Work trucks covered under the new rules use more than 100 million gallons of oil per day.
President Obama will meet with trucking industry officials to discuss the first fuel economy and greenhouse gas pollution standards for work trucks, buses, and other heavy duty vehicles. The proposed rules to be published today create a heavy-duty national program designed to address what EPA says is “the urgent and closely intertwined challenges of dependence on oil, energy security, and global climate change.”
The complicated standards vary by size and type of truck, and whether gasoline or diesel engines are used. However they appear stringent, calling for a 7-20% reduction in emissions with roughly corresponding increases in fuel economy.
Whether government regulation is needed in the high-mileage, market-driven trucking business, which monitors costs closely and has a clear incentive to increase fuel economy, is an assumption that is challenged by critics, but strongly supported by environmentalists. However, this was a preemptive move by the trucking industry to head off individual states from enacting more stringent and potentially inconsistent regulations.
The meeting marks the Administration’s announcement of the standards, which it is claimed will save American businesses that operate commercial vehicles approximately $50 billion in fuel costs over the life of the program.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed the standards with the trucking companies as well as other stakeholders, following requests from the companies to develop this program. The cost savings claimed for American businesses are on top of the $1.7 trillion that American families will save at the pump from the historic fuel-efficiency standards announced by the Obama Administrations for cars and light duty trucks, including the model year 2017-2025 agreement announced by the President last month. (The analysis of how the Administration arrived at that number hasn’t been released yet. See President Obama Unveils 54.5 MPG Fuel Economy Regulation for 2017-25. It will Alter Vehicle Choices and Increase Costs )
“While we were working to improve the efficiency of cars and light-duty trucks, something interesting happened,” said President Obama. “We started getting letters asking that we do the same for medium and heavy-duty trucks. They were from the people who build, buy, and drive these trucks. And today, I’m proud to have the support of these companies as we announce the first-ever national policy to increase fuel efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas pollution from medium-and heavy-duty trucks.”
The work trucks covered under the new rules use more than 100 million gallons of oil per day. They are also responsible for about 20% of the climate pollution from America’s transportation sector. Oil imports now account for approximately 60% of U.S. petroleum consumption. Transportation accounts for about 72% of our domestic oil use, and heavy-duty vehicles account for about 17 % of transportation oil use.
The new standards apply to three categories of heavy trucks that heretofore have escaped regulation: combination tractors, heavy-duty pickups and vans, and vocational vehicles:
- For combination tractors, the agencies are proposing engine and vehicle standards that begin in the 2014 model year and achieve up to a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions and fuel consumption by 2018 model year.
- For heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans, the agencies are proposing separate gasoline and diesel truck standards, which phase in starting in the 2014 model year and achieve up to a 10% reduction for gasoline vehicles and 15% reduction for diesel vehicles by 2018 model year (12% and 17% respectively if accounting for air conditioning leakage).
- For vocational vehicles, the agencies are proposing engine and vehicle standards starting in the 2014 model year which would achieve up to a 10% reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 2018 model year.
The agencies estimate that the combined proposed standards have the potential to reduce GHG emissions by nearly 250 million metric tons and save approximately 500 million barrels of oil over the life of vehicles sold during 2014 to 2018 model years. It is also claimed that an estimated $35 billion in net benefits will go to truckers. EPA and NHTSA estimate that the HD National Program would cost the affected industry approximately $7.7 billion.
