Are Obama's New Ideas Convenient for the Trucker? Posted by DC Cargo Mall on February 18, 2014

By March 31^st of this year, still fresh in its 2014 status, Obama has fuel efficiency plans he wants put in place.

The platform by which the announcement has been appointed to, is the Safeway Distribution Center in Maryland, a grocery chain relevant and deserving of the chosen honor due to its advances and participation in previous EPA- led initiatives for improving the efficiency of its own fleet oftrucks.

His goal of this campaign is to set new fuel standards for trucks “so we can keep driving down oil and imports and what we pay at the pump.”

The greenhouse gas standards will be altered according to the presidential order issued to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In spite of heavy-duty vehicles accounting for only 4% of registered vehicles on the road in the US, they actually comprise 25% of road-fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions coming from the transportation sector.

The White House predicts that the country will save approximately 530 million barrels of oil – more than what was annually imported from Saudi Arabia – as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 270 million tons.  How? All thanks to a previous round of fuel bolstering standards by the White House from 2011 in which the Department of Energy has provided its expertise to 23 companies with large vehicle fleets to reduce diesel and gasoline use, and transition to alternative fuels.

According to those standards, manufacturers of big rigs and semi-trucks were required to achieve a 20% fuel reduction in fuel consumption and greenhouse emissions, heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans were required to achieve a 15% reduction, and delivery trucks, buses and garbage trucks were required to achieve a 10% reduction. This has affected new models from 2014 to 2018.

The administration quite proudly forecasts that this strategy will save vehicle owners and operators $50 billion in fuel costs!

However, manufactures have responded with a dose of resistance to the dictating nature of the requests for cost improvements from Washington. However, with reducing fuel consumption as a top priority for the admin, the manufacturers have sought to be heard and speak up for shaping these rules.

As Obama considers the next phase of fuel standards, the Heavy Duty Fuel Efficiency Leadership Group, an alliance of trucking companies had this to say: “It is important to ensure flexibility and provide incentives as key attributes of any regulations going forward.”

Obama hopes to repeat his call for congress to end subsidies to oil and gas companies and alternatively create an Energy Security Trust Fund to fund research and development for progressive vehicle technologies. 

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