Government Announces New Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles

On October 25, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced new regulatory standards to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve fuel efficiency of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. The new EPA and NHTSA standards are a response to President Obama’s May 21, 2010 memorandum regarding fuel efficiency standards , and will require medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sold between 2014 and 2018 to have emissions and efficiency improvements that will ultimately save 500 million barrels of oil and cut GHG emissions by 250 million metric tons over the lifetime of the vehicles. In a press release , EPA estimates that the program “would cost the affected industry approximately $7.7 billion, and generate total societal benefits of $49 billion, providing $41 billion in net benefits as a result of the standards over the lifetimes of model year 2014-2018 vehicles.”