Truck Fuel Economy Standards Hearing in Long Beach 

Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2015 

My name is Charles Irvin Drew. f am testifying as citizen and a scientist. I have a Ph.D in chemistry. r 

am a professor emeritus of chemistry. Therefore I approach these truck standards from a scientific 

perspective. 

My points are as follows: 

We have to realize that fossil fuels burned today have been buried underground for 200 to 250 

million years. The energy from petroleum that we use today and drives our economy, comes from 

ancient sunlight tied up in chemical bonds. I call it buried sunshine. Much of the energy is stored in 

bonds between carbon atoms. Oil production has brought petroleum and thus the carbon to the surface. 

Burning petroleum puts the ancient buried carbon in the air in the fonn of carbon dioxide. We are thus 

changing the climate and changing the earth dramatically and radically. 

Simple chemical mathematics shows that a gasoline engine that burns I I 0 gallons of fuel 

produces one ton of C02 gases*. Because of a slight difference in density a diesel engine produces one 

ton of carbon dioxide burning 100 gallons of fuel. The majority (over 50%) of that C02 gas goes into the 

Atmosphere and absorbs energy that cannot escape the earth's atmosphere. This is what creates global 

warming. The rest of the C02 gas will be absorbed by the oceans increasing the ocean acidity. The 

molecules of C02 that entert the atmosphere will stay in the atmosphere warming the earth for about 500 

years, or about 25 generations. The wanning of our atmosphere is leading to horrific consequences for 

humans, such as sea level rise, stronger storms, and changes in precipitation that lead to flooding in 

some areas and drought in others. The remainder of the carbon dioxide that enters the oceans as a gas 

combines with water to form carbonic acid. This is increasing the acidity ofthe oceans on a global scale. 

Bad news for the coral and other aquatic and marine life 

The carbon emissions of an 18 wheel Tractor Trailer that gets 6 mpg are enormous. Follow 

through on this for a minute if you will. A loaded 18 wheel Tractor Trailer weighs about 40 tons and 

with a fuel consumption of6 miles per gallon, will produce 3.73 lbs of C02 every mile it goes down the 

road. Many rigs are driven 200,000 miles a year (with two drivers). That one tractor trailer, going that 

distance, will produce 373 tons of C02 PER YEAR. That is over nine times the weight of the loaded 

truck itself (based on a 40 ton loaded tracker trailer)! 

Strengthening the fuel economy standards will reduce not only emissions, but also costs. The 

annual fuel consumption for thatl8 wheel Tractor trailer driven 200,000 miles with 6 mpg, is 33,333 

gallons. That fuel costs (at $4.00 per gallon) $ 133,333 per year. The Union of Concerned Scientists is 

recommending standards that lead to a forty percent reduction in fuel use by new trucks by 2025. 

Achieving this target would cut carbon emissions by 150 tons of C02 per rig per year, and cut fuel costs 

by $53,000 per rig per year. These are huge savings in both cost and in carbon emissions that we must 

achieve in order to slow global warming. 

Therefore, I urge the members of this hearing committee to incorporate the Union of Concerned 

Scientists recommendations for fuel economy standards for trucks. Every effort to slow the burning of 

carbon buys us more time to create a sustainable global ecological system. 

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