Today, the White House Website released a Factsheet titled ‘Opportunity For All: Improving the Fuel Efficiency of American Trucks’ outlining President Obama’s plan to improve the fuel efficiency of American trucks through a number of deliberate action steps targeted at bolstering energy security, cutting carbon pollution and spurring manufacturing innovation. Details emanating from the factsheet indicated that Federal standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks will be strategically raised over the next two years.
Using an executive order, Obama will direct the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation to develop new rules for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles by March 2016. The standards would cover vehicles weighing more than 8,500 pounds.
The new standards will build on standards set out in 2011 for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles imposed on 2014-18 model-year vehicles. The new standards will result in huge savings in fuel costs to fleet operators, according to the fact sheet. On the anticipated gain from this initiative, Obama stated that “This second round of fuel efficiency standards will build on the first-ever standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (model years 2014 through 2018), which were proposed and finalized by this Administration and will save vehicle owners and operators an estimated $50 billion in fuel costs and save a projected 530 million barrels of oil”.
The Factsheet further stated that “To date, 23 major national companies, such as ARAMARK, Coca-Cola, Staples, UPS, AT&T, Enterprise Holdings, and Waste Management have joined the National Clean Fleets Partnership. Collectively, the National Clean Fleets Partners operate more than one million commercial vehicles nationwide. The President has directed his Department of Energy to provide each company that wants to partner with specialized resources, technical expertise and support in developing a comprehensive strategy to reduce fuel use and achieve greater efficiency and cost savings.”
In recent years, the Department of Energy has partnered with Cummins, Volvo, Navistar, and Daimler Truck North America (makers of Freightliner) to increase engine efficiency and overall fuel economy from about 6.5 miles per gallon to about 9.75 miles per gallon.
The Diesel Technology Forum also endorsed the initiative, saying in a statement it would pave the way for increased reliance on clean-diesel technology. The forum’s Executive Director while commenting on the Presidential directive stated that presently, 2.86 million of the 8.8 million heavy duty trucks in the U.S. (32.5 percent) meet the first-generation clean diesel standards for model year 2007 engines. Of all trucks on the road today, 1.29 million (14.7%) meet the even more stringent clean diesel standards for 2010 and later model year engines.
