The much-reviled Louis DeJoy is actually overseeing vast improvements at the US Postal Service, including plans to purchase 66,000 electric postal delivery vans. IRA funding was essential to getting this program moving.
USPS: U.S. Postal Service Unveils First Postal Electric Vehicle Charging Stations and Electric Delivery Vehicles
[Last month] the United States Postal Service (USPS), alongside White House officials, unveiled its first set of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at its South Atlanta Sorting and Delivery Center (S&DC). Charging stations like these will be installed at hundreds of new S&DCs across the country throughout the year and will power what will be the nation’s largest EV fleet. Electrification and modernization of the Postal Service’s delivery fleet is part of the organization’s $40 billion investment strategy to upgrade and improve the USPS processing, transportation, and delivery networks.
“The improvements we need to achieve in sustainability are an integral outgrowth of the broader modernization efforts we have undertaken through our 10-year Delivering for America plan,” said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. “As we transform our operating processes and invest in new automation, new technologies, and upgraded facilities and vehicles, we will generate significant efficiencies that reduce our costs, slash our carbon footprint and minimize waste. We are grateful for the support of Congress and the Biden Administration through Inflation Reduction Act funding, which helped enable the electrification in evidence here today.”
The procurement of EVs and charging stations is enabled by the Postal Service’s overall network modernization efforts — which allow more rapid EV deployment — as well as its improving financial condition, which includes $3 billion in congressional funding appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
As part of its 10-year Delivering for America (DFA) plan, the Postal Service expects to convert approximately 400 selected sites into S&DCs nationwide. These centers — which provide faster and more reliable mail and package delivery over a greater geographic area — will serve as the local hubs to deploy EVs along local carrier routes. As of January 2024, the Postal Service has opened 29 S&DCs nationwide.
Updating and modernizing the Postal Service’s fleet will allow delivery vehicles to haul larger volumes of mail and packages. For example, the Ford E-Transits displayed at today’s event have nearly three times the cargo capacity of the Grumman LLV delivery vehicles that the Postal Service currently uses. Increased cargo capacity will reduce inefficient transportation, improve delivery operations, and eliminate the need for many second trips carriers take to deliver high volumes of packages.
Haaland to young people: Interior ‘wants to work with you’
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Thursday touted the administration’s American Climate Corps that aims to put young people to work on conservation.
With $75.6 million in federal grants, startup WattEV will build three megawatt-scale charging stations aimed at extending the range of heavy-duty EV trucks.
Clean energy contributed a record 11.4tn yuan ($1.6tn) to China’s economy in 2023, accounting for all of the growth in investment and a larger share of economic growth than any other sector.
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DeSmog
New Shell Files Could Aid Climate Cases, Attorneys Say
Shell and other oil and gas companies have been named as defendants in dozens of U.S. climate lawsuits brought by the attorneys general of states such as New Jersey, Vermont, and California, as well as Washington, D.C. and other municipalities across the country. Some of these cases have been brought under consumer fraud or protection laws that penalise companies for misrepresenting their products to the public.
The Washington D.C.-based Center for Climate Integrity, which has filed briefs in support of many of the climate cases against Shell, said that the latest documents provide further evidence that the company has known for at least half a century that its products posed a threat to the climate, as well as the grave consequences of delaying action.
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Energy & Power
Global electricity demand is expected to grow at a faster rate over the next three years as the clean energy transition gathers speed, with all the additional demand forecast to be covered by technologies that produce low-emissions electricity, according to a new report from the IEA.
Across all segments of the industry, the U.S. energy storage market added 5,597 MWh in the second quarter of 2023, a new quarterly record. The grid-scale segment led the way with a record-breaking 5,109 MWh in Q2, beating the previous record in Q4 2021 by 5%, according to a new report released.
According to Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association’s (ACP) latest U.S. Energy Storage Monitor report, the grid-scale segment drove the market and achieved 172% growth quarter-over-quarter. California dominated activity, with 738 MW and a 49% share of installed capacity.
OK, you can do it. Science Fiction fans cheer. But at what cost, compared with putting solar cells on rooftops and in deserts? It still costs thousands of dollars a kg to lift mass to orbit. A space-based solar panel array would cost at least a thousand times as much as one on the ground. Unless maybe someone figures out a realistic way to build a space elevator, projected to operate at $100/kg. Space-based solar power: Launch costs
From Daily Kos
Weekly Spotlight on Climate & Eco-Diaries (2/4/24)
New study says climate change could spread one disease that reduces world wheat crops 13% by 2050
Earth Matters: VP Harris on $1 trillion in climate spending; Michael Mann gets his day in court
As ever, that’s investment, not spending.
Earth Matters: Studies say climate messaging is an election winner, but with what specific message?
In 2020, however, there was a shift—such as here and here—to viewing climate as a winning issue for Democrats, especially among young voters. This was backed up by a Pew Research Center poll that showed 45% of Democrats and 14% of Republicans in 2010 thought climate should be a top priority for the president and Congress, while 78% of Democrats and 21% of Republicans thought so in 2020.
And it paid off, according to a report last month from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Environmental Future. If it hadn’t been for the climate change issue, the authors asserted, Republicans might have gained a 3% swing in that election. Matthew Burgess, CIRES fellow and C-SEF director, told Newsweek, "We found three things: 1) Climate-conscious voters make up roughly two-thirds of voters; 2) Climate-conscious voters strongly prefer the Democrats, all else equal; 3) these two facts combined imply that climate change opinion provides the Democrats an electoral advantage, and we estimate that, in the 2020 presidential election, this advantage was probably large enough to change the outcome in Joe Biden's favor, all else equal."
The researchers say the same concerns could influence voters in the coming 2024 election. And not just the young. Marianne Lavelle at Inside Climate News reported in December that Older Voters Are Second Only to Young People in Share of ‘Climate Voters,’ New Study Shows.
Dark Brandon is halting the biggest fossil fuel expansion on earth: Boosting Biden Day 24
Dark Brandon is Destroying Methane Emissions: Boosting Biden Day 19
Others
Major wildfires sweep across central Chile's Valparaiso and Viña del Mar regions by Pakalolo
Energy (and Other) Events Monthly - February 2024 by gmoke
CA Oil Drilling Permit Approvals Cratered In 2023 As Chevron Wells Produced Only 3 Barrels Per Day by Dan Bacher
Chevron, one of the biggest oil producers in California, has complained that state regulatory policies, such as limiting permitting, have resulted in financial losses, but new research by FracTracker shows that California oil production is no longer profitable.
Chevron Self-Inflicts Wound In CA As It Failed to Plug Low Producing Oil Wells