|  | | Transition Finance Weekly |
| Exploring the policy, politics, and economics of the clean energy transition |
| Each week here in Transition Finance Weekly, researchers and analysts from Pleiades Strategy summarize the top stories and trends related to the policy, politics, and economics of the clean energy transition in the states.
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| 1. USPS Goes Electric, and Mail Carriers Cheer |
| The first modern electric USPS trucks have hit the road, and within a few years will replace aging vehicles across the country, making workers’ jobs easier while cutting emissions. |
|  | | The U.S. Postal Service — which generates 70% of federal vehicle GHG emissions — committed two years ago to rapidly phase in electric trucks, with a goal of buying only electric vehicles by 2026. The 60,000 trucks they plan to phase in will make them one of the world’s largest EV fleet operators and help them cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions 40% by 2030. The USPS designed the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) from the ground up to help postal workers do their jobs more efficiently, comfortably, and safely. 75% of the first NGDV shipment is fully electric, with more to follow. The NGDVs are manufactured by Oshkosh Defense in South Carolina, with an initial $486 million commitment from the federal government. Manufacturing started in 2023, and the plant is expected to employ 1,000 new workers. The NGDVs may look a little odd, but mail carriers love them. Large windshields, low hoods, and backup cameras make them safer to drive, and the roomy interiors hold larger packages and let employees stand up inside. And they’re air-conditioned, too — bringing relief from extreme heat.
Georgia mail carrier Avis Stonum, on her new air-conditioned truck: “I promise you, it felt like heaven blowing in my face.” |
| | 2. Delivery Workers Suffer in the Hottest Summer in History |
| Air conditioning is a first for USPS trucks, but many fleets are still unequipped to keep delivery drivers cool as extreme heat becomes a new normal. With escalating climate-fueled extreme heat, tens of thousands of delivery drivers are in danger. Unions like the Teamsters are applying pressure, and they convinced UPS last year to install AC in new trucks and improve airflow in the existing fleet. Amazon says all its branded trucks are air-conditioned, but contract carriers deliver for Amazon, too, and they may not have the same protections. One Phoenix UPS driver collapsed in triple digit heat two years ago. Another driver says, “It can be dangerous . . . if you're not mindful…. I've never passed out. I think I've gotten close a couple of times in my career." As we wind up the hottest summer on record, implementing effective worker protections for delivery drivers and others out in the heat all day becomes more urgent. As fleets like USPS begin to provide air conditioned vehicles, OSHA proposed a rule that would mandate water and rest breaks.
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| | 3. Anti-ESG Makes It To The House Floor |
| House Republicans pass anti-ESG messaging bill as Leonard Leo pledges $1 billion to “crush liberal dominance.” On Wednesday, House Republicans passed the Rollback ESG to Increase Retirement Earnings Act, which bans the consideration of climate risk by the fiduciaries of private employer-sponsored retirement plans. The bill has no chance of making it into law — neither the Democratic-controlled Senate nor President Biden are likely to consider, much less support, the bill. As House Republicans passed yet another messaging bill, their counterparts in the Senate pledged to drop them as they were “not getting anything done” and giving embattled centrist Democrats easy ways to distance themselves from the Biden Administration. The change in timing on these tactics is notable, given that just last week, billionaire and anti-ESG champion Leonard Leo challenged rightwing donors and operatives to focus more on “operationalizing and weaponizing [their] ideas and policies to crush liberal dominance.”
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| | 4. In Minnesota, Solar Is Literally Replacing Coal |
| In a direct swap, Xcel Energy is decommissioning Minnesota’s dirtiest coal plant — and repurposing its grid connection for a solar farm. Xcel Energy has plans to close its Sherco Power Plant, a coal-fired plant that generates more emissions annually than 2 million cars, by 2030.. But in an innovative plan to short-circuit interconnection delays, its grid connection is being maintained — so it can be repurposed for a solar project. Because new grid connections take time to implement, they’re an obstacle to deploying renewable energy at scale. But Xcel already has a connection for Sherco, so they’ve surrounded it with solar farms; they’ll simply switch to solar when the coal plant is turned off, while helping plant employees find other work within Xcel’s footprint through the transition. A Berkeley study says the U.S. could double its grid capacity overnight simply by plugging renewable power streams into the grid via legacy plant interconnections. They can even do it while the old plants are still operating, by swapping in renewable power during the hours they’re idle. And this could cut customer rates, too, since solar and wind are much cheaper generation sources than oil and coal.
Rob Gramlich of consulting firm Grid Strategies LLC: “There’s a line everybody wants to get on, and then somebody just has this Disney pass [the existing interconnection] to skip the line” and get renewable energy directly onto the grid.
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| | 5. Tech Emissions Vastly Underestimated, According to New Study |
| A new analysis shows Big Tech’s data center emissions could be 7X as high as they claim. Google, Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and Amazon are building energy-hungry data centers as fast as they can to support the AI boom. Now a study by The Guardian shows that new data centers are generating emissions at a far higher rate than companies have disclosed — up to 662% higher. Already in 2022, data centers were responsible for up to 1.5% of global electricity consumption. With tech companies’ massive bet on AI, they’re dramatically missing emissions targets as they seek out electricity for their data centers. Best practices in data centers design and energy procurement — using high efficiency equipment, procuring local clean energy close to the data center siting, and building storage or firm clean to meet 24/7 clean energy needs — are crucial to tech industry progress on climate. Big tech engagement on corporate procurement has been a key driver of the renewables boom, but it is clear that a step up in efforts is needed to keep up with changing demand. As we have been following, the exploding demand from AI is driving electricity demand from Virginia to Michigan to Arizona with significant implications for utilities and communities.
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| | 6. In a Giveaway to the Fossil-Fuel Industry, Texas Regulators Will Subsidize New Gas Plants |
| The new plants are an objectively bad investment, but taxpayers are still on the hook. Even though solar and wind energy are cheaper to produce and more reliable in severe weather than fossil-fuel energy, the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) is putting up $5 billion of taxpayer funds in risky low-interest loans to build and upgrade gas power plants. Proponents claim that the PUC’s Texas Energy Fund (TEF) loan program will help improve the reliability of the power system after repeated weather-related failures — even though, again and again, gas plants have failed more often in disruptive climate events. Some lawmakers say the PUC isn’t equipped to run a loan program — something it’s never done before. But Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are doubling down: they want another $5 billion from legislators to expand the program, even though it hasn’t yet disbursed a single dollar. The rollout of the TEF has been plagued by controversy, including a fraudulent loan application by a company whose CEO was convicted in an “embezzlement scheme” — which regulators didn’t catch until the eleventh hour.
Houston Sen. Joan Huffman to the PUC: “There’s talk of another $5 billion? I think you’re going to have to clean up your act.”
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| | MEET WITH PLEIADES AT CLIMATE WEEK NYC
Pleiades founder Frances Sawyer and our team will be at Climate Week NYC, which kicks off Sunday, Sept. 22. The week of events and activities, held in partnership with the U.N. General Assembly and the City of New York, includes 600 in-person and online events across the city.
We’d love to see you there!
Get in touch with us while we’re in New York: email newsletter@pleiadesstrategy.com. |
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