EPA’s Grundler Praises SmartWay Partnership With ATA
After being welcomed to the stage by incoming ATA Chairman Pat Thomas at the Management Conference & Exhibition here Oct. 19, Chris Grundler, director of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, declared that EPA and ATA have “different visions but a common cause.”
According to Grundler, that common cause is “to improve the overall efficiency of moving goods across the country” through SmartWay while reducing emissions and thus helping to preserve the environment. He noted that trucking is the fastest-growing segment of the transportation sector and that trucking will surpass passenger vehicles in worldwide energy consumption by 2030.
“We’ve got to stop fouling our nest,” Grundler said.
EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration were ordered by President Obama to issue new fuel-efficiency standards and greenhouse gas-emissions standards for heavy-duty and medium-duty commercial trucks. Phase 1 of the program began in January 2014 with a 3% tightening on carbon dioxide over the EPA estimate for the average heavy-duty truck engine made in 2010.
Grundler termed Phase 2, which has been in the planning stages for two years and is expected to be unveiled by next summer, “my office’s highest priority and one of EPA’s highest priorities. We want to build on the success of Phase 1.”
That success, Grundler said, is a “win-win-win” in reducing costs for carriers, saving energy and reducing emissions. The Kalamazoo, Michigan, native said that EPA “doesn’t want to pick winner and losers” as companies take “multiple pathways” to reach SmartWay’s standards.
“It’s the right thing to do,” ATA President Bill Graves said.
Cheryl Bynum, national director of SmartWay, introduced the ATA members who were recognized as the program’s most successful among its more than 3,000 partners.
They were Con-way Truckload, Covenant Transport, C.R. England, Doug Andrus Distributing, Edwards Distribution Services, Frito-Lay, Heartland Express of Iowa, Heritage Transport, J&M Tank Lines, Knight Transportation, Old Dominion Freight Line, Prime Inc., Roehl Transport, Swift Transportation and Werner Enterprises.
