WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Postal Service has more than 200,000 vehicles in its fleet to distribute mail, but they are old, beaten up and in constant need of repair.

While Congress recently passed a sweeping bipartisan bill to prevent the USPS from going into financial ruin, there remains a partisan divide over whether the agency should convert all of its mail delivery vehicles from gas-powered to electric.

Democrats in the U.S. House held a hearing about it Tuesday.

“There has never been a better or more important time to invest in clean energy,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, the chair of the Oversight Committee.

President Joe Biden’s administration has been trying to accomplish full electrification, but Postal Service leadership has avoided it.

Democrats have criticized Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who former President Donald Trump appointed, when he signed a multi-billion dollar deal last year with Wisconsin company Oshkosh Defense to build a new generation of mail trucks. 

But the agreement only commits to electrifying 10% of the fleet; and DeJoy’s financial connections to the company have raised questions.

“In short, the postmaster general appears to have cooked the Postal Service books to justify a multi-billion dollar investment in outdated technologies that contribute to the environmental degradation of our planet,” Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Virginia, said during Tuesday’s hearing.

USPS leadership argued it makes little sense to convert all of its vehicles to electric because of the initial cost, the need to build enough charging stations, and the terrain some mail carriers work on.

“We have 12,500 routes over 70 miles in length that are not candidates for electrification today, and another 5,000 that require all-wheel drive vehicles due to extreme climate conditions,” said Victoria Stephen, who oversees the Postal Service’s Next Generation Delivery Vehicle Program.

Republicans accuse Democrats of ignoring the financial state of the Postal Service while pursuing a climate-driven agenda, all while Congress just agreed to relieve USPS of more than $100 billion in financial obligations.

“In keeping with the majority’s pattern this Congress, today’s hearing is about how to spend more money instead of saving more money,” said Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee. 

At one point last year, several Ohio Democrats asked President Biden to pause the deal with Oshkosh Defense and investigate it. It frustrated them that electric truck company Lordstown Motors, which is in northeast Ohio, lost out on the bid.

In an interview Tuesday, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said he’s still working with the administration on it, though a pause never happened.

“It would’ve been a real shot in the arm, potentially to Youngstown, but all over the Midwest in advancing our fleet of all-electric vehicles,” Brown said.

An initial order for 50,000 vehicles was placed last month with Oshkosh Defense, 10,000 of which would be electric.