What Phase 2 GHG Regs Mean to Fleets
Manufacturers are taking cues from their EPA SuperTruck work to meet the new regs. Navistar’s version (left) thus influenced its International LT625 tractor. Photos: Tom Berg
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Manufacturers are taking cues from their EPA SuperTruck work to meet the new regs. Navistar’s version (left) thus influenced its International LT625 tractor. Photos: Tom Berg
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What will it cost? That’s what truck operators mainly want to know as the federal Phase 2 greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards take hold. Jointly published late last summer by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the 1,700-page set of regulations took effect Dec. 27, and will require reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and greater fuel efficiency for various types of trucks, tractors and trailers, over a 10-year span.
The short answer about cost is hundreds to thousands of dollars per vehicle for each of three model years over the next decade — 2021, 2024 and 2027 — when they will meet increasingly stricter standards. Trailers come sooner, in January 2018. Paybacks at each stage will come in one to four years, according to the agencies’ estimates. “We like an 18-month return on investment,” says Glen Kedzie, an American Trucking Associations vice president and the group’s energy and environmental affairs counsel. “This is the longest regulation for implementation ever imposed on our industry. It’s going to be going on for a decade.”
Yet ATA is “cautiously optimistic” about the Phase 2 regulations, he says. They seek to lower CO2 emissions through reduction of fuel burned, which is a win for both regulators and truck operators. “They considered our concerns, and this is the only regulation that gives us something back,” he says. “In previous regulations, we just wrote the checks and that was it. We’re not 100% on board, but we’re saying the framework is there to be successful if we don’t have any surprises on maintenance, downtime, and cost.”
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