Schneider is helping to kick off ATA’s initiative by reducing the speed limit for its fleet of trucks to 60 mph, he said.

The transportation industry’s voluntary initiatives come as the government considers imposing mandatory requirements on industry, such as the cap-and-trade program called for in the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act.

If transporters feel they have a green bull’s-eye painted on the side of their equipment, there’s a reason. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the transportation industry emitted more than 27 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2006.

More than a fifth of that came from trucks, according to the EPA, a 43.5 percent increase from 1990 levels.

“The movements of goods has a real impact on air quality and global warming,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “Goods movement and its impact on congestion and air quality will be at the top of my list of issues that need to be addressed through the [surface transportation] authorization process.”

From the Lieberman-Warner legislation to the Clean Ports plan targeting trucks at Southern California’s ports, the transportation industry clearly sees green writing on the regulatory walls.

“Every major U.S. industry understands the mood of Congress and the developing mood in the country, and this attention to the environment is not going to lessen in the next few years,” said Bill Graves, president and CEO of the ATA.

The ATA, which began working on its industrywide environmental program before the Lieberman-Warner climate legislation was introduced last October, dismisses suggestions that its efforts are aimed at stemming economically harmful regulation.

But others, including members of ATA’s Sustainability Task Force, say there is more than “doing the right thing” at play.

“That [regulation] has to be looked at as part of this,” said C. Randal Mullett, a member of the task force, and a vice president at Con-way. “Every little bit we can do means the regulatory measures don’t have to be as onerous as they might otherwise be.”

Included in the six ways ATA aims to reduce the trucking industry’s carbon footprint are recommendations that could prove costly, such as purchasing new technology like hybrid tractors to reduce fuel consumption and pushing Congress to enact a 65 mph national speed limit.

And the association for the first time ever says it will support

Over Greby Ari Neattern

Truckers, railroads are acting

on the environment to stay