New EPA Standards A Big Win for Truckers
by RP Siegel
In 2010, heavy-duty trucks and buses accounted for 23% of all transportation-related greenhouse gases, even though they comprise less than 5% of all vehicles. In response to this, the Obama administration, in August of 2011, issued a directive, setting a new fuel efficiency targets for heavy duty trucks, starting in 2014 and extending through 2018.
With 2014 being the first year the new standards are in place, the results have been no less than remarkable. Since trucks are primarily used for commercial purposes, businesses are very interested in high efficiency since that contributes directly to their bottom line.
Sales of heavy trucks are soaring. October sales surpassed 22,000 units, the highest since 2006. Overall sales year to date have been running 20% higher than a year ago. Some of that is because buyers waited for the new models to come out. Fuel economy is a big reason why. While a typical tractor-trailer on the road today gets 5.8 mpg, those equipped with the latest engines get as much as 9 mpg. A new demonstration model SuperTruck, has been running up and down the highways, getting over 10 mpg under real world conditions. That’s an increase of 70% in fuel economy. Imagine what that can due to a trucker’s operating cost.
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Image credit: Rick: Flickr Creative Commons
RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. He has been published in business and technical journals and has written three books. His third, co-authored with Roger Saillant, is Vapor Trails, an eco-thriller that is being adapted for the big screen. RP is a professional engineer – and a prolific inventor, with 50 patents, numerous awards, and several commercial products. He is president of Rain Mountain LLC and is an active environmental advocate in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Justmeans, he writes for Triple Pundit, ThomasNet News, and Energy Viewpoints, occasionally contributing to Mechanical Engineering, Strategy + Business, and Huffington Post. You can follow RP on Twitter, @RPSiegel.
