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American Trucking Associations, truck manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have urged the Senate to address a research and development bill on increasing fuel efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

The Advanced Vehicle Technology Act of 2009 passed the House in September but has sat for months in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. A May 25 letter from ATA and 21 other signatories asked that the bill be reported to the full Senate.

President Obama’s recent executive action ordering new vehicle emissions standards for trucks makes the advanced technology bill “critical going forward,” the letter said. (Click here for previous story.)

��The letter was sent to Energy Committee Chairman Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D) of New Mexico and the committee’s ranking Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

The bill would promote public-private partnerships and improved research coordination between government and industry in order to develop and deploy new technologies to lower fuel use and emissions.

A research program like that outlined in the bill is critical because the trucking industry needs advanced research and development to take trucks beyond the 2014-2018 time period in Obama’s order, said Glen Kedzie, environmental affairs counsel for ATA.

“In the past, there’s been an extensive amount of monies allocated to research on light duty vehicles and, in so far as other applications are concerned, [trucks have] been rather short changed,” Kedzie said.