politics

During the summer of 2020, there were few bigger Democratic super villains than Louis DeJoy.

The postmaster general was accused of masterminding an attempt to steal the election for former President Donald Trump by subverting mail-in voting in the midst of the pandemic. He was hauled up to Capitol Hill to defend his policies. When Joe Biden won, it was generally assumed that his days were numbered.

Now, nearly three years later, DeJoy isn’t just still standing atop the U.S. Postal Service, he’s become a critical player in Biden’s environmental agenda, striking a partnership with the president’s green guru, John Podesta, as USPS considers an environmental renaissance of its fleet. It’s a remarkable change of script for one of the more memorable side characters of the Trump years. And it produced one of the most unlikely pairings in Washington D.C., something that the camps will privately acknowledge even as they’re loath to discuss it personally. Asked repeatedly about their good-natured relationship, both DeJoy and Podesta declined to comment.

The pair’s partnership centers around an effort to introduce 66,000 electric vehicles to the USPS by 2028, itself part of a broader initiative to add 106,000 new vehicles to USPS’ fleet. The initiative was buoyed by $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, a funding solution floated by the Biden administration, according to a person close to DeJoy who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the discussions.

During the press conference outside USPS headquarters last December to announce the initiative, DeJoy thanked Podesta for his “focus … in moving the ball forward” on the project. He noted that the two had met about five years earlier, for three or four hours, and wondered if Podesta remembered him.

Podesta’s response could be heard from a nearby distance. “You’re unforgettable!” he shouted. He later thanked DeJoy when it was his turn at the podium.

In the formal announcement of the USPS’ investment in electric vehicles, DeJoy expressed his gratitude for Podesta by name.

“The Postal Service’s vehicle initiative, and I personally, have benefited from the collaborative spirit of John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President and leader of the Office of Energy Innovation, as well as leaders within the Council on Environmental Quality and the Climate Policy Office,” he said in the statement.

Privately, DeJoy has come to embrace the idea that he’s now a climate pioneer.

“What I hear him saying is the Postal Service is going to be the greenest delivery company in the nation, and that not using us to deliver packages is going to be like not recycling,” the person close to DeJoy said. “He jokingly says that between electric vehicles and reducing our transportation network and our own carbon footprint, he’s going to get the Nobel Prize for green.”

The electric vehicle issue was not the first time that DeJoy worked with the Biden White House. He partnered with the administration on the initiative to distribute Covid-19 tests through the mail and lobbied Republican lawmakers to support postal reform legislation championed by Democrats.