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United States Postal Service (USPS)
The USPS will scrap 512 late-1970s/early 1980s vintage postal vehicles operating in the Denver/Boulder non-attainment area, taking these vehicles off the road permanently. The USPS commits to using at least 794 alternative fuel vehicles in the Denver area and helping to stimulate the development of a public infrastructure to support these vehicles. In exchange for these commitments, the USPS will receive up to 794 emission credits from the State of Colorado. The USPS is not requesting any federal flexibility
There are a number of environmental benefits contemplated by this project. Some of these environmental benefits involve direct reductions of air emissions by replacing high-emission vehicles with low emission vehicles. Other benefits are more difficult to measure--for example, stimulating the development of an infrastructure for alternative fuel vehicles. The environmental benefits of the project are summarized below:
- A significant decrease in USPS's contribution to mobile source emissions within the Denver metropolitan area. Model year 2000 vehicle engines are inherently cleaner burning and more fuel efficient than older model year vehicle engines, that would be replaced by the alternative fuel vehicles.
- Expedited removal of 512 1975-1983 model year delivery vehicles from the Denver/Boulder non-attainment area. Vehicles will be removed from service and sold as scrap. USPS estimates that the vehicles to be scrapped travel over 1.6 million miles per year.
- Increased market demand for ethanol, both through USPS's addition of the 794 vehicles and the publicity that USPS's XL project will provide regarding alternative fuel vehicles which will provide economic incentive for retail fuel providers to provide alt fuel refueling facilities. As the commercial availability of ethanol increases, the purchase of dedicated alternative fuel vehicles, by vehicle fleets and private individuals will increase, thereby reducing mobile source emissions further.
- Reduced number of vehicle miles traveled by USPS, through the use of larger trucks (eliminating 24,960 VMT per year) and an infrastructure that will reduce trips back to a central refueling center.
The USPS will receive regulatory flexibility only from the State of Colorado through the Colorado Environmental Leadership Program. Colorado will give the USPS 512 emission credits for the scrappage of vehicles: one credit for each vehicle scrapped. The USPS can also receive up to 282 additional credits based on the amount of ethanol used in the vehicles. The USPS will receive preferred vendor status and public recognition from the state of Colorado as well as assistance in publicizing the XL project.
The organizations that participated in the development of this project include but are not limited to: Ford Motor Company, National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, environmental groups, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, State of Colorado, local ethanol production industry, and local gasoline service stations.