Do Obama’s New Fuel Standards Overlook the Obvious?

President Obama’s ambitious Climate Action Plan has focused on increasing the efficiency and reducing the carbon emissions of heavy duty vehicles (HDV,) and while this is a laudable goal, it has many in the logistics industry wondering whether it is achievable. It has also been criticized by the intermodal freight industry for overlooking an obvious solution to the fuel efficiency of transporting cargo across the United States- the intermodal rail networks. Currently, the vast majority of freight in America travels by truck, and although there have been significant strides towards improving the fuel efficiency of that transport sector, these measures are already producing almost the maximum amount of improvement in the energy consumption of transporting cargo across the country. A recent study by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy found that the strategies that have been employed by trucking companies to date, like optimizing load weights, reducing speeds and improvements in freight system efficiency, have contributed significantly to the more efficient trucking of cargo, but still fall well short of the 50% improvement in fuel efficiency that has been targeted by the Presidential Climate Action Plan. While the improvements to the fuel efficiency of HDV are approaching the best that can be expected, with the trucking industry continually looking for ways to continue to reduce their fuel consumption, it seems that the area where real increases in efficiency can be had are in the overall logistics chain, and the focus of reducing carbon emissions is shifting away from more efficient trucks to using the already very efficient rail networks. The intermodal rail networks have seen significant upgrades with a number of new or renovated freight hubs having come online in the past couple of years. This development of the practicality of using the rail networks, which have traditionally been used for bulk cargo transit rather than containerized freight, makes it possible to move those containers to a freight hub that is much closer to their ultimate destination, as a means of reducing the road miles that it travels on the back of a truck. This alone will reduce the fuel consumption associated with freight logistics beyond the targeted 50% efficiency increases outlined in the presidential plan. As appealing as this approach is, there is no mention of any such strategy in the plan, and this has many in the intermodal freight industry wondering whether Obama has overlooked the most obvious solution to the problem of rising carbon emissions.