In The News
Obama to order tightened fuel efficiency, emissions standards for post-2018 trucks
President Barack Obama is set to announce Feb. 18 new greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency standards for post-2018 year model trucks, per a White House announcement, in a speech today in Maryland.
Obama will order the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation to produce a rule by March 2015 to once again tighten fuel efficiency standards and greenhouse gas emissions standards, nailing down specifics for the president’s Climate Action Plan unveiled in June 2013, where Obama announced his intention to direct such initiatives.
The rule would go into effect March 2016, per the White House announcement, and will build upon the first-ever fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty trucks implemented for 2014-2018 model trucks.
The first round, the White House says, is expected to save the trucking industry $50 billion and save 530 million barrels of oil.
The next round will save the average truck owner $73,000 in the typical lifetime of a truck, the White House says.
The announcement says that in 2010, trucks made up four percent of the vehicles registered in the U.S. but accounted for a quarter of the nation’s fuel use and emissions.
The President in his speech today also is going to prod Congress to end subsidies for oil and gas companies and to create a research fund for research into “advanced vehicle technologies.â€
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