- NFL QB EPA rankings: Baker Mayfield and Deshaun Watson are on diverging paths The Athletic
- 2023 Week 3 NFL QB Power Rankings: Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa, Packers’ Jordan Love setting bar for young QBs CBS Sports
- SEC QB Power Rankings, Week 4: Jaxson Dart justified his existence as Ole Miss’ QB1. Is he ready for his date with Alabama? Saturday Down South
- NFL Week 3 Quarterback Rankings: Justin Fields Craters As Geno Smith Rises Sports Illustrated
- College Football QB Power Rankings: Shedeur Sanders enters top three, Caleb Williams regains top spot CBS Sports
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Tag Archives: EPA
NFL QB EPA rankings: From Tua Tagovailoa to Joe Burrow and everyone in between – The Athletic
- NFL QB EPA rankings: From Tua Tagovailoa to Joe Burrow and everyone in between The Athletic
- 2023 NFL QB Power Rankings, Week 2: Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence enters top five; Packers’ Jordan Love surges CBS Sports
- 2023 NFL Week 2 Quarterback Rankings: Mahomes Still on Top Despite Loss Sports Illustrated
- NFL Week 2 Analytical Quarterback Rankings: Tua Tagovailoa’s electric Week 1 performance vaults him to the top of the ranking | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics Pro Football Focus
- NFL QB Rankings, Week 1: Advanced stats say 2023’s most efficient quarterback is … Jordan Love? For The Win
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EPA says it will support East Palestine, Ohio, through the cleanup following the toxic train wreck. Here’s what it’s demanding – CNN
- EPA says it will support East Palestine, Ohio, through the cleanup following the toxic train wreck. Here’s what it’s demanding CNN
- EPA chief, Ohio governor drink tap water near train derailment site after heavy criticism Fox News
- East Palestine Makeshift Clinic Booked Solid as Resident Symptoms Persist Rolling Stone
- East Palestine derailment: How should Norfolk Southern, politicians help The Columbus Dispatch
- Brad Martin and Aaron Clark-Ginsberg: The East Palestine derailment is the real threat to national security, not a Chinese balloon Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
EPA vetoes Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay to protect salmon
It’s the latest in a series of moves from the federal government and Alaska Native groups that could doom a project to tap ore once valued at $300 billion to $500 billion. The EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — under first the Trump and then the Biden administrations — have both now rejected the development, creating multiple barriers to reviving it that experts say will be difficult to overcome.
Earlier, Obama officials also took action to block the mine, telling the company it could not apply for permits.
“It’s hard for me to imagine a court [overturning] that kind of double shot,” said Bob Perciasepe, a former acting EPA administrator during the Obama administration who also led the air and water divisions during the Clinton administration. “The amount of money that the company would have to continue to be able to put forward to keep the thing active seems difficult.”
Executives at the Pebble partnership — the sole asset of Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty Minerals, Ltd. — said they would continue on.
“Unfortunately, the Biden EPA continues to ignore fair and due process in favor of politics,” John Shively, the partnership’s chief executive, said in a statement. “This preemptive action against Pebble is not supported legally, technically, or environmentally. As such, the next step will likely be to take legal action to fight this injustice.”
Others declared the project to be history.
“This is the final nail in the coffin for the Pebble Mine,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash). She added the mine “would have devastated Bristol Bay salmon” and the thousands of families that depend on that fishery.
On average, the vast expanse of Bristol Bay sustains an annual run of 37.5 million sockeye salmon, supporting a $2 billion commercial fishing industry as well as a way of life for Alaska Natives. EPA Administrator Michael Regan called it an “irreplaceable and natural wonder.”
The new EPA protections prohibit Pebble’s developers or other similar miners from dumping mine waste into three smaller watersheds that are part of the Bristol Bay network. That is necessary to protect both the region’s fisheries and its culture, the agency said.
Environmentalists and Native groups, which first sought the move more than a decade ago, cheered it this week. Alaska Native groups have vigorously opposed construction and want the developers to abandon the project to protect the local fishing industry and land they consider sacred.
“Today’s announcement is historic progress,” said Alannah Hurley, executive director of United Tribes of Bristol Bay, a consortium of tribal governments.
Pebble Limited is entering its third year appealing the Army Corps’ decision from November 2020 to reject permits for the mine site. It has received support from Alaskan leaders, with Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) previously threatening to sue the EPA if it made its own move to more broadly reject mining in the area.
“EPA’s veto sets a dangerous precedent,” Dunleavy said in a statement anticipating the decision. “It lays the foundation to stop any development project, mining or non-mining, in any area of Alaska with wetlands and fish-bearing streams. My Administration will stand up for the rights of Alaskans, Alaska property owners, and Alaska’s future.”
The Biden administration also came under fire a week ago from Alaskan leaders for its decision to block logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The EPA’s Regan said the agency does not want to hinder economic development in the state and that its Bristol Bay decision is limited to a small, uniquely special area.
The agency invoked a rarely-used authority under the Clean Water Act — often referred to as its veto power — to limit mining within Pebble’s 308-square-mile proposed footprint. While the agency can use this power to block specific projects or permits, it can also more broadly block development across a sensitive area, which is what the agency is doing in Bristol Bay. It is only the third time in 30 years the agency has invoked this power, Regan said.
“As a source of food and jobs, and a means of preserving sacred indigenous customs and practices, Bristol Bay supports the livelihoods of so many,” Regan said in a call with reporters. He said this final action demonstrates the administration’s commitment to “safeguarding our nation’s indispensable natural resources and protecting the livelihoods of those who so deeply depend on the health and well-being of these magnificent waters.”
Environmentalists said they plan to continue asking Congress for further protections for Bristol Bay and its fisheries. Without them in law, and if the developer and state keep pressing for permits, a future administration could still ultimately reverse the decisions from the EPA and the Army Corps.
“It’s time for us to work for lasting protections for the entire Bristol Bay watershed that match the scope of the threat to this special place,” Chris Wood, president of the conservation group Trout Unlimited, said in a statement.
Oil removal effort for Keystone pipeline spill to extend to next week, U.S. EPA says
Dec 9 (Reuters) – The effort to remove oil from the largest crude spill in the United States in nearly a decade will extend into next week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday, making it likely that the Keystone pipeline shutdown will last for several more days.
TC Energy (TRP.TO) shut the largest oil pipeline to the United States from Canada on Wednesday after it leaked 14,000 barrels of oil into a Kansas creek. It said on Friday it is still determining when it will be able to return the line to service.
The outage on the Keystone, which carries 622,000 barrels of Canadian crude per day (bpd) to various parts of the United States, could affect inventories at the key Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub and cut crude supplies to two oil refining centers, analysts said. Crews in Kansas continued clean-up efforts on Friday from the breach, the cause of which remained unknown.
“We’re beginning to get a better sense of the clean up efforts that will need to be undertaken in the longer-term,” said Kellen Ashford, spokesperson for the EPA Region 7, which includes Kansas.
TC Energy aims to restart on Saturday a pipeline segment that sends oil to Illinois, and another portion that brings oil to Cushing on Dec. 20, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources. Reuters has not verified those details.
This is the third spill of several thousand barrels of crude on the pipeline since it first opened in 2010. A previous Keystone spill had caused the pipeline to remain shut for about two weeks.
TC Energy remained on site with around 100 workers leading the clean-up and containment efforts, and the EPA was providing oversight and monitoring, Ashford said. TC is responsible for determining the cause of the leak.
A corrective action order from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration (PHMSA) to TC on Thursday said the company shut the pipeline down seven minutes after receiving a leak detection alarm. The affected segment, 36 inches (91 cm) in diameter, was Keystone’s Phase 2 extension to Cushing built in 2011.
Washington County, a rural area of about 5,500 people, is about 200 miles (320 km) northwest of Kansas City.
The oil spill has not threatened the local water supply or forced local residents to evacuate, Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Randy Hubbard told Reuters. Workers quickly set up a containment area to restrict oil that had spilled into a creek from flowing downstream.
“There is no human consumption drinking water that would come out of this,” Hubbard said.
Livestock producers in the area have been notified and have taken their own corrective measure to protect their animals, he added.
The EPA is the main federal agency that oversees inland oil spills. If the EPA finds TC Energy liable for the spill, the company would be responsible for the cost of cleanup and repairing any harm to the environment, as well as potential civil and criminal penalties.
Pipeline operators are typically held accountable for breaches by the EPA through the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the related Oil Pollution Act, among others, according to Zygmunt Plater, an environmental law professor at Boston College Law School.
Those federal acts restrict the discharge of pollutants such as oil into waterways and hold pipeline operators responsible for the costs associated with containment, cleanup and damages from spills.
CRUDE BOTTLENECK
A lengthy shutdown of the pipeline could also lead to Canadian crude getting bottlenecked in Alberta, and drive prices at the Hardisty storage hub lower, although price reaction on Friday was muted.
Western Canada Select (WCS), the benchmark Canadian heavy grade, for December delivery last traded at a discount of $27.70 per barrel to the U.S crude futures benchmark, according to a Calgary-based broker. On Thursday, December WCS traded as low as $33.50 under U.S. crude, before settling at around a $28.45 discount.
PHMSA has to approve the restart of the line. Even once the pipeline starts operating again, the affected area will have to flow at reduced rates pending PHMSA approval.
“The real impact could come if Keystone faces any pressure restrictions from PHMSA, even after the pipeline is allowed to resume operations,” said Ryan Saxton, head of oil data at Wood Mackenzie.
Additional reporting by Arathy Somasekhar, Rod Nickel, Stephanie Kelly and Clark Mindock; Editing by Marguerita Choy
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Chief Justice John Roberts joins with liberals to criticize ‘shadow docket’ as court reinstates Trump-era EPA rule
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s liberal justices in dissent, arguing that the court’s majority had “gone astray” by granting an unwarranted request on its emergency docket.
“That renders the Court’s emergency docket not for emergencies at all,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the four dissenters. She said that the Republican-led states and others that had petitioned the court for emergency relief had not shown they would suffer the necessary irreparable harm to make their case.
“This Court may stay a decision under review in a court of appeals only in extraordinary circumstances and upon the weightiest considerations,” Kagan wrote. She said the challengers’ request for a stay rested on “simple assertions — on conjectures, unsupported by any present-day evidence.”
The majority’s move, Kagan insisted, signals the court’s view of the merits even though the applicants have failed to make the irreparable harm showing “we have traditionally required.”
The emergency docket, she said, “becomes only another place for merits determination — except without full briefing and argument.”
The five conservative justices did not explain their reasoning for reinstating the Trump-era rule.
The emergency docket — referred to by some justices and outside observers as the “shadow docket” — has increasingly come under criticism by those who say that important issues are being resolved without the benefit of full briefing schedule and oral arguments.
While the court’s liberals, especially Kagan, have often criticized the use of emergency petitions, this is the first time Roberts has explicitly joined in.
“We’ve seen Chief Justice Roberts join the Democratic appointees in dissenting from some of the Court’s prior shadow docket rulings,” said Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law, who is penning a book on the shadow docket. “But today’s ruling is the first time he’s joined in publicly criticizing the majority for how it is using and abusing the shadow docket. That’s a pretty significant development, and a strong signal for the Court’s de facto leader to be sending.”
In the dissent, Kagan wrote that the challengers had failed to offer “concrete proof” that they would be harmed if the Environmental Protection Agency rule were not reinstated. She noted specifically that they had waited five months after the lower court vacated the rule to make their request. In addition, she said, a federal appeals court is set to hear the dispute next month and that the rule that is currently in place had previously been on the books for some 50 years.
Last September, conservative Justice Samuel Alito launched a 10-point rebuttal in an unusual speech, defending the court’s practice when it comes to the emergency docket. He said the complications surrounding the emergency requests and said that the justices do “the best we can” under the time constraints imposed by the situation. Alito called criticism “very misleading,” stressing that there is “absolutely nothing new about emergency applications.”
The court’s order on Wednesday reinstates a rule that restricts the authority of states under the Clean Water Act to reject federal permits for projects that affect waters within their borders. The Trump-era rule will go back into effect while the Biden administration issues a new rule which is expected to be finalized by spring 2023.
It is a loss for more than 20 Democratic-led states, the District of Columbia, environmental groups and tribes that challenged the rule put in place by the Trump administration in 2020. They said it limited the abilities of states and local communities to weigh in on projects that could harm their communities. Challengers said the Trump rule could lead to projects — such as a strip mall on a wetland, a hydroelectric project or oil and gas pipelines — that could alter waterways without input from the state.
Earthjustice, representing environmental groups and tribes opposed to the Trump rule, criticized the court’s order.
“The court’s decision to reinstate the Trump administration rule shows disregard for the integrity of the Clean Water Act and undermines the rights of tribes and states to review and reject dirty fossil fuel projects that threaten their water,” said Moneen Nasmith, senior attorney for the group.
A lower court had vacated the rule, prompting a group of Republican-led states and various industries to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court.
This story has been updated with additional details.
EPA OKs plan to release 2.4 million more genetically modified mosquitoes
A British biotech firm this week got the green light from U.S. regulators to release over 2 million genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida and California as part of an expanded effort to combat transmission of diseases like Zika, dengue fever and canine heartworm.
The experimental public health effort, which still requires final approval from state regulators, follows the 2021 release of 144,000 genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys by British biotech firm Oxitec.
Oxitec said its genetically modified male, and thus non-biting, mosquitoes “find and mate with invasive female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, mediating a reduction of the target population as the female offspring of these encounters cannot survive,” thus reducing the overall population.
Related video: First trial of genetically modified mosquitoes released in Florida in 2021
In a news release announcing approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, Oxitec described its release in Florida in 2021 as a “success.”
“Given the growing health threat this mosquito poses across the U.S., we’re working to make this technology available and accessible,” Grey Frandsen, CEO of Oxitec said, adding that the company will now apply for approval from California and Florida regulators.
In Florida, Aedes aegypti are relatively rare but account for the vast majority of mosquito-transmitted disease, Oxitec said. The invasive species was first detected in California in 2013.
“We made significant progress during the pilot project last year, we look forward to continuing this important work during this year’s mosquito season,” Andrea Leal, director of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, said in the Oxitec news release.
In its letter approving Oxitec’s plan, the EPA approved the release of up to 2.4 million of the genetically modified adult male mosquitoes and eggs in Monroe County, Florida; and Stanislaus, Fresno, Tulare, and San Bernardino counties in California.
They said Oxitec’s mosquito release — which the EPA calls an “experimental pesticide product” — can take place in a 34,760-acre area across the two states between now and April 30, 2024, when the experiment ends.
The EPA restricted mosquito releases from the immediate vicinity of livestock and agricultural facilities.
The approval also contains instructions for what to do in the event of a tropical storm or wildfire, natural disasters that repeatedly struck Florida and California, respectively, in recent years.
“Oxitec will return Mosquito Rearing Boxes to a secure facility safely under triple containment (with two of the three containment layers being shatterproof) before the disaster is predicted to reach the trial area, if safe to do so,” the EPA said.
Even before the 2021 test of genetically modified mosquitoes, Florida officials tried other novel methods to kill growing populations of Aedes aegypti.
One program released male mosquitoes carrying a bacteria called Wolbachia, which rendered their offspring nonviable, in Key West in 2017 and Miami in 2018.
Key West first eyed using genetically modified mosquitoes a decade ago because of an outbreak of dengue fever.
Since then, the threat posed by the Aedes aegypti has grown as the invasive mosquito’s range expands in the U.S.
Oxitec said in 2020 an experiment in a dengue-stricken Brazilian city resulted in 95 percent reduction in Aedes aegypti populations.
E.P.A. Plans Tighter Tailpipe Rules for Trucks, Vans and Buses
But in order to put the United States on a path toward a transition to all-electric trucks, the forthcoming truck rules would have to be far more stringent, experts said. Transportation is the largest single source of greenhouse gases generated by the United States, representing 29 percent of the nation’s total emissions.
“It’s great to see that the rule is driving 90 percent reduction in air pollution in heavy-duty vehicles and at the same time opening the door to reducing greenhouse gas pollution,” said Drew Kodjak, executive director of the International Council on Clean Transportation, a research organization. “But we’ve got this thing called climate change and we’ve really got to start driving electrification in the heavy-duty truck sector. My big concern is that the proposal as it is written will not do that.”
Advocates for warehouse workers, many of whom are exposed to pollution from truck exhaust, said they would like regulations that replace diesel-fueled trucks with electric or zero-emissions vehicles.
“Cutting emissions anywhere is good,” said Yana Kalmyka, an organizer with Warehouse Workers for Justice. “But if you’re thinking about a community that has tens of thousands of trucks a day passing through it, electrification is the only just solution. The rule is not addressing other industrial truck pollutants such as soot, and we know that Black and brown communities are facing cumulative burdens from these pollutants.”
“Warehouse workers are breathing in all this air — this is a workplace issue and an environmental racism issue,” she added.
The E.P.A. has said it intends to create another set of greenhouse gas rules for trucks, beginning as soon as model year 2030, that will be “significantly stronger” than the current standards, and designed to speed the transition to all-electric trucks.
“Waiting for another few years to do the next set of greenhouse gas standards for trucks is wrong. We just don’t have time,” said Margo Oge, an expert on electric vehicles who headed the E.P.A.’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality from 1994 to 2012. “My hope is that they will use this time to strengthen the standard now.”
The rule announced Monday will be open for public comment for 46 days, and the E.P.A. is expected to finalize it by the end of 2022.
White House, EPA letters criticize USPS “flawed” EV plan
Ever since Oshkosh received a $6 billion contract from the United States Postal Service for the development of a new mail delivery vehicle, the contract has drawn controversy. Oshkosh’s plan includes primarily gas-powered vehicles, and it won out over another plan for all-electric vehicles. Now the White House is urging the Postmaster General to fulfill his responsibilities and accelerate the modernization of the delivery vehicle fleet.
History of the USPS NGDV
The current postal vehicle fleet is aging and long overdue for an upgrade. The most widespread postal vehicle today is the Grumman LLV (Long Life Vehicle). With its production running from 1987 to 1994, it has certainly lived up to its name. But with the LLV’s heater being prone to catching fire and rising maintenance costs, an environmentally friendly replacement is needed.
The USPS began its search for this replacement NGDV (Next Generation Delivery Vehicle) back in 2015. A case study called out the fact that the Postal Service’s history with electric vehicles dates back to 1899 when the EV was competing with horses, not gas cars. Yet, somewhat inexplicably, Oshkosh won the contract in February 2021, not for a fleet of EVs but for a fleet consisting largely of gasoline vehicles.
Congress did not seem overly happy with this idea:
In response to this announcement, Representative Jared Huffman of California says he will introduce legislation to ensure that the USPS contract consists of at least 75% electric or zero-emission vehicles.
Another representative, Mary Kaptur of Ohio, says she will introduce a bill intending to put a pause on the contract while questions of corruption and consistency with Biden’s executive order are answered. She, Ryan, and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown all sent a letter to Biden requesting a halt to the Oshkosh contract.
Kaptur is referring to Biden’s plan for the full electrification of the Federal vehicle fleet.
White House reaches out to Postmaster General Dejoy
Now, it seems the Biden administration is pushing the USPS to electrify the fleet more fully. In a letter sent on February 2 to Postmaster General Dejoy from Brenda Mallory, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the White House urges the Postal Service to “fulfill its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) responsibilities, improve its competitiveness, tackle the climate crisis, and address environmental injustice by accelerating the modernization and electrification of its delivery vehicle fleet through the procurement of its Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV).”
The letter goes on to call out the Environmental Protection Agency’s “grave concerns” with the environmental review conducted in the process of procurement of the NGDVs. Some of the concerns brought up can be remedied, such as using up-to-date info on electric vehicles to correct the “deficiencies in the environmental impact statement.”
The letter also brings up concerns that can not be so simply remedied, such as the commitment of $480 million for the engineering and construction of a factory before the start of an environmental review of the Postal Service’s procurement decision.
…Through NGDV, USPS has the option to achieve 70 percent electrification of the delivery vehicle fleet by the end of this decade… at a time when our international competitors are moving rapidly to electrify their transportation systems, and leading U.S. companies, including major delivery companies, are rapidly advancing American Competitiveness by electrifying their fleets and showing how the U.S. leads by example.
This transition to a modern, clean, and efficient USPS vehicle fleet is a top priority of the Biden Administration. To address the climate crisis, President Biden has called on us to seize the once-in-a-generation economic opportunity we have to create and sustain jobs, including well paying union jobs; support a just transition to a more sustainable economy for American workers; strengthen America’s communities; protect public health; and advance environmental justice.
… We will continue to do everything we can to support USPS fleet electrification efforts, including budgetary and technical assistance in addressing the issues I have discussed.
EPA concerns about NGDV plan
Also on February 2, a similar letter was sent by Environmental Protection Agency Associate Administrator Vicki Arroyo to the USPS Senior Director of Environmental Affairs and Corporate Sustainability detailing the specific issues the EPA had with the USPS NGDV acquisitions.
The EPA review found that, “the EPA’s concerns with the draft EIS [Environmental Impact Statement] were not adequately addressed and that the final EIS remains seriously deficient.” Arroyo went on to list several “key deficiencies.”
Key deficiencies include the fact that contrary to NEPA’s requirements, a contract for this proposal was awarded prior to the NEPA process, critical features of the contract are not disclosed in the EIS, important data and economic assumptions are missing in the EIS, and the EIS failed to consider a single feasible alternative to the proposed action. Specifically, the final EIS does not disclose essential information underlying the key analysis of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), underestimates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fails to consider more environmentally protective feasible alternatives, and inadequately considers impacts on communities with environmental justice concerns.
This is no short list of concerns, and they “render the final EIS inconsistent with the requirements of NEPA and its implementing regulations.” As a result of this, the environmental impact statement will need to be revised and reopened for public comment.
The letter is clear and harsh, calling out the USPS for its flawed process, noting that, “The Postal Service chose not to consider in detail even a single feasible alternative to its proposal that would be more environmentally protective, evaluating only alternatives the Postal Service itself considered to be infeasible (e.g., 100 percent BEVs given longer rural routes).”
The letter goes into detail on the proposed gas fleet, noting that the proposed ICE NGDVs deliver a mediocre improvement of 0.4 mpg over the existing fleet developed over 30 years ago, meaning the updated vehicles would get 8.6 miles per gallon…
An updated fleet of 90 percent ICE vehicles and 10 percent BEVs would reduce “relevant emissions by 21.7 percent after ten years,” but the letter notes these new vehicles under the plan would cause climate damage that “would exceed $900 million.”
The EPA ends the letter by recommending, “the Postal Service prioritize initially purchasing BEVs, consistent with any existing contract obligations,” and requesting a meeting.
Electrek’s take
Quite frankly, each of these letters is worth a read – in full. It’s hard to come up with an excuse for the number of deficiencies in the Postmaster’s plan. The Post Offices analysis assumed a static price for battery electric vehicles, which simply doesn’t align with the real world, where the cost of batteries, and in turn battery electric vehicles, is decreasing.
It does not account for expected decreases in the cost of batteries, and therefore BEVs, over the 10-year acquisition.
EPA suggests that the Postal Service look to estimates compiled by the National Academy of Sciences as a starting point for potential battery price decline projections, which recently concluded that “the key cost driver for EVs is the battery, which for high-volume battery production is expected to decrease to $90-$115/kWh by 2025 and $65-$80/kWh by 2030 at the pack level.”6
The USPS also underestimated the emissions of ICE vehicles while overestimating those from electric vehicles.
Even the weight of the ICE vehicles, one pound over the weight limit for light-duty vehicle emission standards, means they are subject to less stringent emissions.
The fact that the new BEV NGDVs have 734 pounds lower payload capacity than the ICE NGDVs (2,207 pounds vs. 2,941pounds), yet still meet the relevant operational requirements, suggests that the ICE vehicles are specified to be substantially larger than they need to be, which permits them to be much higher emitting given that they are subject to less stringent standards.
With the very short distance of most postal routes (95% are less than 70 miles), even something like the Ford E-transit that Electrek’s Seth Weintraub checked out recently, with its 108-126 mile estimated range and mid $40k price, could go the distance. The USPS estimates that the BEV versions of the NGDV would cost $30k more than the ICE counterparts is clearly unreasonable, and the USPS should consider lower EVs to directly meet those needs. Ford had entered its bid to provide NGDVs but was not selected (though it is providing the engines for Oshkosh’s fleet, as the military contractor notably does not have experience in the small, consumer vehicle market).
The vehicles and technology exist for the Postal Service to go electric, and it needs to. Sure, there are a few routes where a gas vehicle may offer some advantages, but the majority of the fleet needs to go electric, not a mediocre ten percent.
Post Offices have regular, short routes, and locations to store the delivery vehicles overnight. This is the perfect use case for electric vehicles. The common excuses that nay-sayers of EVs like to throw around of “the range isn’t enough”, “where will I charge”, and “they’re more expensive” simply aren’t factors here. The distance traveled each day is well known and consistent, and the long-term cost of the BEVs, in maintenance and environmental impact, needs to be considered.
It’s hard not to put all of this blame on Dejoy. He is a Trump administration holdover with multiple conflicts of interest (investment in UPS, Amazon, and a USPS sub-contractor) and no experience as a postal carrier. He drew plenty of criticisms during the 2020 election for making moves that would slow the delivery of mail in the name of cost-cutting. The Postmaster can’t be removed by the president, only the board of governors, but the best bet for the future of USPS is his removal and replacement with someone who will actually care about the environment and the future of the Postal Service.
Letter to the USPS from the White House
Letter to the USPS from the EPA
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Biden EPA gets tough on methane leaks from oil and gas sector
US President Joe Biden delivers a speech on stage during a meeting at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 1, 2021.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday will propose rules to plug methane gas leaks at hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells in the U.S., marking its most aggressive action yet to curb climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
The agency’s measures will strengthen regulations on new oil and gas wells and impose new requirements for existing wells that previously escaped methane regulations. President Joe Biden will formally announce the proposals during the second day of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, according to senior administration officials.
The methane initiatives will aid the president’s commitment to cut domestic emissions in half by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by mid-century. The proposals will also push forward the U.S. and European Union’s Global Methane Pledge, a pact to cut methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade.
More than 90 governments have now joined the pledge, including 15 of the world’s top 30 methane emitters — the U.S., EU, Indonesia, Pakistan, Argentina, Mexico, Nigeria, Iraq, Vietnam and Canada, according to the White House.
Methane is a key component of natural gas and accounts for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The oil and gas industry comprises nearly 30% of the country’s methane emissions.
Methane is 84 times more potent than carbon and doesn’t last as long in the atmosphere before it breaks down, making it a critical target for combatting climate change quickly while simultaneously minimizing other greenhouse gas emissions.
The EPA’s methane rules, which come in response to the president’s executive order in January, will cover roughly three-quarters of all U.S. methane emissions, according to estimates from White House officials.
The Biden administration is launching a whole-of-government initiative to ratchet up methane reduction commitments from the oil and gas sector, officials said, which includes the release of the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan.
A landmark United Nations report earlier this year declared that drastically cutting methane is vital to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
The world could cut methane emissions up to 45% this decade, according to the U.N.’s Global Methane Assessment, a move that would avoid nearly 0.3 degrees Celsius of warming by 2045 and help limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal of the Paris climate accord.