True Or False? Better Diesel Fuel Economy Is An Efficient Form Of Decarbonization

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Diesel fuel economy has been on the minds of long-haul trucking industry leaders. A push to decarbonize trucking is largely due to the fact that more than 3% of all carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions come from heavy trucks. Sure, as a result of EPA regulations, diesel engines manufactured today are cleaner than ever before. But because diesel engines can operate for 30 years or more, millions of older, dirtier engines are still in use. Reducing exposure to diesel exhaust from these engines is of the utmost importance.

“The trucking industry has done a great job of reducing emissions and delivering goods in a cleaner way,” argues Michael Roeth, executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE), in a recent Fleet Owner editorial. “And we need to take more credit for that. Frankly, I think we should be shouting from the rooftops just what a good job we’ve done.”

Mr. Roeth seems like a nice person. He seems dedicated to the success of the trucking industry. But is his point valid? Do lowered emissions from diesel-powered long-haul vehicles really count as significant decarbonization? Let’s do a deep dive and see.

What is Decarbonization?

Roeth: “We must remind people that getting more miles from a gallon of diesel fuel is decarbonizing. Yes, it is! And it is happening now in a big way. The further you drive moving freight on one gallon of diesel, the less diesel you use over the course of a day.“

The NACFE self-describes as an organization that drives the development and adoption of efficiency enhancing, environmentally beneficial, and cost-effective technologies, services, and operational practices in the movement of goods across North America. Roeth says that the organization’s “role is helping the trucking industry operate more efficiently, lower costs, and reduce emissions.”

Renée Cho wrote on the Columbia Climate School site in 2022 that decarbonization entails reducing the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the combustion of fossil fuels. This can be done by preventing emissions through the use of zero-carbon renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, and biomass, which now make up one-third of global power capacity, and electrifying as many sectors as possible.

Nancy Stauffer of the MIT Initiative explains that the problem is that long-haul trucks run almost exclusively on diesel fuel, and burning diesel releases high levels of CO2 and other carbon emissions. Global demand for freight transport is projected to as much as double by 2050, so it’s critical to find another source of energy that will meet the needs of long-haul trucks while also reducing their carbon emissions.

Things change quickly in the world of clean energy, and a 2024 article from Climate Impact Partners adds that decarbonization aims to lower the amount of CO2 emitted from human activity, with the ultimate goal of eliminating all human-made CO2 emissions in their entirety.

Disparate Paths to Trucking Industry Decarbonization

Roeth: “Our most recent Fleet Fuel Study shows that the average MPG for participating fleets was 7.77 in 2023. In 2013 that number was 6.67 MPG. But it’s not just the fleets in the Fleet Fuel Study that have improved their MPG. The fuel economy for the industry was 5.85 MPG in 2013 and in 2022 (the most recent year for which data is available from the Federal Highway Administration) it was 6.91.”

While reduced diesel fuel economy might be a start, it’s not a roadmap, and there’s no agreement across the trucking industry on the best way to achieve decarbonization. “It’s pretty easy for policy to do a job when the technology is clear,” said Samantha Gross, director of the energy security and climate initiative at the Brookings Institution, told TIME earlier this year. “We’re still in the ‘let different kinds of flowers bloom’ stage.”

The US EPA outlines the danger of diesel.

Human Health — Exposure to diesel exhaust can lead to serious health conditions like asthma and respiratory illnesses and can worsen existing heart and lung disease, especially in children and the elderly. These conditions can result in increased numbers of emergency room visits, hospital admissions, absences from work and school, and premature deaths.

Environment — Emissions from diesel engines contribute to the production of ground-level ozone which damages crops, trees, and other vegetation. Also produced is acid rain, which affects soil, lakes and streams and enters the human food chain via water, produce, meat, and fish. These emissions also contribute to property damage and reduced visibility.

Global Climate — Climate change affects air and water quality, weather patterns, sea levels, ecosystems, and agriculture. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from diesel engines through improved fuel economy or idle reduction strategies can help address climate change, improve our nation’s energy security, and strengthen our economy.

It’s Time to Convert Better Diesel Fuel Economy Goals to Fleet Electrification

Roeth: “Then there are all the people making add-on devices that further improve the aerodynamics of the trucks or address tire inflation. The fleets themselves deserve a big thank you as they are investing in these fuel efficiency technologies, adjusting engine parameters for fuel economy, and teaching drivers how to drive with fuel economy in mind.”

Aerodynamic efficiency enhancements are great — they advance diesel fuel economy in the short term. Yet long haul trucking decarbonization would occur more quickly if one of its primary challenges were to be addressed instead: that of fortifying electrifying freight trucks through adequate charging infrastructure without compromising freight operations.

Granted, turning diesel-powered trucks into electric vehicles (EVs) poses several dilemmas. Personal EVs can travel several hundred miles on a single charge these days, which is good news for the average driver. But some trucks that travel cross country need to be in operation for 1,000 miles, which right now would mean lost delivery time due to the need to recharge a couple times.

Batteries needed to power long haul trucks can weigh 5,000 to 10,000 pounds each, which would reduce the weight of payloads. Federal regulations bar the biggest trucks from transporting more than 80,000 pounds on the interstate highway system.

Critics also argue that charging up these big batteries would be a significant draw on electrical grids across the country. Our CleanTechnica colleague Michael Barnard acknowledges that “batteries built in the US, with the possible exception of Tesla, will remain much more expensive, and cheaper batteries from China will be difficult to consider immediately.”

Such arguments against battery electric long haul trucking have been floating around for a while. There is increasing consensus around the globe, however, that battery electric trucks will play a dominant role in the decarbonization of the road freight sector, including for long haul. Since trucks are heavily used to transport capital goods, the advantage of battery electric vehicles in terms of lower fuel and maintenance costs grows with increasing mileage, making them particularly competitive for long haul transport.

Movement of freight in the US is going to shift more and more to roads on electric trucks. If industry execs like Roeth focused on starting small within the constraints of the grid, leveraging buffering batteries, and drawing on onsite solar, a systemic shift from better diesel fuel economy to electrification would be a valuable alternative. It would enable a portion of the fleet at the depot or visiting truck stops to be electric immediately.

Adding capacity to the microgrid, often aligned with the ability of utilities to add grid connections and approval for larger solar arrays, can be integrated with increases in electric fleet sizes, says Barnard. He adds that charging infrastructure at distribution centers and depots for trucks must be designed for first- and last-mile services. Trucks that operate over shorter distances can charge at truck depots where they are parked during non-operational hours.

Final Thoughts

Yesterday, former US President Jimmy Carter died at age 100.

In his Farewell Address on January 14, 1981, President Jimmy Carter worried about the direction of the country, as related by historian Heather Cox Richardson on her Substack. The American people had begun to lose faith in the government’s ability to deal with problems, Carter decried, and were turning to “single-issue groups and special interest organizations to ensure that whatever else happens, our own personal views and our own private interests are protected.” This focus on individualism, he warned, distorts the nation’s purpose because “the national interest is not always the sum of all our single or special interests. We are all Americans together, and we must not forget that the common good is our common interest and our individual responsibility.”

Carter urged Americans to protect our “most precious possessions: the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land which sustains us,” and to advance the basic human rights that had, after all, “invented America.” “Our common vision of a free and just society,” he said, “is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad, greater even than the bounty of our material blessings.”

Carter saw that the collective interest in national goals must supplant individual pursuits. The vast trucking industry can become a model for decarbonization; however, it can’t ground a vision in the golden era of the past through diesel. It must turn to electrification at all stages of the trucking journey.

Featured image: “AA Diesel Truck Bodies – Truck Tray” by Leadership scholar is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.