When you are finally forced by the government to purchase an electric vehicle (that a majority of you have no interest in), you’ll have to figure out when and where you can recharge it. As you’re driving around town, you may be tempted to stop in at the local post office and hook your car up to the shiny new charging stations that will soon be installed in their parking lots. Don’t succumb to the temptation, however. Those charging stations are only going to be used for the official fleet of USPS vehicles and the hoi polloi will have to keep their hands off of them. (Government Executive)

There are too many hurdles to allow the public to use the U.S. Postal Service’s forthcoming charging stations to juice up their own electric vehicles, according to the agency and a federal watchdog, even as the agency plans to add the capacity to tens of thousands of its facilities.

USPS should, however, create plans to allow its own workforce to charge their personal vehicles at agency facilities, the Government Accountability Office said, faulting the mailing agency for failing to take a more proactive approach toward offering that benefit. Postal officials said they are open to developing the initiative down the line, but for now must focus on the agency’s needs.

As noted in the linked report, there may eventually be some private vehicles being recharged at the Post Office, but only for the employees. The public will not be allowed to use them.

You might be thinking to yourself, ‘But wait. As a taxpayer, didn’t I pay for that charging station?’ Why, yes. Yes, you did. But that doesn’t mean you get to use it. That belongs to Uncle Sam and the little people shouldn’t concern themselves with it. The GAO said that the Post Office sees “no benefit” to offering public charging.

Put succinctly, “Postal officials we interviewed did not identify any benefits to USPS of pursuing public chargers,” GAO said. Some stakeholders GAO also spoke with, however, said USPS would be offering a public good that would enhance its reputation and “community relevance.”

Ah. “Community relevance.” That should be an easy metric to calculate the next time they come back looking for another increase in the price of stamps.

So where did all of the money come from for the estimated 66,000 electric postal vehicles that are being ordered and the corresponding number of charging stations? You may not be surprised that there was three billion dollars tucked away in the “Inflation Reduction Act” for this purpose. Don’t ask what these charging stations have to do with controlling inflation or you’ll be labeled as a Putin apologist and kicked off of most social media platforms.

Some members of Congress have already raised other questions about this plan. For one thing, every Post Office will need to calculate how much of an impact all of the electricity required to recharge the vehicles will impact their budget after factoring in how much money they will save by not having to purchase gasoline. And how much of an impact will this surge in electrical demand impact the local power grid which is already strained in many areas? Nobody seems to have thought those things through.

But don’t worry yourselves over any of this. I’m sure it’s all going to work out just fine. But while you’re waiting for your electric car to be delivered, please consider signing up for one of our VIP memberships so we can keep shining a light on governmental nonsense like this. And be sure to use the promo code “SAVEAMERICA” to get 40% off.