Canada’s Environment Minister released a consultation paper on the
development of proposed regulations to limit greenhouse gas
emissions from new on-road heavy-duty vehicles.
Canada and the United States are taking a common North American
approach, and Canada intends to implement regulations with the 2014
model year in alignment with the United States. This week, the
Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration unveiled the first-ever fuel economy standards
for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.
“We are moving forward with our sector by sector approach to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions in coordination with the United States,”
said Peter Kent, Canada’s Environment Minister. “Building on our
successful collaboration with the United States on the development
of common North American standards for light-duty vehicles, we are
also working together to do the same for heavy-duty vehicles.”
This consultation paper is intended to provide another opportunity
for interested parties to submit early comments prior to publishing
proposed regulations. Proposed regulations are targeted for
publication early in 2012 for a 60-day comment period.
The proposed regulations would seek to reduce emissions and improve
the fuel efficiency of the whole range of new on-road heavy-duty
vehicles, from full-size pick-up trucks to tractor-trailers, and
include a wide variety of vocational vehicles such as freight,
delivery, service, cement, garbage and dump trucks, as well as
buses. The proposed regulations would also seek to promote the
implementation of advanced technology vehicles such as hybrid and
electric vehicles.
Reducing emissions in the transportation sector is a key component
in the Government’s plan to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions by
17% from 2005 levels by 2020.
In addition to the proposed heavy-duty regulations, the Canadian
government has also finalized regulations to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions from passenger vehicles and mandated a requirement for an
average of 5% renewable content in gasoline, and 2% content for
diesel and heating oil.
