The Windsor-Detroit corridor is Canada’s busiest artery of trade.
Agree to focus on HD vehicles in key corridors and return-to-base fleets in near term
A June roundtable was convened by Natural Resources Canada to serve as a checkpoint on work that has been underway since late March when the deployment roadmap for natural gas in transportation was launched, reports Alicia Milner, President of the Canadian Natural Gas Vehicle Alliance (CNGVA). All six working groups reported back.
A recommendation was put forward to focus on medium- and heavy-duty base vehicles operating in key corridors and return-to-base fleets in the near term followed by light duty vehicles and marine in the medium term. Roundtable stakeholders supported the recommendation, noting that a significant amount of work has been done and that the effort is on track with the draft final report due in late September. The federal government has committed to reduce carbon emissions by 17% by 2020 compared with 2005 levels.
For heavy diesel vehicles, this represents a 6.63 megatonne decrease. If 5% of highway tractors operated on natural gas, 13% of the heavy vehicle share of the 2020 target could be achieved.
Canada’s growing problem with carbon emissions from medium- and heavy-duty transport, and solutions offered by natural gas , are explored in an article by Milner, published in the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) Commodity Report in June. The article is available on the CNGVA website.
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