{"id":71856,"date":"2014-02-18T13:38:12","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T18:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=71856"},"modified":"2014-02-18T13:38:12","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T18:38:12","slug":"pres-obama-pushes-for-more-fuel-efficient-trucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2014\/02\/pres-obama-pushes-for-more-fuel-efficient-trucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Pres. Obama Pushes for More Fuel-Efficient Trucks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Trucks like these will be getting significantly better fuel economy in the years ahead.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President Barack Obama wants to markedly improve the fuel-efficiency of both medium- and heavy-duty trucks, a move that he says will address global climate change even while reducing costs for consumers.<\/p>\n

The president announced the new move during an appearance today at a grocery distribution center in suburban Washington, a map of the U.S. behind him.\u00a0 It is one of a series of steps Obama plans to take, with or without the support of a divided Congress.<\/p>\n

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Your Automotive News Source!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cImproving gas mileage for these trucks is going to drive down our oil imports even further,\u201d the president said during his visit to a Safeway facility in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. \u201cThat reduces carbon pollution even more, cuts down on businesses\u2019 fuel costs, which should pay off in lower prices for consumers. So it\u2019s not just a win-win. It\u2019s a win-win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The move was originally signaled during a speech last June but the White House is now putting the plan in motion by ordering the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Administration to have a final rule in place by March 2016 \u2013 which means that the new rules should be revealed a year earlier in order to handle the mandatory public comment period.\u00a0 The rules actually won\u2019t take effect, however, until the 2019 model-year, giving manufacturers time to implement the necessary changes.<\/p>\n

(Cold weather will cut your car’s mileage. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> to see what you can do.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It was only 2011 when the government finalized its first-ever fuel-efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks.\u00a0 About 1.5 million of those vehicles are sold annually.\u00a0 And while heavy-duty models — such as the familiar 18-wheelers that move much of America\u2019s freight cross-country \u2013 account for just 4% of the vehicles on U.S. roads, they generate about 20% of the emissions, making them the second-largest source of manmade greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n

The rules already in place will boost truck mileage by up to 20% by 2018.\u00a0 That is expected to save the industry $50 billion in fuel costs \u2013 and reduce consumption by about 530 billion barrels of oil.\u00a0 But the price tag for building the more efficient vehicles needed to meet the 2011 rules should cost another $8.1 billion.<\/p>\n

(Elio Motors close to launching $6,800, 84-mpg 3-wheeler. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for more.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The specific costs and benefits of the latest mileage proposal weren\u2019t released.\u00a0 But the administration has stated that the net results will be lower costs overall for the trucking industry \u2013 and for consumers, since shipping costs are ultimately worked into the price of everyday goods.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s on top of the benefits, stressed the president, of lowering the amount of CO2 and other gases emitted by large trucks.<\/p>\n

The proposal generally drew a positive reaction \u2013 though officials from both the transport and motor vehicle industries cautioned that safety and other issues must not be ignored in the hunt for better fuel economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuel is one of our industry\u2019s largest expenses, so it makes sense that as an industry we would support proposals to use less of it,\u201d said Bill Graves, president and CEO of the American Trucking Association.<\/p>\n

As with the 54.5 mpg fuel economy target for passenger cars and other light-duty vehicles due to go into effect in 2025, observers cautioned that the new truck rules won\u2019t necessarily be easy to implement.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcement sets up the next challenge for clean diesel technology to further improve fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from commercial vehicles including medium and heavy duty trucks and buses,\u201d said Allen Schaeffer, the Executive Director of the Forum.\u00a0 But the group also expressed its support for the latest proposal.<\/p>\n

The Tuesday announcement underscored the increasingly aggressive approach by the Obama Administration to moving forward on proposals that have been caught up in a gridlocked Congress. Among other things, Obama said he wants to press forward on a proposal to repeal an annual $4 billion tax break for the oil and gas industry, while using $2 billion in royalties to expand research on alternative vehicle powertrain technologies, including battery, biofuels and compressed natural gas.<\/p>\n

(“Wealth<\/em> gap” takes turn as one country considers banning drivers who aren’t already rich. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Barack Obama wants to markedly improve the fuel-efficiency of both medium- and heavy-duty trucks, a move that he says will address global climate change even while reducing costs for consumers.TheDetroitBureau.com has the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71856"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=71856"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=71856"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=71856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}