The fleet burned last year 121 million gallons (458 million liters) of fuel, costing the agency approximately $1.3 billion. The average fuel consumption for a vehicle is 10.4 MPG (22.5 liters/ 100 km).
Serano, the only member of the New York City congressional delegation to vote against the 2008 Wall Street bailout bill, has introduced a bill which would eventually offer $2 billion to the Postal Service and Energy Department to convert the existing mail trucks or manufacture new ones that would use vehicle-2-grid technology (V2G).
V2G is a system in which electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles communicate with the power grid to sell demand response services by either delivering electricity into the grid or by throttling their own charge rate. In 2009, U.S. Delaware V2G users have been compensated for the amount of electricity they have sent to the grid at the same rate they pay for consumed electricity.
The USPS issued a report back in August, in which it stated that Serrano’s proposal would be feasible if the government offered funding. The start-up cost for the project would be $65 million, as Serrano aides said.
The Postal Service has been flirting with electric vehicles ever since 1899, spokeswoman Sue Brennan said. Serrano's proposal is one of several that would make the postal fleet more eco-friendly, and the Postal Service is testing several electric or hybrid vehicles, Brennan added.
At the present time, in excess of 43,000 of the agency’s vehicles can run on alternative fuels, 30 USPS vans are powered by electricity and 584 mail delivery trucks use ethanol.
“This legislation uses the unique characteristics of the Postal Service's existing transportation network to rapidly increase the market for electric vehicles in the United States," said Ruth Y. Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission.
Google News