SAFE: New Truck Efficiency Rules Will Improve American Security
Securing America's Future Energy applauded the administration's release of proposed rules to put into place the first-ever fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks. SAFE worked together with The Accord Group throughout the year to help create and support the Heavy-Duty Fuel Efficiency Leadership Group, a diverse coalition of medium- and heavy-duty fleets and technology providers committed to informing and supporting a workable national program to reduce GHG emissions and improve the fuel efficiency of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.
"If we are going to be serious about ending America's dangerous dependence on oil, we need to look beyond light-duty vehicles," General P.X. Kelley (Ret.), 28th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and co-Chairman of SAFE's Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC), said. "Trucks represent 20 percent of the fuel we use in our transportation fleet, and yet before now, they have never been subject to fuel efficiency standards. These new proposed rules represent an important step forward for our nation's economic and national security."
According to the EPA and the Department of Transportation, the proposed rules "will save 500 million barrels of oil over the lives of the vehicles produced within the program's first five years."
In 2006, the ESLC—a group of business executives and retired military leaders led by General Kelley (Ret.) and Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of FedEx Corporation—released their Recommendations to the Nation on Reducing U.S. Oil Dependence, helping shape the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which included the nation's first-ever fuel-economy standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks. In September 2008, the ESLC released A National Strategy for Energy Security, a comprehensive plan to improve the nation's energy security that recommended "an aggressive and expeditious rule-making process with regard to medium- and heavy-duty trucks."
In 2010, SAFE joined with The Accord Group to help bring together the Heavy-Duty Fuel Efficiency Leadership Group. Participating companies include:
* Con-way Inc.
* Cummins Inc.
* Eaton Corp.
* FedEx Corp.
* Wabash National Corp.
* Waste Management Inc.
The Heavy-Duty Fuel Efficiency Leadership Group devised a set of principles for regulating the carbon emissions from medium- and heavy-duty trucks that it proposed to the Obama administration in April 2010.