Commentary: What Happens to SmartWay With EPA Under Fire?
Rolf Lockwood
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Rolf Lockwood
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Looks like SmartWay’s days are numbered, if not those of the entire Environmental Protection Agency. These days Washington is being very unkind to anyone who believes that our shared environment matters, that our ecosystems need protection. Climate-change deniers are having a field day.
I’m no tree-hugger, and definitely no fan of the EPA, but it seems obvious to me that this is short-sighted idiocy that will cost money and jobs in the long run. Lots.
SmartWay was launched by the EPA in 2004. A voluntary government/industry partnership with fleet and vendor members, it aims to reduce the carbon footprint of trucking operations by accelerating the availability and adoption of fuel-saving technologies and practices. EPA says it has cut fuel costs by nearly $25 billion since it was formed.
Believe that figure if you like. The EPA’s numbers have always been suspect in my view, but it doesn’t much matter here. The fact is, fuel-saving technologies have been promoted and lots of people have benefited.
That said, I won’t be especially sad if EPA budget cuts kill SmartWay. We have options. Like NACFE, the North American Council for Freight Efficiency, and Canada’s PIT Group, working in conjunction with the ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council.
The problem is, SmartWay approval became the de facto spec’ing standard for all manner of gizmology. The California Air Resources Board built requirements around SmartWay approved devices. Big shippers bought in, demanding that carriers spec only SmartWay-approved componentry. Blackmail pure and simple. I know one carrier that emblazoned its trucks with SmartWay decals that they printed themselves, simple fakery that got them in some shippers’ doors.
But SmartWay has never had any testing capacity of its own, so when product X claims official approval, it does so on the basis of the maker’s own testing to meet SmartWay-mandated levels of …Read the rest of this story
