US post goes for green fleet

Greenbang has read reviews of the US postal service in Bill Bryson’s Notes From A Big Country.  It didn’t fare well, but the huge organisation did give out cookies in a customer appreciation day, so it’s not all bad.

Greenbang is trying to cut down on buscuits so wasn’t impressed by that.  But she is quite intrigued by a press release that’s being posted across the web, here on Reuters.

The release, outlines that the service is announcing a ‘testing strategy’ tomorrow at the same time as launching of a hydrogen fuel cell delivery vehicle from GM.  Not bad, especially as it has nearly 200 thousand vehicles.

The full announcement will be made tomorrow evening (UK time) so as yet, the USPS hasn’t outlined how this hydrogen will be generated, but we will be keeping an eye out for it.  Greenbang does, however, doubt that it will be powered by 100pc renewable energy and, as such, would like proof of the statement “no ill effects on the environment and their only emission is water”.

A snippet from the release:

What: The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will outline its strategy for converting to an environmentally friendly, non-petroleum based alternative fuel vehicle fleet to replace 195,000 delivery vehicles and will announce an alternative fuel vehicle test.

Background: On July 23, General Motors will turn over the keys of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell (HFC) vehicle to the USPS for testing in a mail delivery environment. HFC vehicles are unique in that they are battery powered and have no ill effects on the environment and their only emission is water.

The USPS’s director of R&D will outline the strategy for testing alternate fuel vehicles and for converting to a green delivery fleet.  A one-cent increase in a gallon of fuel annually adds $8 million to USPS expenses. Fuel costs last year were $1.7 billion. This year’s will increase by $600 million.