Insight into how the immediate deployment of near-zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles fueled by renewable natural gas enables the U.S. to meet air quality and climate goals
This whitepaper explores the need—and leading approaches—to immediately start deploying zero‑emission and near‑zero‑emission heavy‑duty vehicle (HDV) technologies on a wide‑scale basis in the United States. Expeditious action is needed to reduce smog‑forming emissions from HDVs to restore healthful air quality—as is legally required under the federal Clean Air Act—for approximately 166 million Americans who reside in areas with exceedingly poor air quality. At the same time, to combat global climate change, the United States must aggressively reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from HDVs, which are the fastest growing segment of U.S. transportation for energy use and emissions.
In many regions of the U.S., these goals cannot be achieved without a systematic transformation of today’s diesel‑fueled HDVs—particularly high‑fuel‑use heavy‑heavy‑duty vehicles (HHDVs)—to zero‑ or near‑zero‑emission technologies operated on low‑carbon fuels. Four unique fuel‑technology combinations currently hold the most promise to successfully achieve this transformation. These are two types of advanced low‑emission internal combustion engines (fueled increasingly by renewable natural gas or renewable diesel); and two types of electric‑drive systems (powered by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells). Over the long term (several decades), it is likely that all four of these HDV architectures will contribute to meeting air quality and climate change goals.
However, air quality regulators have recognized that meeting air quality goals will require the immediate deployment of zero‑ and/or near‑zero‑emission HDVs, especially in the most impactful HHDV applications like on‑road goods movement trucking. This White Paper documents that only one fuel‑technology platform meets all the commercial feasibility and logistics tests to immediately begin this transformation: near‑zero‑emission heavy‑duty NGVs fueled by increasing volumes of ultra‑low‑GHG renewable natural gas (RNG).
