Greenhouse gas issues in the North American trucking industry

In this paper, we examine some the issues associated with reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the North American trucking industry. We review some basic descriptive statistics to apprehend the basic conditions in the three countries of North America and describe the North American trucking industry and the changes in its GHG performance. We also present some of the policies that have been either implemented or are being considered to reduce trucking GHG emissions. We then discuss some of the issues involved in choosing instruments to reduce trucking emissions. Specifically, we discuss the following instruments: incentives and standard to improve truck fuel efficiency, a tax on CO2, and tradable permits systems.