Trucking industry gives initial praise to proposed carbon, efficiency controls

Green groups want the rule to include incentives and requirements that would specifically lead to more hybrid trucks on the road.
 
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the administration is not requiring that trucks run on any specific type of fuel or mandating in other ways precisely how to meet the proposed fuel-efficiency and pollution-reduction goals.
 
“This is a performance standard,” Jackson told reporters. “We set the standard out there and then we are looking for manufacturers to find ways to meet them.”
 
Jackson said industry can use currently available means of meeting the proposed rule’s goals, including improved aerodynamics, tires and engines. “We don’t think we need to necessarily pick a winner in terms of technology,” she said.
 
The rule also does not address the trailers that long-haul tractor trucks pull, which environmentalists say could further reduce emissions and improve fuel efficiency.


But industry officials say more analysis and work needs to be done before trailers can be addressed, given the variety of trailers in the marketplace and their longer lifespan compared to the tractor trucks themselves. 
 


Given that EPA and NHTSA had a short period of time to develop this initial proposed rule, “They had to be able to get their arms around an approach that would be acceptable to all the players,” said Glen Kedzie, a vice president and environmental counsel at the American Trucking Associations. 



But Kedzie expects there will eventually be federal performance standards proposed for trailers in a future rulemaking. 
“This is one of those rules that will have a dot-dot-dot attached to it,” he said.

Jackson echoed that trailers are “certainly something we could consider in a future rulemaking.” But at the moment, EPA and NHTSA have “very limited experience” in regulating trailers and are proceeding cautiously, she said.
 
The joint EPA and NHTSA proposed rule would require a 20 percent cut in emissions and fuel use from long-haul tractor-trailer trucks for model years 2014 to 2018. The agencies are proposing separate performance standards for smaller, shorter-haul trucks and vans whose fuel use and emissions would not be required to go down as much as the bigger trucks. 
 
NHTSA and EPA estimate that the proposed rule would provide $41 billion in net benefits over the lifetime of model-year 2014 to 2018 vehicles. This includes as much as $74,000 in fuel savings over the life of a semi truck, the agencies said.
 
NHTSA and EPA are estimating that the proposed rule would also save 500 million barrels of oil and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 250 metric tons.

Not all environmental groups expressed disappointment with Monday’s proposal.

The Environmental Defense Fund — seen as a centrist voice among green groups — praised the move. 

“We are in a race against time to reduce America’s dependence on oil,” said Steve Cochran, the group’s vice president of climate and air. “Today’s historic proposal is a critical step in the right direction. More efficient trucks and buses will use less imported oil, and that will help strengthen our economy, increase our national security and reduce our air pollution.”

President Obama first announced in May that the administration would develop a first-time proposed rule for these medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, which follows rules for cars and light trucks — including SUVs — finalized in April that cover model years 2012-2016.
 
White House officials — including Obama himself — have touted the rules as an example of piecemeal progress on oil reliance and emissions even in the absence of a sweeping climate and energy bill, which collapsed in the Senate over the summer.
 
The 2012-2016 rules that the Department of Transportation (DoT) and EPA completed this year for cars and light-duty trucks boost Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards and set carbon emissions requirements that, taken together, create a standard equivalent to 35.5 mpg in 2016. The improvements will eventually save 1.8 billion barrels of oil, according to the administration.
 
EPA and DoT are looking to follow that up with a joint proposed rule early next year requiring further reductions in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for cars and light trucks starting in model year 2017. The administration is looking to propose fuel efficiency standards ranging anywhere from at least 47 miles per gallon to as much as 62 mpg by 2025 in that upcoming proposal, according to environmentalists who have been briefed on the early stages of that rulemaking.
 
It would also include a proposed range for reducing carbon emissions from tailpipes of between 3 and 6 percent annually.