U.S. to Set Truck Fuel Goals

Editor’s Note: Click here for additional information that was updated after TT went to press.

The Obama administration was set last week to outline a path to national fuel-economy standards for large trucks, bringing industry and government officials to the White House to announce a plan that could aim at driving habits as well as equipment changes to reduce fuel use.

The White House said in the announcement, scheduled for May 21, after Transport Topics’ press time, that President Obama was “directing EPA and DOT to create a first-ever national policy to increase fuel efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks for model years 2014-2018.”

The administration also said it intends to announce a further tightening of fuel economy standards for passenger vehicles to begin in 2017.

“This announcement,” a White House statement said, “lays the groundwork for a more secure energy future by reducing our dependence on oil, enhancing American competitiveness with a new generation of advanced electric vehicles and protects the environment by reducing dangerous greenhouse gas and other pollutants.”

Industry groups, including American Trucking Associations, the Engine Manufacturers Association, the Diesel Technology Forum, trucking and logistics company Con-way Inc., the Union of Concerned Scientists and several truck and engine manufacturers, were expected to attend the announcement ceremony at the White House.

“For several years, ATA has supported the development of fuel economy standards for trucks,” ATA President Bill Graves said. “Reducing fuel consumption and CO2 production is good for the trucking industry and great for the environment.”

“I am excited to see the administration moving forward,” ATA Chairman Tommy Hodges said in a statement.

Hodges, the chairman of carrier Titan Transfer Inc., Shelbyville, Tenn., headed ATA’s recent task force on sustainability, which laid out options for improving the fuel efficiency of large trucks.

That 2007 report, Hodges said, “offered truck fuel economy standards and five other recommendations to reduce fuel consumption by 86 billion gallons and carbon emissions by 900 million tons over a 10-year period.”

Randy Mullett, vice president of government affairs for Con-way, told TT that he and other industry executives who had met with administration officials about the effort “were pleasantly surprised that they were being sensitive to not disrupt the market and to make sure that anything they come out with has a genuine fuel savings and also a reasonable payback period” in terms of return on investment.

Mullett said the administration also was being “very sensitive to the notion that trucks are spec’ed for a particular job, and they know that they can’t have any one-size-fits-all rule.” He said the ideas the government was exploring were very close to those in a March report by the National Academy of Sciences.

That study, which Congress re-quested in 2007 as part of energy legislation, envisioned a 50% increase in diesel-engine fuel economy for heavy trucks by using other steps, such as driver education, in addition to engine and aerodynamics advances.

The study also examined the challenges of, and possible methods for, testing fuel economy in trucks. Focusing narrowly on miles per gallon could interfere with the primary function of Class 8 trucks, hauling large amounts of heavy freight, it said (4-5, p. 3).

Other methods of reducing fuel consumption included in the NAS study were coaching drivers to improve economy with more effective driving techniques, employing hybrid technology and reducing a vehicle’s total weight.

An industry source told TT that the White House announcement would have “no specifics at all,” other than that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation would collaborate on a regulation.

“This is all about making commitments for cleaner cars and trucks,” Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum, Frederick, Md. — a trade group whose members include Cummins Inc., Daimler Trucks North America, Navistar Inc. and Volvo Group — told Transport Topics. “The first step in this is that everybody endorses a path.”

“Our information is that it’s to indicate that EPA and DOT are going to work together on a national program for fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles,” said Joe Suchecki, spokesman for the Engine Manufacturers Association.

Schaeffer said the intended improvements in heavy-truck fuel economy would be built around familiar components identified in EPA’s SmartWay program.

“The big news is that the agreement for all to see is that new trucks in the future will use these technologies at the core of engine development,” he said.

Senior Reporter Rip Watson contributed to this story.