The National Highway Traffic Safety administration has denied a petition from Plant Oil Powered Diesel Fuel Systems to rewrite fuel efficiency standards to include pure vegetable oil as a fuel for medium and heavy trucks.
The agency disagreed with POP Diesel’s claim that NHTSA adopted less stringent standards by failing to consider pure vegetable oil (and technology to enable its usage as a feasible technology in heavy-duty vehicles) in the regulations. NHTSA also disagreed with POP's assertion that the agency failed to adequately consider the rebound effect in setting the standards.
The ``rebound effect'' refers to the fraction of fuel savings expected to result from an increase in fuel efficiency that is offset by additional vehicle use. If truck shipping costs decrease as a result of lower fuel costs, an increase in truck miles traveled may occur.