PrintAssigned Reading II
Now that we have learned some about what energy means to the transportation, let us revisit some of the outlooks we studied before to see what they say about transportation. But first, we will visit the EPA website regarding greenhouse gas emissions and the transportation sector. Review the website:
Particularly note the graphic "Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Transportation,1990-2020." As you will note it is relatively flat, indicating only minor changes in the long-run with a slight upward trend until the pandemic hit. Of note also is the footnote that states the GHG emissions related to electricity used in transportation is negligible (less than 1%). We have heard so much about the shift to more electric vehicles, you can imagine the usage percentage will climb above 1%, and unless it is using renewably generated energy, the GHG emissions will start to climb at a higher rate as well.
You can test this hypothesis by visiting the EIA Outlook that we studied before and going to the summary PDF for the transportation sector.
PDF on Transportation Emissions
This section of the outlook focuses on the transportation sector and illustrates trends in fuel type and related GHG emission trends.
Questions to guide your reading (for both the EPA and EIA references):
- What are the primary drivers of the trends in fuel use?
- How do GHG emissions reflect trends in changing fuel sources?
- Why do you think gasoline will remain the dominant transportation fuel source through 2050?
- How would you predict the GHG emissions trend in the EPA link (1990-2020) will change going forward? Hint: compare with the EIA data.