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This week, President Obama revealed a new plan to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, which included establishing new fuel-efficiency standards for heavy-duty trucks after 2018 and increasing the use of compressed natural gas as a fuel for vehicles.
In 2011, the White House finalized the first-ever fuel-efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks like semis, garbage trucks, and buses. The standards called for those vehicles to decrease fuel consumption by 10-20%, depending on the design and function of the vehicles. The new regulations will go into effect in 2014 and run through 2018, and are obligatory under a 2007 energy law and will increase the efficiency of larger automobiles by up to 20%.
Under the program, trucks and buses made from 2014 through 2018 will lessen greenhouse gas pollution by around 270 million metric tons. Specific combination tractors — commonly known as big-rigs or semi-trucks — will be expected to reach up to approximately 20% reduction in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by model year 2018, preserving up to four gallons of fuel for every 100 miles traveled.
“The fuel standards we set over the past few years mean that by the middle of the next decade, the cars and trucks we buy will go twice as far on a gallon of gas. That means you’ll have to fill up half as often; we’ll all reduce carbon pollution,” Obama said. “And we built on that success by setting the first-ever standards for heavy-duty trucks and buses and vans. And in the coming months, we’ll partner with truck makers to do it again for the next generation of vehicles.”
The impact of these regulations could be far-reaching as the trucking industry is still transitioning to those heavy-duty fuel standards set in 2011. And while truck and engine makers started publicizing EPA certification for 2014 equipment as early as last year, the model-year 2018 greenhouse gases standards are more broad and challenging.
As opposed to automobile fuel efficiency standards, the truck measure does not set a miles-per-gallon goal, because of the numerous categories and different kinds of vehicles, along with the many uses for which the heavy-duty vehicles are designed and made.
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