The U.S. Postal Service is pushing back against a pressure campaign from Democrats to turn thousands of post offices into a network of electric car charging stations for the public, saying the plan would slow down mail operations and conflict with its mission to provide “prompt, reliable, and efficient postal services.”
House Democrats want to install public electric vehicle chargers at thousands of post offices, turning USPS into a nationwide charging network—a proposal that has reportedly “excited” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
“We already own the property, the postal service has these vehicles and we could make them available to the public as well,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur in 2021 (D., Ohio).
The news comes as the cash-strapped and understaffed agency has faced demands from the Biden administration to increase its investment in green energy. Last month, the USPS said it would buy over 9,000 electric vehicles for its fleet and 14,000 charging stations.
But USPS officials warned that the plan to make such stations public would “conflict with or complicate the execution of USPS’s mission” of providing timely mail services, according to a congressional report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Thursday.
“USPS officials said hosting public chargers could conflict with the high importance USPS places on reduced wait times in retail facilities,” said the report.