Freight hauling is already finely balanced between fuel efficiency and cost effectiveness. You can’t increase one without causing the other to suffer. Government stepping in and demanding higher fuel standards will cause cost effectiveness to suffer and drive consumer prices up.
Trains are incredibly fuel inefficient if you assume they’re running around empty all the time. However if you look at the amount of freight they carry against the fuel they use they become very efficient freight haulers. (Something like 400 miles per gallon per ton)
Yup. Faced with heavy fines for “fuel inefficiency,” haulers will have to start deadheading more and pass the extra expense to the customer.
It’s already happening in California.