Overnight Energy & Environment — Postal Service faces ire over vehicle plans

Welcome to Wednesday’s Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. Subscribe here: digital-stage.thehill.com/newsletter-signup. 

Today we’re looking at increasing scrutiny over the Postal Service’s vehicle purchases, President Biden’s meeting with utility executives  and a push from vulnerable Democrats to end the gas tax.  

For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Write to us with tips: rfrazin@digital-stage.thehill.com and zbudryk@digital-stage.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @RachelFrazin and @BudrykZack. 

Let’s jump in. 

 

Democrats push USPS to adopt more EVs

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and climate hawk Democrats in Congress are pressing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to backtrack on the purchase of thousands of gasoline-powered U.S. Postal Service vehicles, setting up a confrontation with one of the few federal officials President Biden can’t replace at will. 

Biden last year issued an executive order calling for the federal government to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 — an ambitious goal that would necessarily require the cooperation of the Postal Service, which has the single largest civilian vehicle fleet in the nation. 

But in February 2021, the Postal Service awarded the vehicle contract to Oshkosh for a predominantly gasoline-powered fleet, and DeJoy has only committed to 10 percent of the up to 165,000 new vehicles being electric. 

So what are the Democrats saying about it? Last week, the EPA, the White House Council on Environmental Quality and a group of 17 Democratic senators and representatives called on DeJoy, a longtime donor to former President Trump who was appointed in 2020, to amend the Postal Service procurement plan to increase the percentage of electric vehicles. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.), who joined the congressional letter, also sent his own letter. 

The EPA noted that the vehicles in the contract are projected to get 8.6 mpg, only a slight change from their predecessors’ 8.2 mpg. 

Democrats, already unhappy with DeJoy, blasted the decision. 

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who chairs the House Oversight and Reform subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service, called the decision to purchase the vehicles “another reason why DeJoy was the wrong choice in the summer of 2020 and he’s the wrong choice now to lead the postal service into the future.” 

“Rather than delivering on the potential for a healthier, cheaper, and more climate-friendly fleet of mail trucks, Louis DeJoy is undercutting our government-wide goals and subverting the environmental review process,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who led the letter, told The Hill in a statement. “This is unacceptable, it’s short-sighted, and our nation’s postal carriers and customers deserve better.” 

USPS’s defense: The Postal Service has maintained that fully electrifying the fleet would cost an additional $300 billion. 

“While we can understand why some who are not responsible for the financial sustainability of the Postal Service might prefer that we acquire more electric vehicles, the law requires us to be self-sufficient,” the Postal Service said in a statement last week. 

It added that it is prepared to electrify at a faster rate “if a solution can be found to do so that is not financially detrimental to the Postal Service.”     

Read more about the situation here.

 

GASSED UP

Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Maggie Hassan (N.H.) are calling for the federal tax on gasoline to be suspended until next year amid rising prices.  

Hassan and Kelly, both of whom are facing reelection in swing states in November, introduced legislation on Wednesday that would wipe out the approximately 18-cents-per-gallon tax on the fuel until the start of 2023.  

The proposal was co-sponsored by Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who also face tough reelection fights this year, as well as Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).    

So, what is this all about? It reflects the pain that many Americans are feeling at the pump, and the fact that Democrats see this as a pivotal issue in this year’s midterm elections.  

“This bill will lower gas prices by suspending the federal gas tax through the end of the year to help Arizona families struggling with high costs for everything from gas to groceries,” Kelly said in a statement.  

Republicans are widely expected to take back control of the House, but which party will control the Senate next year is considered more of a toss-up at this point.  

Read more about their proposal here.

FOSSIL FUEL PR IN THE CROSSHAIRS

Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter Wednesday to six public relations firms, asking for details on their work with energy companies and whether they had aided them in campaigns to obscure the link between fossil fuels and climate change. 

The members specifically cited a video recorded last summer by an undercover Greenpeace activist, in which Exxon lobbyist Keith McCoy tells the videographer the company “[fought] against some of the science” and used “shadow groups” to obfuscate the link. 

The letters ask the firms in question for information on campaigns they have been awarded involving oil, coal or natural gas companies and trade associations no later than Feb. 23. 

Read more about their letter here. 

 

Biden meets utilities in BBB push

President Biden on Wednesday met with utility CEOs to promote his stalled climate and social spending bill.  

“I think this is the beginning of a — God willing — a new era in the generation of electricity,” he said at the start of the meeting.  

According to the White House, executives from power providers including Duke Energy, DTE Energy, and Exelon, as well as the president of trade group Edison Electric Institute (EEI) were expected to be part of the meeting.  

In addition, members of the Biden administration including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, National Economic Advisor Brian Deese and National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy were expected to be in attendance.   

So what’d they talk about? During the meeting, Biden asked Patricia Vincent Collawn, the CEO of New Mexico power provider PNM Resources how the spending bill would help the state deliver reliable and affordable power.  

The executive said the bill would allow the utility to be carbon-free sooner, help it securitize and achieve a “just transition” by helping to retrain coal miners.  

Biden made the case that the legislation will boost affordability, reliability and job creation, while fighting climate change.  

“It’s about reducing family energy bills while protecting the grid from extreme weather and making power more reliable, and it’s also about jobs,” he said.  

“It’s going to make us more economically competitive, while reducing pollution and improving public health and helping us meet the moment on climate change.” 

EEI President Tom Kuhn, issued a statement on the meeting, saying the company met with the administration officials to talk about the industry’s “strong support for legislation that incorporates forward-thinking actions to address climate change, including a robust clean energy tax package that will deliver significant long-term benefits for electricity customers.” 

Kuhn specifically said it would continue to support a tax credit for existing nuclear facilities, credits for hydrogen energy, as well as energy storage and transmission and the expansion of electric vehicle tax credits and infrastructure credits. 

Read more about the meeting here.

FORMER INTERIOR BOSS BERNHARDT TO SPEAK AT ANTI-30X30 SUMMIT

Former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt will join Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) at an April event opposing the Biden administration’s “30×30” conservation goals.  

The “Stop 30×30 Summit” is set to take place in Lincoln, Neb., on April 22 of this year. It was organized by American Stewards of Liberty, a Texas-based nonprofit that has pushed local and state anti-30×30 resolutions in much of the western U.S.   

The group has received funds from a number of figures and families known for bankrolling conservative causes, including Charles Koch and the DeVos family. Trent Loos, a Nebraska radio host involved with the group’s anti-30×30 campaign, has been photographed with Ammon Bundy, the militia leader who led the 2016 occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.  

 

ON TAP TOMORROW

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on clean hydrogen energy  

 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Rightwing lobby group Alec driving laws to blacklist companies that boycott the oil industry (The Guardian)  
• Florida to set goals for 100% renewable energy by 2050. But will it actually happen? (The Miami Herald) 
• Senator draws fire for blocking vote to make internment camp NPS site (E&E News) 
• EU wants pandemic treaty to ban wildlife markets, reward virus detection (Reuters)

 

ICYMI

West Virginia ends ban on nuclear power plants 

‘Double hazards’ map points to a hidden geography of wildfire risk 

More Democratic lawmakers criticize USPS plan to purchase gas-powered trucks 

And finally, something offbeat and off-beat: Party crasher. 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s energy & environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Thursday.