[HN Gopher] USPS sued by states and environmental groups over pu...
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       USPS sued by states and environmental groups over purchase of 8.6
       mpg trucks
        
       Author : metadat
       Score  : 23 points
       Date   : 2022-04-30 20:23 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | savanaly wrote:
       | Just tax the carbon already. The back and forth tug of war over
       | how much gasoline any entity, public or private, individual or
       | collective, "deserves" to consume at current market prices is
       | exhausting and morally asinine.
        
         | oceanplexian wrote:
         | There are too many problems with this to count, but I'll point
         | out a few.
         | 
         | First, there is no such thing as a global taxation authority,
         | so whatever carbon you tax in the USA or Europe will simply be
         | emitted by China and other developing countries, consequently
         | boosting dirty economies and kneecapping cleaner economies
         | (Actually making Climate Change worse). The second is that it
         | further enriches the pockets of corrupt politicians and
         | government institutions. The third is that it's a regressive
         | tax that disproportionately hurts the poor and working class
         | who can't afford expensive electric cars or energy saving
         | equipment.
        
       | tomohawk wrote:
       | We so badly need the "English Rule"
        
         | mindslight wrote:
         | While we do badly need the English Rule [0], this specifically
         | is better seen in light of the first amendment right to
         | petition the government.
         | 
         | [0] or really, a defensive English Rule where a losing
         | plaintiff covers the defendant's costs, but a losing defendant
         | does not always have to cover a plaintiff's costs.
        
       | noahtallen wrote:
       | I feel like this is such low hanging fruit. As the public, I
       | think it's fair to push "publicly owned" services to be at the
       | bleeding edge of new technology, especially when it could have a
       | high impact.
       | 
       | It seems like a USPS route is an awesome fit for EVs: - It can
       | charge overnight at the facility
       | 
       | - it goes pretty slow most of the time, with a lot of stop and
       | go. No need to go super fast, have excellent aerodynamics, or
       | fancy features.
       | 
       | - emissions wise, 8.6mpg is really, really bad.
       | 
       | - cost wise, paying for gas for 8.6mpg trucks is really, really
       | bad.
       | 
       | - No need for an extreme range. Just driving slowly around
       | city/town blocks shouldn't take that much energy.
       | 
       | - Lower maintenance burden for something that gets used every
       | single day should save money.
       | 
       | - More space in the truck for packages because there's no engine.
       | 
       | All of these together mean that a USPS EV doesn't have the big
       | concerns that normal consumers might have:
       | 
       | - No charging at home or at a rental place.
       | 
       | - No charging where they need to go. (USPS truck would have a
       | static route, always in range of its home charger)
       | 
       | - Crazy features high-tech cars might have. (Can be super basic.)
       | 
       | So all in, I don't get why they wouldn't do this. I just can't
       | see a world where an EV is more expensive than a gas truck. Even
       | if it's a bit more up front, they have to save a ton over time
       | with fuel and maintenance savings.
       | 
       | And it doesn't even seem like range would be a problem on the
       | vast majority of routes. I'm trying to think of an extreme route
       | length, and it can't be more than 100mi, right? That seems crazy
       | high, and is also super low as far as EV range goes these days.
       | 
       | So what gives?
        
         | ScoobleDoodle wrote:
         | It seems the problem is Republican appointed Postmaster General
         | Louis DeJoy, who has millions of dollars in investments in
         | competing companies, and is taking more self interested action
         | to tear apart the USPS from the inside.
        
         | Salgat wrote:
         | Between regenerative braking and the fact that EVs don't need
         | transmissions (which stop and go traffic is especially hard
         | on), it does seem like a no brainer.
        
         | bnajdecki wrote:
         | You're 100% right. I would like to see the reasoning behind
         | this decision
        
           | netizen-936824 wrote:
           | $$ for friends of politicians
        
       | mrtweetyhack wrote:
        
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       (page generated 2022-04-30 23:01 UTC)