• Trump transition weighs plan to cancel USPS contracts to build large EV fleet
    
    Postal service plans to spend billions on EV chargers and roughly 66,000 new trucks Contract cancellation likely part of sweeping executive order on EVs

Dec 6 (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s transition team is considering canceling the U.S. Postal Service’s contracts to electrify its delivery fleet, as part of a broader suite of executive orders targeting electric vehicles, according to three sources familiar with the plans.

The move, which could be unveiled in the early days of Trump’s administration that begins on Jan. 20, is in line with Trump’s campaign promises to roll back President Joe Biden’s efforts to decarbonize U.S. transportation to fight climate change – an agenda Trump has said is unnecessary and potentially damaging to the economy.

Reuters has previously reported that Trump is planning to kill a $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric vehicle purchases, and plans to roll back Biden’s stricter fuel-efficiency standards.

The sources told Reuters that Trump’s transition team is now reviewing how it can unwind the postal service’s multibillion-dollar contracts, including with Oshkosh (OSK.N), and Ford (F.N) for tens of thousands of battery-driven delivery trucks and charging stations.

Oshkosh shares fell by roughly 5% to 105.65 per share after the Reuters report.

  • azimir@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Hey look! Let’s just raise a huge middle finger to what’s left of our ecosystems.

    How did it go? Yes, humanity was destroyed, but for one moment we maximized profits!

    • Godort@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      At this point, it’s not really about maximizing profits, it’s about trying to undo every change Biden made

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        At this point, it’s not really about maximizing profits, it’s about trying to undo every change Biden made

        Its even worse. The new truck was likely by Dejoy, Trump’s own appointee.

      • mhague@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        The way he talked about Putin making Obama look dumb… he thinks that when you act like an asshole and tear down what someone built that it makes the other person look bad.

        • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          That’s cause he’s a bully. He’s only ever brought people down to bring himself up. He thinks this is the same thing.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Trump doesn’t care. He’s going to be dead in a few years and as far as he’s concerned, the entire universe could instantly implode afterward.

      In fact, he probably thinks the universe ends when his finite energy battery that keeps his fat ass from exercising gives out.

    • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Those trucks get like six miles to the gallon, they’re a massive liability on American finances. If the average price of gas changes by a cent that’s something like nearly a million dollars difference. This isn’t maximizing profit, this is just being petty to own the libs.

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    The existing fleet is past aging out, they are often held together with patch welds and duct tape in my area. Is the plan ride it until the wheels literally fall off, with no replacements in pipeline?

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Actually yes. They want to privatize it so that they can make money on it. Failure is the goal.

      • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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        Yeah but even if that’s the play - could private business even fill the gap? USPS stretches the final miles deep into places not profitable to deliver to. Businesses, doing business stuff, use it to economically have their products available to the rural communities that voted these policies in… it’s all so confusing.

        Is mailing a letter automated space communism? Sheesh.

        • orclev@lemmy.world
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          They don’t care if there’s gaps, those people just won’t get mail service. They’re only interested in extracting as much money as they can from the rotting husk of the US economy. They’ve just hollowed out so much of the middle class now that they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel and need to start squeezing the last dregs out of the barely profitable things like the USPS.

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
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          No. Not only can it not fill the gap there isn’t an intent to.

          It’s just, sell off a chunk of the government so someone can make money on a service.

        • jumjummy@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          And ironically, it’s the flyover deep red parts of the country that are the most rural, and therefore the most unprofitable legs of these delivery services. As with so many other GOP policies, it would mostly impact their supporters.

      • ᗪᗩᗰᑎ@sh.itjust.works
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        Actually yes. They want to privatize it so that they can make money on it. Failure is the goal.

        Actually yes. They want to privatize it so that they can make money on it further exploit the working class. Failure is the goal.

        Although you’re right, I like to call out what it will do to everyone so it’s more explicit and will hopefully click in people’s minds.

    • thefartographer@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Why is that a question? How else do you plan to privatize one of the most ubiquitous federal services?

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      The plan is to make it so ineffective it can justifiably be privatized entirely and their friends make millions by jacking up rates on a product that by design and necessity has no direct competitors.

    • Stamau123@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 month ago

      It’s like having an enemy agent in the big chair leads to terrible decisions for basic needs…

  • Clent@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    More EVs means lower gas prices.

    This drives up gas prices.

    Killing the tax credit drives up gas prices.

    It’s quite remarkable how economically m ignorant a large section of America is. Supply and demand is the easiest model to understand and yet these voters have been positioned to work against their own best interest at a basic economic level.

    And this is only one a hundreds of examples. Fascinating time to be alive.

    • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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      More EVs means lower gas prices.

      This drives up gas prices.

      I know, it’s almost as though the multinational oil corporations and their shareholders who backed all three of Trump’s campaigns want higher oil and gas prices for some reason… what could that be?

      • Clent@lemmy.world
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        That part at least makes sense.

        It’s all the voters with their massive gas guzzling vehicles that are voting against their best interest. Over and over again.

        • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
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          The fact is that you’re politically engaged and the average voter is not.

          They’re not dumb or anything, but politics and economics are not things for which they look past their noses. Politics and economics are complex topics and that’s why Trump’s antics and tactics work so well. He stays in the headlines and gets people feeling like they’re part of a team. For a similar example, loads of folks don’t pay attention to NFL players, teams, and coaches during the off season… but once games start happening, allegiances are taken. Even if a neighboring or different franchise might have a better chance of winning (thus make you feel like a winner by proxy) you might still just cheer on the team that first caught your attention/is in your geographic area. People don’t want a sermon and they definitely don’t want to be scolded… they want to be on a winning team regardless of the consequences of that choice (leopards eating faces, etc, etc).

  • IMongoose@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Don’t worry, Elon Musk has a much better idea for a postal vehicle. All he needs is 10 years and 1 trillion dollars and he’ll be ready with the prototype.

    • rbn@sopuli.xyz
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      And then the prototype will be just the regular robotaxi where he stuffed a bunch of letters on the passender seat. Car is meant go from house to house and then honk untill people come down and pick up their stuff from the seat. Unfortunately, the vehicle only works in movie studios with a pre-programmed route. Those of you not living in a movie studio will have to pick up their stuff at the next Tesla dealer for a small fee of $10.

        • Sludgehammer@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          I mean it’s possible.

          Both Trump and Musk are the kind of rich assholes who are your “best friend” until they notice that a knife would fit very conveniently in your back. A pants shitting grifter and dot com bubble roulette winner, I can’t picture this odd couple having any love lost between them.

  • marx2k@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I can’t say watching red wisconsin counties get fucked hard by Trump doing the thing everyone expected him to do isn’t satisfying

  • swampwitch@lemmy.world
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    I really don’t understand why money is so much more important to these people than not fucking over the environment.

    But I guess you don’t get stinking rich by thinking about anything other than money. The concept of a wider world must really be foreign to these cunts.

    Maybe a few more assassins are in order.

    • Free_Opinions@feddit.uk
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      1 month ago

      I kind of wish someone was keeping track of speculative “news articles” like this and holding them accountable when they don’t come to fruition. There should be some reputational cost for making things up and spreading rumors.

  • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I’m surprised he isn’t just cancelling the usps. Not sure I would miss the junk mail. And maybe it would force the garbage company to start sending bills and things over email. You know, like the notice that our pick up was moving. That would have been nice. Or actually… anthems reason for denial of a perscription that they rufused to give me electronically or tell me. Just have to wait for the mail.

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      the last piece of mail donvict opened himself was probably an allowance check sent by daddy to him while he was busy at upenn being the big stupid on campus.