The U.S. Postal Service rolled out a plan today to put more than 66,000 electric vehicles on the streets by 2028.

The move is a huge boon for the Biden administration, which wants to slash greenhouse gas emissions by making government vehicles electric. USPS operates more than 200,000 vehicles — about one-third of the federal civilian fleet. So this new plan will create one of the biggest deployments of electric vehicles in the nation.

The announcement also appears to end a fight between the Postal Service and President Joe Biden’s top officials.

USPS is planning to buy 60,000 so-called Next Generation Delivery Vehicles by 2028, including at least 45,000 electric-powered trucks. Additionally, the Postal Service plans to buy another 21,000 off-the-shelf electric delivery vehicles.

Starting in 2026, USPS expects all its new vehicles to be electric.

A detente? Top Biden White House officials and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy — a Trump-era appointee, former businessman and longtime GOP donor — celebrated the new plan in downtown Washington today, but their relationship hasn’t always been so cordial.

Less than a year ago, Biden administration officials were assailing DeJoy’s plans to upgrade the agency’s fleet. DeJoy announced last year that he would replace the Postal Service’s aging vehicles with 90 percent fossil fuel-powered trucks over the next decade. The plan announced today marks a major course reversal.

Show me the money. DeJoy said he didn’t oppose buying more electric vehicles, but that USPS needed to make sure it got mail delivered while covering its costs.

“As I have said in the past, if we can achieve those objectives in a more environmentally responsible way, we will do so,” he said today. DeJoy praised the “collaborative spirit” of Biden officials, singling out White House aide John Podesta.

Democrats, hoping to prod USPS on electric vehicles, included $3 billion for the mail fleet in the Inflation Reduction Act, the massive climate and energy legislation that became law in August.

That extra cash will help significantly when it comes to electrifying the fleet, DeJoy said, putting USPS in a position to “build and acquire what has the potential to become the largest electric vehicle fleet in the nation.”

It's Tuesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Robin Bravender, subbing in today for the great Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected]

Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Karl Mathiesen breaks down the European outrage over the Inflation Reduction Act, America’s response, and how the legislation could influence European decarbonization policies.

Goodbye, coal. Hello, gas?

Some of the largest coal-burning power plants in the nation are being fast-tracked for retirement and replaced in part by cheaper, cleaner renewable energy, writes Energywire’s Jeff Tomich.

But as they bid farewell to coal, utilities such as DTE Energy Co. and AES Corp. are proposing investments to repower plants to burn another fossil fuel: natural gas.

Capitol Hill cash

Congressional appropriators released their fiscal 2023 omnibus spending package early Tuesday morning with modest spending increases for clean energy, environmental and conservation efforts, writes the E&E Daily team.

The domestic spending levels include a 5.5 percent hike from last year’s enacted numbers, giving EPA and the Energy and Interior departments fresh dollars before Republicans take over the House in January.

Read more from POLITICO about policy provisions in the $1.7 trillion bill, and what got left out.

State carbon markets 

Don't look now, but the country's first- and third-largest economies are both pursuing carbon prices on industrial emissions, writes POLITICO’s Debra Kahn.

New York regulators on Monday approved a “cap and invest” program to slash emissions, following California’s lead on a cap-and-trade-style program.

New truck rules

For the first time in a generation, heavy-duty truck and engine manufacturers face substantially tougher long-term emissions standards, Sean Reilly writes.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan says the rules will lead to widespread air quality improvements across the United States, but some critics wanted EPA to go further.

Inconvenient truth? No one wants “to be the first to say it”: Bill Gates tells Reuters the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is already out of reach.

Missed connection: There’s a bottleneck vexing renewable energy development.

A showcase of some of our best subscriber content.

The Biden administration proposed new rules Monday that could mark the end of the lightbulb wars. The rules would phase out the use of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, after a yearslong political fight over eco-friendly bulbs.

Democrats failed to secure any money for the United Nations' Green Climate Fund in the $1.7 trillion omnibus, in a blow to Biden's pledge to ramp up the U.S. contribution to help developing countries adapt to climate change and deploy clean energy.

Louisiana is seeing a proliferation of solar projects, but they’re facing local apprehension and pushback from the agricultural industry.

That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.