Trucks: they bring us everything we use day by day, and they use 20 percent of the fuel consumed by transportation (which is more than two-thirds of fossil fuel used in the U.S.). They also spew 20 percent of vehicle emissions.
Now, for the first time, the country has a set of fuel efficiency and emissions standards for the big rigs, which at present average only six miles per gallon. And truck manufacturers aren’t complaining about the new rules; in fact, they say they will create jobs. The American Trucking Association says the new standards are “very feasible with current technologies.”
The new regs, announced by President Obama last week, set different requirements for different types of heavy vehicles. “Combination tractors,” the trucks used for long hauls, will have to cut their carbon dioxide emissions and their per-mile fuel use by 20 percent for the 2018 model year. Big gas-fueled pickups and vans, and so-called “vocational vehicles” like delivery trucks and emergency vehicles, will have to achieve 10 percent cuts.
The Obama administration estimates that during the lives of the heavy vehicles that would be manufactured in the first five years after the rules go into effect, greenhouse gases would be reduced by 250 million metric tons and 500 million barrels of oil would be saved. And the new standards should save truckers money, too, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said $74,000 would be saved over the life of a semi-trailer that meets the new standards.
Among the existing technologies that could be used to meet the target reductions, she said, are aerodynamic improvements, weight reduction, direct injection technology and state-of-the-art transmission engineering. A major way to help meet the standards, she pointed out, is to reduce idling (hybrid cars, for example, save many gallons of fuel and cut down on emissions by automatically putting the engines to sleep when they’re idling).
In July, Obama announced new standards that will push fuel efficiency for cars above 54 miles per gallon by 2025. Given the conspicuous failure of Congress to come through with climate change legislation, environmentalists are heartened that new vehicle regulations will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Some observers say auto manufacturers have seemed more inclined to go along with stricter efficiency standards since the government bailed them out during the crash.
