Senate Seeks Mileage Study Before Setting Truck CAFE

This story appears in the June 25 print edition of Transport Topics.

The Senate last week weakened legislation that would have set fuel-mileage standards for heavy trucks, instead ordering an 18-month study of large-truck fuel economy before the government can set such standards.

In language presented by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) during debate on an energy bill that could also raise fuel-economy standards for passenger cars and provide various incentives for renewable fuel production, the Senate would drop a requirement for specific cuts in large-truck fuel use.

Debate on the overall energy bill continued past press time, but Joe Suchecki, a spokesman for the Engine Manufacturers Association, said, “It appears that what we’ll get in the Senate bill is a study of the whole fuel-efficiency issue and an identification of what type of metric is going to be used and how you would actually go about identifying and implementing standards on heavy-duty trucks.”

EMA, the Truck Manufacturers Association and other groups had lobbied to change the bill that the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved in May. That legislation would have created Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards for heavy trucks, after a study of current mileage rates and then would have mandated 4% annual improvements in mileage (5-14, p. 4).

The version pending in the Senate last week would direct the Department of Transportation to study the fuel efficiency of commercial medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

Those studies, to be done within 18 months, would have to include test procedures for measuring fuel economy, “taking into consideration, among other things, the work performed by such on-highway vehicles.”

“We pointed out the basic fact that these are weight-bearing work vehicles,” said Robert Clarke, TMA president. “If you use a straight miles per gallon standard, that would argue for smaller trucks, carrying less freight, which would lead to more trucks on the road and, overall, more fuel being consumed, and that would be counterproductive.

“A CAFE program modeled after the light vehicle program is not appropriate for heavy vehicles,” Clarke said, adding that the standards for a large vehicle fuel economy could be set on a ton-miles per gallon basis, rather than pure miles per gallon, as a way to address the need to haul weight.

When DOT has completed its study, the department, along with the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, will set up “a commercial medium- and heavy-duty on-highway fuel-efficiency improvement program and, as appropriate, shall adopt test methods, measurement metrics, fuel-efficiency standards and compliance and enforcement protocols that are appropriate, cost effective and technologically feasible,” the bill states.

Bob McKenna, president of the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association, said the study was “a step in the right direction.”

“There is virtually no data on which to base any new requirements in the heavy vehicle arena, and a study is a sensible and necessary first step before arbitrarily assuming any heavy-vehicle fuel-economy standard,” he said.

“It’s not a foregone conclusion that standards will result from this,” Clarke said. “The study has to be done first.”

Suchecki told Transport Topics that setting mileage standards for heavy-duty commercial vehicles was “not as critical an issue in terms of the need for regulation like on the light-duty side.”

“This is really a customer issue,” he said, noting that manufacturers often tout their vehicles’ fuel efficiency as a selling point to fleets. “It’s really a marketing issue.”

“Our position going in was that this was not necessary because carriers are already incredibly mindful of fuel efficiency,” Clarke said, “and there’s already a strong demand for fuel-efficient vehicles.”

On June 21, as debate about the overall bill continued, the Senate  voted to raise CAFE standards for cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles to 35 mpg by 2020.

Currently, cars must get 27.5 miles per gallon, and light trucks and SUVs must get 22.2 mpg.

The move came after a compromise was reached to strip the energy bill of provisions crafted by the Commerce Committee that would have called for annual increases of 4% after reaching the 2020 goal.

In addition, the compromise bill calls for automakers to make half of their vehicles capable of running a fuel consisting of 85% ethanol.

“This is a victory for the American public,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

“This compromise is a significant step to keeping this legislation moving forward,” said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).