Since 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been trying to “find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally in an equitable way.”
Through this Convention, “every country on Earth is treaty-bound to ‘avoid dangerous climate change,” and has done so via regular gatherings. The most recent was only weeks ago, entitled Council of the Parties, or COP26.
Sounding very important, COP26 was well-attended in Glasgow, Scotland, by world representatives including President Joseph Robinette Biden and John Kerry, from the United States. Both American representatives agreed that climate change represents an existential threat to the Earth, a sentiment agreed upon by most attendees.
Forget the existential threat of systemic racism, or systemic economic inequity, or education disparity, or systemic crime, or energy, jobs, or corruption, this COP26 was laser-focused on climate change.
Boltneck Kerry piously addressed the Council on America’s sin of using irreplaceable fossil fuels to keep our citizens warm, lighted, and able to prepare food, through electricity. Sins, indeed.
Poor countries seem to be given a free pass on their pollution transgressions because of their inability to be financially extorted the way more affluent nations have been.
Kerry’s horse face explained that the United States was willing to sacrifice comfort for long-term global goals toward climate stability which, by “expert” estimates, would mean great discomfort and sacrifices primarily by American citizens.
Gone would be the days of spacious vehicles, recreational boats and jetskis, and thermostats set at comfortable levels. But all would be for the common good of attempting to avert climate change. Yea!
President Biden mumbled his way through his allotted address time at COP26 to make similar concessions and promises of austere future existences of hard-working Americans who have earned their place at the table of rewards of air-conditioned summers and warmer winters. Alas, both Biden and Kerry felt otherwise.
Promising that major American automobile manufacturers would be making electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030, to appease this punitive Convention left me with more questions than answers for this climate change brain trust.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has been a dismal failure for decades, losing a pleasantly surprising $9,200,000,000 in 2020. That figure is “pleasant” because it was expected to lose billions of dollars more.
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| The new USPS delivery truck |
What could possibly turn this economic boondoggle around? The definitive answer is new postal vehicles.
This brilliant idea will buy as many as 165,000 new trucks for the USPS, some of which may be hitting the streets in 2023. The contract was awarded to a Wisconsin company through the equally genius Build Back Better plan which awards $6,000,000,000 to help speed production of the mail trucks.
According to The Daily Times story, appearing its November 12, 2021, issue, “Climate activists have pressured the USPS for the better part of a decade to retool its fleet.”
A Democrat California representative, Jared Huffman, put this legislation together. His take was, “we ought to step up and do something. This isn’t gonna fix everything. But it’s a very nice first step.”
Not being sure what the second step will be, $6,000,000,000 is lot of money. But the kicker is that this “first step” was rued by Huffman because “the USPS contract that allows for the production of gas-powered vehicles undercuts the climate goals.” Uh, oh!
“Gas-powered vehicles” you ask?
Yep. Those 165,000 new USPS vehicles are NOT EVs, rather they are nifty-looking gas-powered trucks that the COP26 was promised would disappear in order to save the planet.
Maybe Biden and Kerry will have continued luck goading Congress into squeezing more money out of United States citizens for other hare-brained projects in the future. Let’s hope they don’t run out of other people’s money, though.
Update:
Well, it has been four-years since this story appeared in this space, and we now have an important update on the goings-on with these brilliant USPS vehicles, as well as an excellent reason why the guvment should keep their noses out of the mail delivery business.
According to a New York Post article, “The US Postal Service has spent more than $3 billion dollars on a brand new all-electric fleet of mail trucks – and gotten just 612 vehicles for its money,” which information was supplied by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).
Ol’ Thrifty Joe Biden, former president, ardently pushed the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that desperately needed $3 billion dollars of taxpayer money to save the planet by building non-polluting USPS trucks.
Almost all that moolah was paid to “Wisconsin-based defense contractor Oshkosh to design and build 35,000 new environmentally friendly mail trucks,” the Post continues.
But that is not the good part of the story. Being bamboozled into believing the Earth would summarily die without these vehicles is the true definition of “ignorant.” As the late Paul Harvey used to say, “And now the rest of the story.”
A USPS spokesperson insisted they received more than 9,000 commercial-off-the-shelf electric vehicles that were also purchased with the IRA cash. That’s the good news. There seems to be a serious disconnect betwixt and between the guvment, USPS, and Oshkosh.
The Post further states, “The ‘greening’ of the USPS fleet was part of a $!0 billion project to have 106,480 new vehicles in its fleet by Sept. 30, 2028, around 60,000 of which were supposed to be next generation and 35,000 of which were supposed to be battery-electric powered.”
In case you’re wondering how many chargers are available for use with these new green vehicles thereby allowing us mortals to continue breathing clean air. Nobody really knows.
But “As of November 10th,” the Post continues, “USPS VP Peter Pastre told Ernst that only 612 Next Generation Delivery Vehicles that are battery-electric powered are currently on the road, bringing mail to 15 sites across the nation.”
There you have it. Job well done. And that is why you don’t believe guvment Representatives when they promise to improve your life.
Frankly, I’m surprised no one thought of simply buying and using homing pigeons.
