Sustainability Takes Center Stage at Annual Energy Day on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Representatives of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) will join executives and officials from every sector of the U.S. economy on Capitol Hill today for the Consumer Energy Alliance's (CEA) 4th annual Energy Day.

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The event will begin at 2 p.m. today in the Senate's Kennedy Caucus Room with the release of "Sustainability Report 2010: Private Sector Leadership in Energy Efficiency, Conservation and Sustainability," CEA's latest report on how the trucking industry and other consumer-minded American business sectors are implementing sustainability initiatives. CEA will also hold its first ever Sustainability Forum, featuring leading experts and business executives, and will end with an open reception.  More than 40 members of Congress are serving on the event's host committee, and nearly 30 companies, organizations and municipal governments will be represented.

"Today's forum will provide an opportunity for various business sectors and municipal governments to communicate to their peers, as well as to our nation's legislative leaders, how they are successfully confronting the energy challenges and opportunities they face," CEA president David Holt said. "Our hope is that by showcasing successful sustainability practices, we can advance the Congressional dialogue on developing responsible energy policies focused on leveraging responsible management of our domestic energy resources – wind, solar, nuclear, coal, oil, and natural gas – to provide a better tomorrow and a stronger future for consumers."

"Sustainability is a growing concern nationwide, and the trucking industry is proud of our continuing efforts to reduce fuel consumption and our carbon footprint," ATA Vice President Rich Moskowitz said.

Since 2008 ATA has advocated for a sustainability plan that would reduce fuel consumption by 86 billion gallons over ten years and reduce the carbon footprint of all vehicles by nearly a billion tons over the next decade. Components of the plan include a national transportation policy that improves access and expands highway capacity around our nation's worst traffic bottlenecks, policies that reduce speed for all vehicles on our highways to 65 mph, technologies to reduce discretionary idling, policies that promote more productive trucks, the expansion of programs such as EPA's Smartway(SM), EPA's voluntary greenhouse gas reduction program, and further improvements to fleet fuel efficiency.

CEA Energy Day brings together government officials and their staff with representatives from a broad spectrum of business sectors – trucking, agriculture, airlines, manufacturing, small business and energy producers – and municipal governments to discuss energy strategies and their role in helping to create jobs, revitalize the economy and improve our nation's energy security. This year's Sustainability Forum will introduce a discussion on how myriad business sectors and municipal governments have advanced initiatives aimed at boosting energy efficiency, conservation and sustainability. CEA's Sustainability Report, which will be officially released at the forum, will contain best practices and achievements from every sector of the American economy in their pursuit of more effective energy management practices.

Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, comprised of more than 145 affiliate members, including energy consumers and producers, and hundreds of thousands of consumer advocates, that supports the thoughtful utilization of energy resources to help ensure improved domestic and global energy security, stable prices for consumers and balanced energy policy for America.

Visit www.trucksdeliver.org to learn about ATA's sustainability plan.

For more information on CEA Energy Day, visit www.consumerenergyalliance.org.

The American Trucking Associations (www.truckline.com) is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States. Follow ATA on Twitter @TruckingMatters (www.twitter.com/truckingmatters), or become a fan on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/y4qwp6h).

SOURCE American Trucking Associations