The U.S. Postal Service’s plan to buy more delivery vehicles is running into roadblocks.

Thursday, three lawsuits were filed by a coalition of environmental organizations and the auto workers’ union, and states attorneys generals.

The AGs for 16 states and the District of Columbia claim the USPS violated the law when it ordered thousands of new mail trucks powered by gasoline instead of electricity. Another lawsuit filed in San Francisco was filed by Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity, CleanAirNow KC and Sierra Club, and a third was filed in New York by the Natural Resources Defense Council and United Auto Workers — strange bedfellows! The plaintiffs in those two cases are demanding a more thorough environmental review of the purchases. They contend that purchases of fossil fuel-powered delivery vehicles will cause environmental harm for decades to come.

“Louis DeJoy’s gas-guzzling fleet guarantees decades of pollution with every postcard and package,” said Scott Hochberg, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, referring to the postmaster general.

Postal Service spokesperson Kim Frum defended the agency’s actions.

“The Postal Service conducted a robust and thorough review and fully complied with all of our obligations under (the National Environmental Policy Act),” spokesperson Kim Frum said Thursday in an email.

The USPS also says its purchase was governed both by its financial problems and by the need to replace its delivery trucks as soon as possible. The contract would be the Postal Service’s first large-scale vehicle purchase in three decades. Its delivery trucks went into service between 1987 and 1994.

The United Auto Workers union says President Biden had promised to advance environmental policies while increasing union jobs. The new trucks are expected to be built in nonunion factories.

The Postal Service is an independent agency that is not bound by the administration’s climate rules. It also owns more than 231,000 vehicles, one of the largest civilian fleets in the world.