The work of ME Professor Dennis Assanis and two other UM faculty was cited in a presidential memorandum regarding fuel efficiency standards, issued on May 21, 2010.
Assanis, Professor Martin Zimmerman of the Ross Business School, and John Woodrooffe of the Transportation Research Institute were three of 18 participants in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study which the memorandum mentioned.
Under section 1 of the memorandum, the President requests that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) immediately begin work on a joint rulemaking under the Clean Air Act and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to establish fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions standards for commercial medium- and heavy-duty vehicles beginning with model year 2014, with the aim of issuing a final rule by July 30, 2011.
The President also requests that EPA and NHTSA consider in their process the finding and recommendation of the NAS report on medium- and heavy-duty truck regulation to which Assanis, Zimmerman and Woodrooffe contributed.