The trucks that haul freight on our highways, deliver packages to our door and pickup our garbage can be much more efficient, saving fuel and money and reducing carbon pollution. By 2025, the average new truck could consume 40 percent less fuel and emit 40 percent less carbon dioxide than trucks made in 2010.
In his Climate Action Plan, President Obama calls for new standards to strengthen fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from medium- and heavy-duty trucks. Strong standards are necessary because trucks are the second largest and fastest growing source of carbon pollution and oil use in the transportation sector. As outlined in the graphic below, adopting cost-effective technologies to improve truck fuel efficiency will benefit the environment, our energy security and businesses that rely on trucking.
In the coming months, I’ll post more details describing strong federal truck efficiency standards. Standards applicable to trucks build after 2018 are expected to be proposed by the Obama Administration in January 2015.