Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards and Fuel Efficiency Standards for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines and Vehicles

EPA and NHTSA, on behalf of the Department of Transportation, are each finalizing rules to establish a comprehensive Heavy-Duty National Program that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption for on-road heavy-duty vehicles, responding to the President's directive on May 21, 2010, to take coordinated steps to produce a new generation of clean vehicles. NHTSA's final fuel consumption standards and EPA's final carbon dioxide (CO<INF>2</INF>) emissions standards are tailored to each of three regulatory categories of heavy-duty vehicles: Combination Tractors; Heavy-duty Pickup Trucks and Vans; and Vocational Vehicles. The rules include separate standards for the engines that power combination tractors and vocational vehicles. Certain rules are exclusive to the EPA program. These include EPA's final hydrofluorocarbon standards to control leakage from air conditioning systems in combination tractors, and pickup trucks and vans. These also include EPA's final nitrous oxide (N<INF>2</INF>O) and methane (CH<INF>4</INF>) emissions standards that apply to all heavy- duty engines, pickup trucks and vans. EPA's final greenhouse gas emission standards under the Clean Air Act will begin with model year 2014. NHTSA's final fuel consumption standards under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 will be voluntary in model years 2014 and 2015, becoming mandatory with model year 2016 for most regulatory categories. Commercial trailers are not regulated in this phase of the Heavy-Duty National Program. The agencies estimate that the combined standards will reduce CO<INF>2</INF> emissions by approximately 270 million metric tons and save 530 million barrels of oil over the life of vehicles sold during the 2014 through 2018 model years, providing over $7 billion in net societal benefits, and $49 billion in net societal benefits when private fuel savings are considered. EPA is also finalizing provisions allowing light-duty vehicle manufacturers to use CO<INF>2</INF> credits to meet the light-duty vehicle N<INF>2</INF>O and CH<INF>4</INF> standards, technical amendments to the fuel economy provisions for light-duty vehicles, and a technical amendment to the criteria pollutant emissions requirements for certain switch locomotives.