Truck Fuel Efficiency

Truck Fuel Efficiency. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

My father-in-law was a career truck driver. He worked on the road in a time when fuel costs were relatively low. Today’s high fuel prices are nothing to sneeze at even for the family vehicle. President Obama made an announcement yesterday calling for a new round of fuel-efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

OBAMA: Five years ago, we set out to break our dependence on foreign oil.  And today, America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades.  For the first time in nearly 20 years, America produces more oil here at home than we buy from other countries.  Our levels of dangerous carbon pollution that contributes to climate change has actually gone down even as our production has gone up.  And one of the reasons why is because we dedicated ourselves to manufacturing new cars and new trucks that go farther on a gallon of gas.

The President was speaking at a Safeway in Maryland.

OBAMA: Heavy-duty trucks account for just 4 percent of all the vehicles on the highway.  But they’re responsible for about 20 percent of carbon pollution in the transportation sector.  So trucks like these are responsible for about 20 percent of our on-road fuel consumption.  And because they haul about 70 percent of all domestic freight -- 70 percent of the stuff we use, every mile that we gain in fuel efficiency is worth thousands of dollars of savings every year. 

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.