Sustainability takes center stage at annual Energy Day on Capitol Hill

user-gravatar Headshot
Updated Oct 14, 2010

Representatives of the American Trucking Associations joined executives and officials from every sector of the U.S. economy on Capitol Hill this week for the Consumer Energy Alliance’s 4th annual Energy Day. The event coincided with the release of “Sustainability Report 2010: Private Sector Leadership in Energy Efficiency, Conservation and Sustainability,” CEA’s latest report on how the trucking industry and other consumer-minded American business sectors are implementing sustainability initiatives.

CEA also held its first ever Sustainability Forum, featuring leading experts and business executives. More than 40 members of Congress served on the event’s host committee, and nearly 30 companies, organizations and municipal governments were represented. “Our hope is that by showcasing successful sustainability practices, we can advance the congressional dialogue on developing responsible energy policies focused on leveraging responsible management of our domestic energy resources – wind, solar, nuclear, coal, oil, and natural gas – to provide a better tomorrow and a stronger future for consumers,” says David Holt, CEA president.

Since 2008 ATA has advocated for a sustainability plan that would reduce fuel consumption by 86 billion gallons over 10 years and reduce the carbon footprint of all vehicles by nearly a billion tons over the next decade. Components of the plan include a national transportation policy that improves access and expands highway capacity around our nation’s worst traffic bottlenecks, policies that reduce speed for all vehicles on highways to 65 mph, technologies to reduce discretionary idling, policies that promote more productive trucks, the expansion of programs such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay, EPA’s voluntary greenhouse gas reduction program and further improvements to fleet fuel efficiency.

“Sustainability is a growing concern nationwide, and the trucking industry is proud of our continuing efforts to reduce fuel consumption and our carbon footprint,” says Rich Moskowitz, ATA vice president.

CEA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization comprised of more than 145 affiliate members, including energy consumers and producers, and hundreds of thousands of consumer advocates, which supports the thoughtful utilization of energy resources to help ensure improved domestic and global energy security, stable prices for consumers and balanced energy policy for America.