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Report: Advanced tech can bring huge fuel savings to trucking industry

A new report from Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE) says advanced technologies can bring huge fuel savings in the oil-thirsty trucking industry — if Congress and federal agencies make policy changes that catalyze their deployment.

Reproduced from a Nov. 2017 Securing America's Future Energy study

Some key nuggets from the report:

  • "The adoption of linked 33-foot trailers, known as twin-33s, will result in an estimated 23 billion gallons of diesel saved by 2050."
  • "The widespread use of existing platooning technologies could save up to 20 billion gallons of diesel fuel through 2050."

Why it matters: Check out the chart above that reflects the report's findings that oil demand from trucking has grown more than passenger cars and other transport sectors in recent decades.

  • Overall, according to SAFE, long-haul trucks that move hundreds of billions of dollars of freight annually are just 4% of the vehicles on the road but account for 13% of U.S. petroleum demand.

Latest from EPA: "The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule Thursday to repeal tighter emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks with older engines, an Obama-era regulation aimed at controlling soot and other pollutants along with greenhouse-gas emissions linked to climate change," The Washington Post reports.