Your mail truck is getting greener

Your guide to the political forces shaping the energy transformation

Dec 20, 2022 View in browser   By Robin Bravender Mail delivery vehicles are parked outside a post office in Boys Town, Neb. | Nati Harnik/AP The U.S. Postal Service rolled out a plan today to put more than 66,000 electric vehicles on the streets by 2028. The move is a huge boon for the Biden administration, which wants to slash greenhouse gas emissions by making government vehicles electric. USPS operates more than 200,000 vehicles — about one-third of the federal civilian fleet. So this new plan will create one of the biggest deployments of electric vehicles in the nation. The announcement also appears to end a fight between the Postal Service and President Joe Biden's top officials. USPS is planning to buy 60,000 so-called Next Generation Delivery Vehicles by 2028, including at least 45,000 electric-powered trucks. Additionally, the Postal Service plans to buy another 21,000 off-the-shelf electric delivery vehicles. Starting in 2026, USPS expects all its new vehicles to be electric. A detente? Top Biden White House officials and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy — a Trump-era appointee, former businessman and longtime GOP donor — celebrated the new plan in downtown Washington today, but their relationship hasn't always been so cordial. Less than a year ago, Biden administration officials were assailing DeJoy's plans to upgrade the agency's fleet. DeJoy announced last year that he would replace the Postal Service's aging vehicles with 90 percent fossil fuel-powered trucks over the next decade. The plan announced today marks a major course reversal. Show me the money. DeJoy said he didn't oppose buying more electric vehicles, but that USPS needed to make sure it got mail delivered while covering its costs. "As I have said in the past, if we can achieve those objectives in a more environmentally responsible way, we will do so," he said today. DeJoy praised the "collaborative spirit" of Biden officials, singling out White House aide John Podesta. Democrats, hoping to prod USPS on electric vehicles, included $3 billion for the mail fleet in the Inflation Reduction Act, the massive climate and energy legislation that became law in August. That extra cash will help significantly when it comes to electrifying the fleet, DeJoy said, putting USPS in a position to "build and acquire what has the potential to become the largest electric vehicle fleet in the nation."   It's Tuesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Robin Bravender, subbing in today for the great Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@eenews.net. Listen to today's POLITICO Energy podcast Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: Karl Mathiesen breaks down the European outrage over the Inflation Reduction Act, America's response, and how the legislation could influence European decarbonization policies. Featured story Claudine Hellmuth/POLITICO (illustration); PBurzynski /Wikipedia(A.B. Brown Generating Station); Magcom/iStock (gas flame); Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr (drafting drawings) Goodbye, coal. Hello, gas? Some of the largest coal-burning power plants in the nation are being fast-tracked for retirement and replaced in part by cheaper, cleaner renewable energy, writes Energywire's Jeff Tomich. But as they bid farewell to coal, utilities such as DTE Energy Co. and AES Corp. are proposing investments to repower plants to burn another fossil fuel: natural gas. Power Centers Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is shown speaking with reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Monday. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Capitol Hill cash Congressional appropriators released their fiscal 2023 omnibus spending package early Tuesday morning with modest spending increases for clean energy, environmental and conservation efforts, writes the E&E Daily team. The domestic spending levels include a 5.5 percent hike from last year's enacted numbers, giving EPA and the Energy and Interior departments fresh dollars before Republicans take over the House in January. Read more from POLITICO about policy provisions in the $1.7 trillion bill, and what got left out. State carbon markets  Don't look now, but the country's first- and third-largest economies are both pursuing carbon prices on industrial emissions, writes POLITICO's Debra Kahn. New York regulators on Monday approved a "cap and invest" program to slash emissions, following California's lead on a cap-and-trade-style program. New truck rules For the first time in a generation, heavy-duty truck and engine manufacturers face substantially tougher long-term emissions standards, Sean Reilly writes. EPA Administrator Michael Regan says the rules will lead to widespread air quality improvements across the United States, but some critics wanted EPA to go further.   A NEW POLITICO PODCAST: POLITICO Tech is an authoritative insider briefing on the politics and policy of technology. From crypto and the metaverse to cybersecurity and AI, we explore the who, what and how of policy shaping future industries. We're kicking off with a series exploring darknet marketplaces, the virtual platforms that enable actors from all corners of the online world to traffic illicit goods. As malware and cybercrime attacks become increasingly frequent, regulators and law enforcement agencies work different angles to shut these platforms down, but new, often more unassailable marketplaces pop up. SUBSCRIBE AND START LISTENING TODAY.     in other news Inconvenient truth? No one wants "to be the first to say it": Bill Gates tells Reuters the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is already out of reach. Missed connection: There's a bottleneck vexing renewable energy development. Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. An illuminated compact fluorescent lightbulb. | Cameron Spencer/Getty Images The Biden administration proposed new rules Monday that could mark the end of the lightbulb wars. The rules would phase out the use of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, after a yearslong political fight over eco-friendly bulbs. Democrats failed to secure any money for the United Nations' Green Climate Fund in the $1.7 trillion omnibus, in a blow to Biden's pledge to ramp up the U.S. contribution to help developing countries adapt to climate change and deploy clean energy. Louisiana is seeing a proliferation of solar projects, but they're facing local apprehension and pushback from the agricultural industry. That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.   POLITICO AT CES 2023 : We are bringing a special edition of our Digital Future Daily newsletter to Las Vegas to cover CES 2023. The newsletter will take you inside the largest and most influential technology event on the planet, featuring every major and emerging industry in the technology ecosystem gathered in one place. The newsletter runs from Jan. 5-7 and will focus on the public policy related aspects of the event. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of CES 2023.       Follow us on Twitter Arianna Skibell @ariannaskibell   Follow us

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