Federal government sets new standards for trucks, buses to cut tailpipe emissions

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says transport trucks and school buses built after 2020 will have to be more efficient and produce fewer greenhouse gases.

New regulations announced today require improved technology to make engines more efficient and trailers hauled by heavy trucks easier to pull, all with an aim of reducing fuel-consumption and cutting tailpipe emissions by about 25 per cent per vehicle.

McKenna says the new emissions regulations for heavy transportation vehicles are expected to cut tailpipe emissions about six million tonnes a year by 2030.

The regulations will cost the industry more than $6-billion to pay for the new technology but McKenna says it will save $1.7-billion a year from reduced fuel consumption by the time the regulations are fully implemented.

Heavy-duty vehicles such as transport trucks, school buses, garbage trucks, delivery vans and even some of the largest pickup trucks, account for almost one-tenth of Canada’s total greenhouse gas production each year.

Six million tonnes is but a small fraction of the nearly 200 million tonnes of emissions Canada must eliminate if it is to meet its commitment under the Paris climate change accord to get its annual emissions down to 30 per cent below where they were in 2005 by 2030.