The U.S. Postal Service is buying nearly 85,000 new vehicles, and estimates about 40% of them will be electric vehicles.

That includes 50,000 new delivery trucks, about half of which will be electric. Groups that advocate for EV adoption say it's a big step in the right direction, but think the percentage should be even higher.

Bruce Westlake with the East Michigan Electric Auto Association said mail trucks do a lot of starting and stopping and spend a lot of time parked, and points out that EVs are well-equipped for that.

"The maintenance of a Postal Service vehicle probably includes a lot of repair of brakes," said Westlake. "And if you look at the past record for electric vehicles, brakes are the one thing they don't go through very often. because that's recovered through the motor itself, through regenerative braking."

Under the original USPS plan, only 10% of its vehicles were going to be electric, but the numbers increased after facing pressure - including a lawsuit from 16 states, the District of Columbia, and national environmental groups.

The USPS Office of the Inspector General has found only about 1.5% of postal routes would be poorly suited to EV deployment because they're longer than 70 miles.

Westlake added that during hot summers, electric delivery trucks should make a big difference for mail carriers, in addition to the community.

"If we look at the postal workers themselves, about half of their time is parked," said Westlake. "They would benefit from having essentially a portable air conditioner to make sure that they're in good working conditions."

The new trucks will be put into use in late 2023. And the Postal Service is extending the public comment period on them until August 15.

Groups hope this purchase will contribute to the Biden administration's goal of electrifying the entire government fleet by 2035.

Local officials concerned about climate change are urging Democrats to scuttle a deal reached with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to pass a bill to fast-track permitting for energy projects.

Some 445 officials from across the country are asking the Democratic National Committee to support a resolution condemning the proposed bill before the committee's summer meeting ends tomorrow.

Devin Murphy, mayor pro-tem of the City of Pinole, north of San Francisco, said Democratic leaders promised to support the proposal in exchange for Manchin's vote on the Inflation Reduction Act.

Murphy thinks the plan runs counter to what is happening in the Golden State.

"The deal that Sen. Manchin made would undo many of the new gains that this legislature just enacted," Murphy asserted. "It really turns back the clock, and we can't afford that here in California."

The Inflation Reduction Act makes a historic investment of $370 billion to fight climate change over the next decade. The oil and gas industry has long argued the permitting process and environmental reviews for new energy development on public lands are overly complex and time-consuming.

But Murphy pointed out by rushing the process, it gives the public less time to weigh in.

"It also undermines democratic norms," Murphy contended. "The permitting reform bill also will prevent meaningful public input from those communities in the crosshairs of harmful fossil fuel projects."

The letter to the committee also raised issues of environmental justice. It argued the permitting bill would likely lead to more drilling sites and refineries polluting the air, often located in lower-income communities of color.

South Dakota regulators could get an updated map proposal this fall from a company behind a multistate pipeline for underground storage of carbon dioxide. As that plays out, a public-policy expert says research for these endeavors doesn't look promising.

Summit Carbon Solutions wants to capture carbon emissions from ethanol plants and move it through states such as South Dakota, to be stored underground in North Dakota. June Sekera, a visiting scholar at The New School for Social Research and a senior research fellow at Boston University's Global Development Policy Center, said there's a body of research about this technology for coal plants that cuts into arguments about its effectiveness.

"The studies have shown that process actually emits 3.4 to 4.7 tonnes of CO2 for each tonne that's captured and stored," she said. "So, it emits more carbon dioxide than it captures and stores underground."

A new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis noted most large-scale projects have underperformed, with only a couple of successful ones. Another complication is this year's findings that ethanol has a higher carbon intensity than gasoline.

South Dakota's Public Utilities Commission has said Summit is altering its proposed pipeline route for the state ahead of the permit review. Summit has insisted its project will be good for the environment, but Sekera said these often are taxpayer-subsided ventures pushed by private companies. She argued there would need to be an overwhelming investment to yield any actual benefits.

"One study by Princeton shows 66,000 miles of CO2 pipelines would be needed to operate at the one-gigaton level," she said, "and the United States emits five gigatons of CO2 a year."

She added that having a maze of these pipelines around the country could also pose a safety risk.

Republican leaders, mainly in Iowa, have been proponents of the Summit project, but the Biden administration also has dedicated resources for carbon capture. Sekera said she thinks policymakers should stay on the path of proven sources such as wind and solar.

"Our resources and time should be spent elsewhere on non-carbon sources of energy," she said.

Meanwhile, the Summit project also has angered property owners, who have claimed they're being threatened with eminent domain if they don't agree to land easements.

The Inflation Reduction Act aims to revolutionize the clean-energy sector in the United States. But in Idaho, critics think its investment in nuclear power is misguided.

Like wind and solar, the legislation provides tax credits for existing nuclear power plants - in some cases, preventing the early shutdown of these facilities. Hannah Smay, president of the Boise-based Snake River Alliance's board of directors and a digital organizer for the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said these groups disagree with the funding.

"These provisions, in our view, steal resources from real climate and environmental justice solutions and perpetuate the polluting and corrupt status quo," she said.

Nuclear power provides about one-fifth of the country's energy. Supporters of the industry have said the energy source is necessary to move the country away from fossil fuels and achieve the Biden administration's goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. A Princeton study found the Inflation Reduction Act could reduce emissions by 42% by 2030.

The nuclear industry isn't betting on simply sustaining existing plants. The climate bill also funds new, smaller reactor designs. NuScale Power at the Idaho National Laboratory is among the companies developing small, modular reactors. While there has been some interest, Smay noted these new designs have yet to be built or receive federal approval.

"The development of new nuclear is far too slow to meet the urgent challenge of solving the energy and climate crisis," she said.

Smay said plans to invest in nuclear also overlook the fact that it produces waste that is radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years.

"It's really just a false narrative that nuclear is 'clean,'" she said, "because it produces nuclear waste, which is one of the dirtiest substances ever created, and is responsible for numerous environmental and health problems."