Climate 411

Broad Support for Cleaner Freight Trucks

By Jason Mathers / Published: August 12, 2016

New Clean Truck standards will arrive soon.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) are expected to imminently finalize new greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency standards for medium-and heavy-duty trucks and buses. The standards will apply to the freight trucks that transport the products we buy every day, as well as to buses and school buses, tractor-trailers, heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans, and garbage trucks. (They are separate from standards for cars and passenger trucks.)

While the new standards have not yet been released, the overall support for improving our nation’s greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards is tremendously broad – including manufacturers, trucking fleets, national security experts, and others:

Manufacturers

“Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) and its subsidiaries have focused for decades on improving freight efficiency in order to lower customers’ total operating costs. As the market leader in fuel efficiency, and the first to certify all of our products to Phase 1 GHG standards, DTNA shares EPA and NHTSA goals to improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gases.”

Greenhouse gas reduction standards for 2014 and 2017 “are very good examples of regulations that work well … We’re hoping for something similar with the next phase – challenging but good for everyone.”

  • Martin Daum, President and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America

“Environmental care is a core value for the Volvo Group, and we are aligned with the federal government’s goal to reduce GHG emissions from heavy-duty trucks.”

“As a power management company committed to increased fuel efficiency and reduced greenhouse gases, Eaton strongly supports the next phase of standards for medium and heavy duty commercial vehicles.”

“Cummins supports the proposed Phase II rule and believes it will help our industry grow in a more sustainable way, which is a win for our customers and win for the environment.”

“Fuel is an enormous expense for our industry — and carbon emissions carry an enormous cost for our planet. That’s why our industry supported the Obama administration’s historic first round of greenhouse gas and fuel-efficiency standards for medium and large trucks and why we support the aims of this second round of standards.”

Fleets and Shippers

“Strong federal standards will create an incentive for truck manufacturers to innovate and develop more fuel-efficient vehicles, so the trucks coming on the road in the years ahead will use a lot less fuel than today’s vehicles .. Better fuel economy and higher efficiency help companies compete; less money spent on fuel means more to invest in products, processes, people and communities.”

  • Indra K. Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo (in an op ed written with EDF president Fred Krupp)

“Our ability to access higher efficiency trucks is enhanced with well designed federal heavy truck fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards. We believe that the gains we have seen to date are just a hint of the engineering capabilities of this industry.”

“We support a strong Phase 2 rule that will drive innovation in truck technologies to viable solutions at a pace that ensures the technologies will have the intended triple bottom line outcomes without unintended consequences.”

  • Tracy Rosser, Senior Vice President, Walmart

“Ben & Jerry’s is committed to reducing our carbon footprint across our entire business … Strong truck fuel standards will help us continue taking bites out of our carbon footprint.”

“Strong efficiency standards for heavy trucks will help our companies avoid billions of dollars in fuel costs and at the same time support the U.S. economy by keeping product transportation affordable and insulating freight costs from volatile global and regional crude oil prices.”

“Phase 1 has begun reducing U.S. oil consumption, cutting GHG emissions and producing fuel costs savings for fleets. Phase 2 should also drive GHG reductions and fuel savings while achieving important economic and energy security benefits.”

  • Heavy-Duty Fuel Efficiency Leadership Group statement of principles, quoted in FedEx comments to the agencies (Companies in the Heavy-Duty Fuel Efficiency Leadership Group are PepsiCo, Cummins, Wabash, Waste Management, FedEx, Eaton and Conway)

“Strong fuel efficiency standards are good for American manufacturing because they incentivize innovation, making U.S. businesses more competitive globally. Investment in the research, production, and deployment of advanced vehicle technologies will give the United States an opportunity to lead in markets such as advanced batteries, which is growing quickly as technology costs have declined 50 percent since 2009.”

Innovators

“These proposed new efficiency standards will not just prove large trucks can be environmentally friendly, but they will lead to lower costs of goods and cheaper transportation costs to the benefit of businesses, truck owners and consumers, all while stimulating technological innovation and job creation, and protecting the health of Americans … It is important to note that the 40% reduction in fuel consumption and emissions in Class 6-8 vehicles proposed in the new rule is not something for the future. It is happening now. Parker has developed and is actively marketing a hydraulic hybrid medium- and heavy-duty vehicle transmission that is currently achieving and surpassing the 40% reduction in fuel consumption and emissions sought in the new rule.”

“Strong fuel efficiency standards are good for American manufacturing because they stimulate innovation, making U.S. businesses more competitive globally … Further investment in the research, production, and deployment of vehicle innovation will give the United States an opportunity to lead international markets as countries like China and Japan consider additional efficiency requirements for trucks … We urge U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation to finalize strong phase two standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks in 2016.”

“Clear, stringent, long-term fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards assist our companies and other solution providers by creating certainty that high-quality, effective innovations will be rewarded in the marketplace. To this end, we urge you to strengthen the proposed standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Efficiency for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles.”

National Security Experts

“New fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles … would increase investment in advanced technologies that will increase truck efficiency, advance our nation’s energy independence and advance national security on several fronts … The benefit to stretching a gallon of diesel to take our heavy-duty trucks father down the road on less fuel is clear. Reducing oil use improves our operational effectiveness, decreases the size and number of dangerous resupply convoys, better ensures delivery to point of need and will save American lives.”

“[T]echnologies developed to improve fuel efficiency for the U.S. trucking industry will likely also improve military operational effectiveness and save lives … To date, fuel economy standards for cars and trucks have proved to be powerful tools that have speeded innovation, decreased our dependence on oil and improved our nation’s overall security. The CNA MAB supports the next phase of rulemaking for medium and heavy-duty trucks as a matter of national security.”

“The United State’s near-exclusive dependence on oil to power transportation has routinely forced America’s military to protect oil supply lines around the globe. I am pleased to see that so many in the trucking industry support the proposed rule … Increasing the efficiency of a sector of the economy that is such a large and growing oil consumer will strengthen our national security, give our armed forces more flexibility and make our servicemen and women less likely to go into harm’s way.”

  • General James T. Conway, former 34th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps and co-Chairman of SAFE’s Energy Security Leadership Council

“The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal for regulating trucks will improve American energy security by reducing our dangerous oil dependence. Despite record levels of domestic production, America remains exposed to global oil market volatility, which recently reached levels last seen during the financial crisis. Meanwhile, violence throughout the Middle East threatens to rattle oil markets, damage our economy greatly and deepen our military involvement. The only means to reduce our exposure to such risks is to reduce our oil dependence, especially in transportation, which accounts for about three-quarters of total oil consumption.”

  • Admiral Dennis Blair, former director of national intelligence and former commander in chief of the United States Pacific Command, and a member of the Energy Security Leadership Council at Securing America’s Future Energy

“We applaud the EPA for taking this additional step to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel and cut emissions that contribute to climate change. The national security community has long recognized the effects of climate change as ‘threat multipliers,’ which is why the military has led the way on investing in energy efficiency and clean sources of energy. It is encouraging to see the civilian transportation infrastructure of this country playing a role in that fight.”

Consumer, Labor and Environmental Groups – including EDF

“As the federal government takes another step forward in addressing the nation’s energy challenges, today’s proposal to increase big truck fuel economy will not only further reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but reduce the cost of everyday consumer purchases.”

“America’s economy depends on leadership in building the next generation of clean globally competitive energy and vehicle technology. These new standards can provide a critical opportunity to sustain jobs, further reduce the pollution driving climate change and foreign oil dependence while enhancing the competitiveness of U.S.-manufactured trucks in global markets.”

“The proposed Clean Truck standards will move us miles down the road toward a cleaner, safer future. The standards will sharply reduce climate pollution from the transportation sector and will reduce America’s reliance on imported oil.”

  • Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund
Posted in Cars and Pollution, Partners for Change, Policy / Read 1 Response

Coming Soon – Cleaner Trucks, Less Pollution, and Fuel Cost Savings

By Jason Mathers / Published: August 10, 2016

Traffic Light TrucksNew and improved Clean Truck standards are coming soon.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) are expected to imminently finalize new greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency standards for medium-and heavy-duty trucks and buses. The standards will apply to the freight trucks that transport the products we buy every day, as well as to buses and school buses, tractor-trailers, heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans, and garbage trucks. (They are separate from standards for cars and passenger trucks.)

EDF, together with a broad coalition of stakeholders, has consistently called for a protective cost-effective program that will curb climate pollution and reduce our nation’s oil consumption while also driving innovative technologies that will stimulate economic growth and create high-quality domestic jobs.

Heavy-duty trucks consume almost 120 million gallons of fuel every day and emit more than 400 million metric tons of climate pollution annually. (These estimates do not include upstream emissions.) Freight movement is also one of the most briskly growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption in the United States.

The upcoming second phase of Clean Truck standards will build on the first ever heavy-duty fuel economy and GHG program, which was finalized in 2011 with broad support from truck manufacturers, national security and veterans groups, labor, consumer, and health groups, and clean air advocates (including EDF). The success of the first phase Clean Truck program is already being demonstrated by the demand for more efficient trucks and the wide variety of efficiency technologies already available for consumers to choose from.

The second-phase Clean Truck standards will apply to vehicles manufactured years from now, beginning in model year 2021 and spanning later years.The nearly final standards are an important step forward in delivering climate, health and energy benefits.

EPA estimates the standards, as proposed, would:

  • Reduce carbon pollution by one billion tons and cut fuel use by 1.8 billion barrels of oil over the lifetime of the vehicles subject to the standards
  • Save vehicle owners $170 billion in fuel costs over the lifetime of the vehicles
  • Save the average American household $150 a year by 2030
  • Reduce harmful criteria and air toxic emissions by hundreds of thousands of tons annually

Increased Efficiency Provides Savings across the Entire Supply Chain

The average semi truck today burns 20,000 gallons of diesel a year – the same volume of fuel used by 50 new passenger cars. Fuel has been the largest single cost for trucking fleets, accounting for 39 percent of the cost of ownership in 2013. According to a study by EDF and CERES, robust fuel efficiency standards for trucks could lower total per-mile cost of ownership by 22 cents-a-mile by 2040.

Companies across the Supply Chain Support Strong Final Standards

Given the combination of environmental and economic benefits that strong final standards will provide, many leading companies have already shown support. PepsiCo and Walmart – two of the largest trucking fleets in the U.S. – support strong standards. General Mills, Campbell’s Soup, IKEA and many other companies that rely on trucking also support strong standards. Innovative manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, and freight shippers have also called for strong standards.

Consumers Demand More Efficient Trucks

Some of the savings from the Clean Trucks standards will be passed on to consumers. The Consumer Federation of America found that rigorous fuel economy and greenhouse gas standards could save American households $250 annually in the near term and $400 annually by 2035 on goods and services (even more than what EPA estimated). According to a survey by the Consumer Federation of America, a large majority of Americans – 74 percent – favor requiring truck manufacturers to increase the fuel economy of large trucks to reduce their fuel costs, as much of that savings is passed on to consumers.

Cost-Effective Technologies are Proven and Available

There are many technology solutions on the shelf and in production today that can be cost-effectively scaled to make trucks significantly more efficient and cleaner. Truckers and fleets across the nation have already begun adopting many of these fuel saving technologies and strategies.

Here are some examples:

Rigorous fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty trucks and buses will make the American freight industry cleaner and create American jobs while saving American fleets and consumers money.

Posted in Cars and Pollution, Clean Air Act, Economics, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Jobs, Partners for Change, Policy / Comments are closed

Clean Trucks Turn Five and Bring Far-Reaching Economic and Environmental Benefits

By Jason Mathers / Published: August 9, 2016
One of Walmart's aerodynamic trucks

One of Walmart’s aerodynamic trucks

Five years ago today, President Obama announced final fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for heavy duty trucks. These new Clean Truck standards are helping to keep Americans safe from climate change and from unhealthy air pollution, reduce our country’s reliance on imported oil, and save money for both truckers and consumers.

On the fifth anniversary of their release, it is unequivocally clear that this program has been an enormous success for manufacturers, truck fleets, freight shippers, and the American people. It is also clear that more is needed and that more is possible.

The first generation Clean Truck standards were created with the broad support of the trucking industry and many other key stakeholders. Among the diverse groups that supported them were the American Trucking Associations, Engine Manufacturers Association and the Truck Manufacturers Association, the United Auto Workers — and of course EDF. With the benefit of five years of hindsight, it’s clear that this support was well deserved.

The Clean Truck standards went into effect in 2014, which was a banner year for new truck sales. These new standards drove a wave of innovation for fuel efficiency. Cummins brought forward an engine that was seven percent more efficient. Volvo improved its engine by three percent compared to just the previous year’s model. Numerous component manufacturers brought forth new fuel saving solutions.

We are now seeing this same pattern repeat itself as manufacturers announce their 2017 product lines. Volvo just introduced an engine capable of improving fuel efficiency by 6.5 percent over its 2013 model in part because of its use of waste-heat recovery. Cummins base 2017 engine is three percent more efficient than its 2016 engine and it offers a model that is 10 more efficient than one made just five years ago.

The progress we made toward fuel efficiency in 2014 and 2017 is the result of a Clean Trucks program that strikes an important balance between protective, long-term standards and the ability of manufacturers to bring new solutions to market. As Martin Daum, president and CEO of Daimler Trucks North America has noted, these standards “are very good examples of regulations that work well.”

The new trucks built under the 2014-to-2018 program are delivering tens of billions of dollars in savings for truck owners. Individual consumers are benefiting too, as passed-through truck fuel use expenditures cost Americans more than $1100 per household annually.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) are now building on this record of success with a new round of standards. These second-round standards were proposed last summer and are expected to be finalized soon. The proposed second-round standards were a good first step, but significant opportunities remain to strengthen and improve on the proposal. Chief among these is the need for a more robust engine standard.

The 2014-to-2017 program, which has been incredibly successful, required a nine percent engine efficiency improvement over the course of four years. In comparison, the proposed 2021-to-2029 program would require only a four percent improvement over the course of nearly a decade. Failing to strengthen these standards would be an enormous lost opportunity. Leading engine experts have found that fuel savings of fifteen percent beyond the 2017 standards are technically feasible and cost effective over the course of the 2021-to-2029 program.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration released a recent analysis of the emissions impacts of the 2021-to-2029 standards as proposed. It found that the standards would cut direct emissions by 100 million tons in 2040 compared to a business-as-usual scenario. Even with these impressive reductions, freight trucks are projected to directly emit nearly 400 million tons of climate pollution in 2040. This doesn’t have to be so.

We are seeing significant investments in potential solutions and technologies that can dramatically reduce future truck emissions.

High-profile examples of this innovation include:

  • Tesla’s intention of bringing forward an electric semi-truck, noting that a prototype truck will be unveiled in 2017
  • Walmart’s introduction of its W.A.V.E. truck
  • The U.S. Department of Energy’s SuperTruck team road-testing trucks capable of getting 10.7 and 12.2 miles per gallon

By building on the foundation of the 2014-to-2017 standards with truly strong 2021-to-2029 standards, EPA and DOT will provided needed wind in the sails to get breakthrough innovations like these to market. The benefits have been, and will be, far reaching — in fuel cost savings for trucker and shippers alike, job creation, pollution reductions, and the technological innovation that is the foundation of a strong, vibrant economy.

Posted in Cars and Pollution, Clean Air Act, Economics, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Partners for Change, Policy / Read 1 Response

California’s Communities Demand Strong Methane Rules and Regulators Listen

By EDF Blogs / Published: August 8, 2016

By Irene Burga, Tom Graff Fellow for the Oil and Gas Program

Last month, lifelong Kern County, California resident Felipa Trujillo discussed the health impacts her community, located near oil and gas operations, has experienced. “It’s the most contaminated place in the country. I have witnessed many children getting cancer and asthma, and would like to leave a positive future for my grandkids.”

Trujillo was one of over twenty witnesses that appeared last month before the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to testify on the need for strong statewide rules to reduce methane pollution from the oil and gas industry. During the meeting, Board members heard about the importance of the rules from many powerful witnesses, ranging from concerned mothers and fathers, impacted community members overburdened by poor air quality, nurses who consistently treat asthma patients, industry experts, and air district agents from throughout California.

Several Porter Ranch residents testified on what it was like to endure one of the worst methane leaks in U.S. history right in their backyard. “A month prior [to the Aliso Canyon leak being reported] my daughter Emma, 22 months at the time, began showing signs of asthma. Two months after the gas leak was reported, my daughters were diagnosed with acute exacerbation of asthma,” described Porter Ranch resident, Jaqueline Shroeder, calling on the Board to take swift action in approving strong rules. Read More »

Posted in Latino partnerships / Comments are closed

10 Reasons Why We Love Community Solar

By EDF Blogs / Published: August 2, 2016

By Jorge Madrid, Campaign Manager, Climate & Energy, and Carlos Mandeville.SunFamily

This year is set to be another record-breaker for solar power: the industry is on pace to nearly double in size by the end of 2016, and there are now more than one million solar installations in the U.S. that generated more new electricity in the first quarter of the year than coal, natural gas, and nuclear combined. This is good news, in part because 2016 is also on track to be the hottest year in recorded history – awash in scorching hot solar rays we can tap for clean, renewable energy.

Unfortunately, solar power is still inaccessible to vast, unreached markets and segments of the U.S. population. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory says only 22 to 27 percent of residential rooftops are capable of hosting a solar system because of structural challenges, tree shading, or “ownership issues” – mainly households who rent, and cannot install solar panels on roofs they don’t own. Likewise, U.S. households who earn less than $40,000 per year (40 percent of the U.S. population) account for less than five percent of all solar installations.

But the solar game is changing. New models are emerging to complement and fill gaps in the market.

Read More »

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Four Things You May Not Know About the Heat Wave

By Scott Weaver / Published: July 22, 2016

Photo by: Julie Falk

This post first appeared on EDF Voices

The National Weather Service issued extreme heat warnings for a large swath of central United States this week, drawing comparisons to the dangerous heat events of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

The combination of extreme heat and humidity in large Midwestern cities such as St Louis and Chicago will likely lead to a range of human health impacts, including the potential for fatalities. Naturally, some will question whether this heat wave is the result of human-caused climate change.

Here are four things to consider as we sort that out:

1. Temperature is only part of the story

While it is unclear at this time if daily temperature records will be broken during this event, it doesn’t necessarily matter. , especially if these conditions persist for more than two days, as is expected for this event.

We now know that the increase in global mean temperature as the result of greenhouse gas emissions is pushing us into a new climate reality where extreme heat events are much more likely.

As if heat isn’t enough, increasing atmospheric temperature has also boosted global evaporation. This has led to an increase in global atmospheric moisture content over the last several decades, and by extension a propensity for stronger heat indices.

2. Thermometers don’t matter

The metric used to quantify the combined temperature and humidity impacts on humans, the heat index, is what makes a day feel like 110 degrees even if the thermometer only shows 96 degrees – much the same way a wind chill feels colder than the mercury suggests.

With the heat index already above 105 Fahrenheit for two days straight and then rising as high as 115 F  in many Midwestern locales, health officials are urging millions of Americans to stay hydrated and indoors.

3. Day 3 of a heat wave is critical

The third day is also critical for the human body. That’s when people who remain exposed to extreme heat can often no longer cope and fatalities historically rise, especially if temperatures remain high at night and keep people from resting.

With the heat building over the eastern half of the U.S. and expected to last into the weekend, even President Obama weighed in via Twitter this week, urging citizens to “drink water, stay out of the sun and check on your neighbors.”

4. Natural cycles may play a part, as with Dust Bowl 

There are always natural climate cycles at play and they can conspire to temporarily enhance or detract from the continually increasing climate change signal.

These cycles are usually expressed through changes in the surface temperature of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and have fancy names such as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the El Niño Southern Oscillation.

But their impact is really quite simple: Because the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are so large, these natural cycles can heat large areas of the atmosphere from underneath, much like a stove heats a pot of boiling water. When aligned like they are right now, they can contribute to extreme heat and drought in the central part of the country.

It’s happened before. The conditions that kicked off the 1930s catastrophic Dust Bowl in central U.S. are widely reckoned to have originated from a combination of these natural cycles.

To be sure, the events in the 1930s also had a human cause, including poor land management and agricultural practices that led to a large-scale depletion of soil moisture. It warmed the land surface over the Great Plains and Midwest, exacerbating a persistent and large high-pressure system already in place.

Is it climate change? Science will tell.

Of course, our impact on the climate is much different today.

With monthly and annual temperature records being smashed month after month and year after year – recently pushing global atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations past 400 parts per million – it’s likely that human-caused global warming is playing a large role in this week’s heat wave.

Also different today is that the science of linking climate change to large-scale extreme heat wave events has advanced rapidly over the last decade, helping us know when to attribute extreme weather events to global warming.

So stay tuned as this week’s “heat dome” unfolds. The climate science community will be rolling up their sleeves, once again, and go to work to understand the various forces at play.

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