Oil Price Spike Strengthens Business Case for Replacing Polluting Diesel Trucks With Cleaner Alternatives, Especially RNG, Updated Energy Vision Report Finds

NEW YORK, Sept. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The NGO Energy Vision today issued an update of its 2025 report "A Path to a Healthier America: Ditching Old Diesel Trucks" which explores replacing aging, polluting heavy-duty diesel trucks with clean alternatives. The updated version takes into account the 60% rise in diesel prices (currently $6.23/gallon nationwide, $8.15 in California) since the Iran War.

The report compares three clean alternatives to diesel: new diesel models running on renewable diesel (RD), battery electric vehicles (EVs), and new compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks running on renewable natural gas (RNG) made from organic waste. Each has clean air and public health benefits, but the updated report found that recent market changes have significantly altered cost-benefit calculations in favor of RNG.

RD has lower capex compared to EVs or RNG, since it is used in conventional diesel trucks, but its price moves with fossil diesel and RD prices rose sharply this year. RNG pricing on the other hand is pegged to CNG, which has been mostly unaffected by the war. As fossil diesel and RD prices rose, the price differential with RNG grew. RNG now costs at least $3.50/gallon less than diesel in California and $2 less nationwide.

RNG requires upfront capital expenditure of around $75,000 for a new CNG tractor trailer, but that can be recouped fast -- from 1.3 years (if RNG costs $3.50 less per gallon than diesel) to 2.8 years (if RNG costs $2 less).

EVs remain the most expensive option, since heavy-duty electric trucks cost two to three times as much as comparable diesel trucks, and adoption remains slow, the updated report found. Of 5.2 million Class 7 and 8 heavy trucks operating in the US at the end of 2025, fewer than 3,000 were EV's, and their number is growing by less than 1,000 a year.

"The economics of heavy-duty trucking have changed, strengthening the business case for adopting clean alternatives," said Michael Lerner, Energy Vision's Director of Research and Publications and lead author of the report. "By switching, fleet owners can avoid the volatility and massive public health impacts and costs of diesel. We found that RNG is the best overall alternative for replacing heavy-duty diesel trucks at scale, and it's getting more attractive all the time."

Read the full release here.

Contact: Stephen Kent, [email protected], 914-589-5988

SOURCE Energy Vision