So you're lying.
Biden had no AUTHORITY to dismiss DeJoy.
Post by AlleyCatPost by AlanBut if you're saying that DeJoy is a problem
Obviously, DeJoy wasn't the problem he is under BIDEN, or Trump
would have tried to fire him. You KNOW this.
Trump fired all that he didn't like or who fucked up. But alas, he
couldn't have, but let's focus on the NOW, deflector-when-he's-
losing.
Post by Alanthen why did Trump not remove him?
You are a dumb ass.
Excerpt: During his first weeks in office, President Joe Biden has
ousted a number of powerful officials appointed by Donald Trump. One
controversial figure from Trump's presidency, however, remains in
office: Louis DeJoy.
Progressives are furious that DeJoy has kept his post, but Biden's
hands are tied: While the president can fire other high-ranking
executive officials at will, federal law bars the president from
terminating the postmaster general under any circumstances. Biden
can attempt to oust DeJoy indirectly, but that option is fraught
with legal uncertainties. Unless the president is willing to take a
significant legal risk, DeJoy will remain in control for months or
years to come.
Biden can't fire DeJoy, but you know what he CAN do? NOT promise AND
order EVs for the USPS.
Now... let's talk about the PRESENT.
=====
(excerpts from article seen below)
"The delays put BIDEN'S climate goals at risk." NOT Trump's.
"President JOE BIDEN'S fight against climate change."
"Congress provided $3 billion for the nearly $10 billion project in
the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, one of BIDEN'S chief legislative
accomplishments."
"The massive delay means a project once hailed as a hallmark of
BIDEN'S industrial and climate agenda may not take shape..."
"By August 2022, Congress passed Biden's Inflation Reduction Act"
"BIDEN ADMINISTRATION Officials Pressed DeJoy To PURCHASE MORE EVs"
=====
The Postal Service's Electric Mail Trucks Are Way Behind Schedule
Defense contractor Oshkosh had only delivered 93 trucks by November
- compared to 3,000 originally expected by now. The delays put
BIDEN'S CLIMATE GOALS at risk.
December 12, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST
By Jacob Bogage - Bogage has covered the Postal Service since 2020
and reviewed more than 20,000 pages of internal agency and company
records for this story.
A multibillion-dollar program to buy electric vehicles for the U.S.
Postal Service is far behind its original schedule, plagued by
manufacturing mishaps and supplier infighting that threaten a
cornerstone of outgoing President JOE BIDEN'S fight against climate
change.
Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend.
The Postal Service is slated to purchase 60,000 "Next Generation
Delivery Vehicles," or NGDVs - mostly electric - from defense
contractor Oshkosh, which has a long history of producing military
and heavy industrial vehicles, but not postal trucks. Congress
provided $3 billion for the nearly $10 billion project in the 2022
Inflation Reduction Act, one of Biden's chief legislative
accomplishments.
But as of November, the Postal Service had received only 93 of the
Oshkosh trucks, the agency told The Washington Post - far fewer than
the 3,000 expected by now. Significant manufacturing difficulties
that were not disclosed to the Postal Service for more than a year
have stymied production, according to internal company records and
four people with knowledge of the events, speaking on the condition
of anonymity to avoid professional reprisals.
Among the problems: Engineers have struggled to calibrate the
vehicles' air bags, according to two people familiar with the
manufacturing process. When workers ran leak tests on the vehicles'
bodies and internal components, water poured out as if their
oversize windows had been left open in a storm, three people said.
Currently, Oshkosh can produce just one truck per day at its South
Carolina factory, according to internal company records and five
people with knowledge of the production process. Company records,
including emails among executives and internal progress reports,
show Oshkosh planned to be manufacturing more than 80 vehicles per
day by now.
The wide-ranging production problems have not been previously
reported and were not mentioned in an inspector general audit
published in October. A senior company executive tried to alert the
mail agency to the problems in 2022, but was blocked by superiors,
four of the people said.
"This is the bottom line: We don't know how to make a damn truck,"
said one person involved in production.
The massive delay means a project once hailed as a hallmark of
Biden's industrial and climate agenda may not take shape until long
after he leaves office on Jan. 20 - or could never materialize.
Republicans in Congress have pledged to repeal key funding sources
for Biden's climate investments with the GOP in power next year on
Capitol Hill and at the White House, and Trump-aligned officials
with designs on cutting government spending have circled the Postal
Service as an area of interest.
"The days of bailouts and handouts are over. The American people
spoke loud and clear. I worry about that EV money sitting around,
that it may be clawed back. I think there are lots of areas where
there's going to be significant reform over the next four years,"
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-
Kentucky) told Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in a hearing this
week.
This report is based on nearly 21,000 pages of government and
internal Oshkosh records obtained by The Post through the Freedom of
Information Act and other sources. It is also based on interviews
with 20 people familiar with every phase of the truck project, many
of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss
proprietary information.
In June, the Biden administration honored the mail service's EV
commitment with a "federal sustainability award."
Postal vehicle orders vs. deliveries
Suppliers were supposed to deliver about 29,000 trucks to the Postal
Service in 2024. Most are on track to meet those orders. Oshkosh
lags far behind.
A bullet bar chart showing USPS vehicle orders and vehicle
deliveries.
https://i.imgur.com/59hUH0W.png
Oshkosh is supplying a mix of EV and gas-powered vehicles. Ford is
supplying only EVs, and Ram and Mercedes are supplying only gas-
powered vehicles.
Source: USPS, Postal Service Office of Inspector General
Jacob Bogage / THE WASHINGTON POST
In a statement, an Oshkosh spokesperson said the company was "fully
committed to being a strong and reliable partner" for the Postal
Service and "we remain on track to meet all delivery deadlines."
"Since we were selected to fulfill the NGDV contract in 2021,
Oshkosh and the USPS have worked closely together to design and
deliver a modernized fleet with a flexible mix of American-made
electric- and gas-powered vehicles that will connect every home and
business across the country. New vehicles are in service today,
which have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from postal
carriers," the spokesperson said.
The company did not respond to a list of detailed questions.
John Pfeifer, Oshkosh's chief executive, told investors on Oct. 30
that the company was "really happy with where we are" and called the
NGDV a "revolutionary vehicle."
"We're today ramping up production," Pfeifer said. "When you go
through - you take a brand-new vehicle to market, we believe,
together with the Postal Service, that a prudent production schedule
is better than trying to start by sprinting. So we're ramping up
today. We'll be at full production throughout 2025."
A Postal Service spokesperson said several issues with the NGDV
program were detailed in the inspector general audit and "resolved
directly with our supplier." But the agency declined to comment on
specific questions or identify which issues the report helped
resolve. The spokesperson called the truck procurement "a large,
successful program that for a variety of reasons had many moving
parts."
It said that any major production of a purpose-built vehicle has
unique engineering requirements, and its contract with Oshkosh
allows for robust performance monitoring. The Postal Service said it
expects to receive 6,484 NDGVs in the current fiscal year.
"Our relationship with Oshkosh is defined by our contract, and we
intend to hold Oshkosh to its contractual obligations, while
recognizing the normal interplay that will need to take place in the
execution and performance of an agreement of this magnitude," the
spokesperson said.
"We're moving forward in modernizing our vehicle fleet - which will
bring tremendous benefits to our organization. Under our plan,
letter carriers in every state will be able to deliver mail and
packages using new and modern vehicles within the next five years,"
DeJoy said in a statement. "The work being done on this program
demonstrates electrification and sustainability efforts can coexist
- not conflict - with cost savings, efficiency gains and operational
transformation priorities."
The agency is also purchasing tens of thousands of other vehicles,
including EVs, from mainstream automakers.
Biden administration officials declined to comment.
Early delays
For nearly a decade, the Postal Service tried but couldn't afford to
purchase a new delivery fleet, even though its "Long Life Vehicles,"
or LLVs, are in desperate need of replacement. Produced by Northrop
Grumman and its corporate predecessors between 1987 and 1994, the
130,000 vehicles use parts that have been discontinued, forcing
postal machinists to reverse-engineer them for repairs.
The LLVs also lack standard safety features such as air bags and air
conditioning - and occasionally burst into flames after decades of
overuse. They manage a gas-guzzling 8.2 miles per gallon.
The Postal Service pushed Congress aggressively to overhaul its
balance sheet and give it the financial flexibility to modernize and
purchase new trucks. With a major contract in mind, U.S. auto giant
Ford emerged as a potential supplier, according to three people with
knowledge of company strategy. Ford would supply its Transit and
eTransit cargo vans and Oshkosh would modify them to postal
specifications.
But by 2020, Postal Service delays and additional testing
requirements led Ford to drop out.
"I personally thought it was going to happen," said Curt Magleby,
Ford's vice president of government relations from 2011 to 2020. "It
just got bogged down until we were looking at product plans, and it
just couldn't fit in the plan."
A Ford spokesperson referred questions to Oshkosh, which declined to comment.
In February 2021, the Postal Service purchased a vehicle that
Oshkosh designed on its own and had never tested for durability,
according to two people familiar with the details. Oshkosh did not
produce a drivable prototype until months after the contract was
awarded, the people said.
Oshkosh turned to Michigan-based Challenge Manufacturing to replace
Ford as the body supplier, but Oshkosh and the Postal Service had
fallen behind schedule with the final NGDV design, according to
records and interviews. Challenge soon encountered related delays,
unable to start production without it, records show. Challenge
declined to comment on specific questions about its production
capabilities and schedule.
In April 2022, Biden signed a measure into law that relieved the
Postal Service of $107 billion of past-due and future liabilities.
Finally in a healthier financial position, the Postal Service
shifted its vehicle procurement into high gear. The truck Oshkosh
produced - with its extended hood, massive bumpers and forehead-like
windshield - was dubbed 'the platypus" by postal and company
officials.
In June 2022, DeJoy told Congress that Oshkosh had won the contract
in large part due to its manufacturing record, receiving the highest
score of at least three procurement finalists for 'supplier
capability" and "overall technical score."
"We have devoted considerable time and money to procure purpose-
built EVs that Americans will see in their neighborhoods beginning
in 2023," the postmaster wrote to Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), who
chairs the committee in charge of postal oversight.
Weeks after DeJoy's confident report that NGDVs would be on the road
in 2023, a Challenge executive informed Oshkosh leaders that it
didn't expect to complete its first NGDV body until May 2024,
according to emails obtained by The Post.
In a statement, Challenge said it is working with Oshkosh during the
"design evolution of the vehicle" and will "incorporate these
developments into the components that we supply."
'The only ethical path'
By August 2022, Congress passed Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, the
largest investment to fight climate change in U.S. history, chock-
full of incentives for electric vehicles and green manufacturing.
The money it dedicated to the Postal Service is being used to cover
the cost difference between gas-powered vehicles and more expensive
EVs, according to a White House official, who spoke on the condition
of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The funding also helps the Postal Service pay to install vehicle
chargers.
Quickly, Biden administration officials pressed DeJoy to purchase
more EVs to help the administration's broader climate and green-
industry goals, records and interviews show.
On Dec. 20, 2022, the Postal Service announced plans to phase out
the old gas trucks and exclusively purchase EVs by 2026. It would
buy more than 106,000 vehicles, including roughly 45,000 electric
NGDVs and 21,000 EVs from mainstream automakers such as Ford, Ram
and Mercedes.
Postal Service vehicle purchase plan
The Postal Service plans to purchase roughly 106,000 new mail
trucks, including 66,000-some EVs and 40,000 gas-powered vehicles.
Most of the trucks will come from defense contractor Oshkosh, but
the Postal Service will purchase tens of thousands more from other
suppliers.
https://i.imgur.com/1cPvzm9.jpg
Source: Postal Service Office of Inspector General
Jacob Bogage / THE WASHINGTON POST
"It will get people thinking, 'If the postal worker delivering our
Christmas presents ... is driving an EV, I can drive one, too,'"
John Podesta, Biden's senior adviser for clean energy innovation,
said at an event announcing the plans at postal headquarters in
Washington.
Two days later, a senior Oshkosh executive sent a stark warning to
his superiors: Oshkosh was months, if not years, behind in software
development and testing, Don Bent, the then-chief operating officer
in charge of the NGDV's South Carolina factory, told Tim Bleck, then
the company vice president overseeing the project. Challenge was
also far behind.
Despite the fanfare in Washington, Oshkosh could not meet the Postal
Service's requirements or timeline, Bent wrote.
"I firmly believe that the only ethical path for Oshkosh is to
correct these inaccurate statements with the USPS. These known false
statements should never have been made or implied and I am not
comfortable being part of these meetings where we are sharing false
information," Bent wrote to Bleck, according to company records
obtained by The Post.
Less than an hour later, Bent asked Bleck for a meeting with postal
officials within the next several weeks to "expose the inaccurate
time-lines and information shared with USPS earlier this month."
Bent declined to comment.
Oshkosh did not respond to questions about the emails, Bent's
attempts to communicate with the Postal Service or when and how
information was shared with the agency about production problems. In
its statement, the company said, "Design iterations following an
initial proposal are a common and expected part of the testing and
development cycle for any complex program and we are meeting the
terms of our agreement with the USPS."
On May 1, 2023, the Postal Service disclosed the delays,
acknowledging the slowdowns in a legal filing that blamed court
challenges of its environmental record.
Work begins and prices rise
As Oshkosh fell behind, it raised prices. In March 2023, the company
and Postal Service agreed to an Inflation Reduction Act "premium
adjustment," according to contracts obtained by The Post. As the
Postal Service ordered more EVs, the cost rose to $2.6 billion for
35,000 vehicles.
For 1,958 gas-powered NGDVs, the agency agreed to pay $54,584 per truck.
For 28,195 EVs, it would pay $77,692 per truck.
It also purchased several thousand more vehicles equipped with spare
tires and training seats that each cost a few hundred dollars more
than the base model. The modifications increased the overall value
of the Oshkosh purchase by more than half a billion dollars,
according to company financial disclosures.
Oshkosh mail vehicle price per unit
Prices listed for NGDV models in a March 31, 2023, contract signed
by Oshkosh and the Postal Service. Prices and order quantities may
have changed due to economic conditions and design alterations.
Table with 3 columns and 6 rows. Sorted descending by column
"Quantity ordered"
https://i.imgur.com/qj2O78q.png
Source: USPS contract
Jacob Bogage / THE WASHINGTON POST
Neither Oshkosh nor the Postal Service responded to questions about
the value of their contract; the Postal Service has resisted
supplying that information to Congress, citing proprietary business
information, according to emails between the agency and
congressional aides.
As Challenge prepared for production, Oshkosh retained an interim
supplier. But that company could only provide five truck bodies per
week, according to interviews and records. By August 2023, Oshkosh
projected it would deliver a mere 150 vehicles to the Postal Service
in 2024 - "approximately 2,100 less than plan," according to a
company presentation - and 90 more than Oshkosh actually provided,
the Postal Service reported.
Bent was still issuing warnings about the vehicle's production
problems, according to emails and company records obtained by The
Post, and was candid in team meetings with factory staff, according
to four people involved, insisting that employees fix problems to
ensure the trucks' safety and durability.
Then in November 2023, he called a meeting to announce his
resignation. He told colleagues he would leave Oshkosh at the end of
the year. He declined to comment, and Oshkosh did not respond to
questions about his departure.
This February, in its annual earnings report, Oshkosh warned
investors that "our performance under the USPS contract may not be
what we expect" and described new risks that echoed the concerns
Bent's emails had raised. Among them: that the Postal Service would
order fewer vehicles than expected, that "engineering time to
finalize the production vehicle design may be greater than we
anticipate," and that 'tooling and factory build-out activities" may
take longer than planned.
In May, Oshkosh finally delivered the first vehicles to the Postal
Service for evaluation. The trucks required significant fixes before
they could be declared fit for use. Oshkosh employees found parts
installed incorrectly, shoddy construction and faulty software,
according to three people familiar with the situation.
For example, the air bag system could not tell whether the truck had
been jostled by a pothole or smashed in a collision. Oshkosh
engineers were able to install a software fix, but the nonstandard
correction may not be immediately available to Postal Service
mechanics who work on the vehicles, two of the people said.
Oshkosh did not respond to questions about the NGDV's safety or its
production quality. In its statement, the company said, "We continue
to be pleased by the positive feedback on the program and the
vehicle design that we have received from the USPS and its postal
carriers."
An NGDV test driver told The Post they were pleased with the vehicle
during road tests. Despite its awkward shape, it was well-balanced
and its safety components performed well.
"This fleet that they purchased has to be able to last. And from
what I see so far, it looks pretty good," the driver said, speaking
on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to
discuss the truck publicly. "Yes, there's some manufacturing
glitches and we're in the pretty early stages of production, where
the production techniques need to be perfected. But overall, the few
issues we've seen have been pretty minimal when you're talking about
creating a vehicle from the ground up."
Making deliveries
As early as 2022, postal leaders and some of DeJoy's advisers pushed
him to move the agency away from Oshkosh, citing potential legal
problems with the contract and the hefty environmental footprint of
the gas-powered trucks. They get 8.6 mpg with the air conditioning
running, only 0.4 mpg better than the old trucks.
Some postal leaders have privately renewed those calls because of
Oshkosh's delays, according to two people familiar with the
conversations. And the agency has appeared willing to consider
alternatives. In 2022, it tested EVs made by a General Motors
subsidiary, and in January, it agreed to try out electric delivery
vehicles from start-up Canoo.
And last January, the Postal Service held another splashy EV event,
hosting Biden administration officials in Atlanta to celebrate its
first vehicle charging stations.
The EVs parked in the background were Ford eTransits purchased in
2023. More than a thousand of them are already making deliveries.
=====
Trump WINS!
Donald Trump is the 47th U.S. president, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris.
Republican Donald Trump was elected President of the United States
in the 2024 election, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump, 78, will begin his second term early next year.
Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the U.S. President on Monday,
January 20, 2025, on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in
Washington, D.C.
A Second Trump Administration
=====
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