2 BILLION annual maintenance bill.
8. Didn't address this in the post, but yes, I'm aware no EV battery is likely to last 30 years. We don't really yet have a great sense of average battery life (original Teslas are still going), but a) batteries can be easily switched out & b) they are always improving.
9. A giant fleet of EVs will need charging infrastructure, which doesn't exist in many places (esp. rural places). But this is an opportunity, not a limitation. Imagine if we installed chargers at every PO in the country & made them available to the public at cheap/flat rates!
10. It would radically increase the confidence of potential EV buyers. And just in general, exposing every single American to EVs & EV chargers (via their friendly neighborhood mail carrier) would prove an enormous accelerant to EV familiarity & adoption.
11. Electric mail trucks (like electric city & school buses) are a no-brainer, generating social benefits wildly out of scale with their cost. The only barrier is money: to wit, the USPS doesn't have any.
12. As it happens, though, we're in the middle of a historic depression, resources are sitting idle, borrowing is cheap AF, and every single economist says the feds need to inject massive amounts of capital into the economy. Again: big spending is not a problem, it's *the point*.
13. The feds paying the upfront costs to convert the USPS fleet to EVs would pay itself back in operational savings, help save the USPS from bankruptcy, boost jobs & domestic industries, and improve public health in every corner of the country. Plus it would just be cool as shit.
14. Sadly, Trump & Republicans are in power. Trump hates the USPS because he's scared of voting by mail. Rs hate the USPS because it's a constant reminder of the potential of good government. So this probably won't happen; they'll probably let USPS die. ☠️ </fin>
Trump wants to use an emergency loan to break the Postal Service union, stock USPS leadership with cronies, and force the agency to raise package-shipping prices (which every independent analyst says would hurt USPS business). washingtonpost.com/business/2020/…
