By Kate Kerlin, UC Davis.

Switching from diesel fuel to natural gas may hold advantages for the nation’s heavy-duty trucking fleet, but more needs to be done to reach the full environmental benefits, according to a report released today from the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, and Rice University.

With the so-called “shale revolution,” the recent emergence of natural gas as an abundant, inexpensive fuel in the United States has raised the possibility of a larger shift in the level of natural gas used in transportation. The report examines the economic and environmental viability of such a shift, and whether it could enable a transition to lower carbon transport fuels.

“On a resilience basis, an energy security basis, and on an economic basis, there can be advantages to switching to natural gas in key locations,” said lead author Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director for Energy and Sustainability at UC Davis and an affiliate at ITS-Davis.