Fuel Efficiency Improvements: Saving Money, Oil, and our Planet

From U.S. Transportation Secretary Foxx:

When President Obama entered the Oval Office, he set an aggressive agenda to combat global climate change and cut America’s reliance on foreign sources of energy. Today, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took another positive step forward by proposing new standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, the vehicles that work in our communities and transport goods all over our country.

The new standards we’re proposing today are expected to cut fuel costs by about $170 billion, lower CO2 emissions by approximately 1 billion metric tons, and reduce oil consumption by up to 1.8 billion barrels over the lifetime of the vehicles sold under the program. These reductions are roughly equal to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with energy and electricity use by all U.S. residences in one year. The oil savings would exceed U.S. imports from the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC) each year.

Once upon a time, to be pro-environment you had to be anti-big-vehicles. This rule will change that. In fact, these efficiency standards are good for the environment – and the economy. When trucks use less fuel, shipping costs go down. It’s good news all around...

You can read more about today's proposed rule and DOT's commitment to fuel efficiency on our Fast Lane blog.