Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Have Become Top Carbon Polluters (technologyreview.com)

Transportation is likely to surpass the electricity sector in 2016 as the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, according to a new analysis of government data, MIT Technology reports. From the article: In 2008, the global financial crisis caused widespread declines in energy use. In the U.S., that coincided with the early stages of a large-scale shift away from coal toward cleaner-burning natural gas as a way to generate electricity. As a result, carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity sector have continued to decline from their 2007 peak, even as the economy has resumed growing. The trend line for the transportation sector is less encouraging. Transportation emissions have begun rising as the economy rebounds. John DeCicco at the University of Michigan Energy Institute, who wrote the study, attributes the rebound we've seen during the past four years to straightforward causes: economic recovery and more affordable fuel prices. Vehicle sales numbers have been rising for several years, in particular for trucks and SUVs, and people are traveling more miles.

Comments

Re:This simply means we're succeeding.

[unixisc]

Actually, this trend makes pretty good sense.

Electricity - while the oldest form of generating electricity involved burning coal or oil, there had evolved several alternatives to it, thanks to electricity generation being stationary. Like hydro, nuclear, wind and solar. So it was not difficult to minimize one's dependence on carbon based fuels, aside from the political brinksmanship - the environmental protests that the dams will drown the fish, nuclear will be another Fukushima, windmills will slaughter birds that fly into it, leaving only solar, which is good in tropical and equatorial regions, but limited elsewhere.

Transportation is a different story, however, since one can't have hydroelectric damns on a train, nuclear power in a ship (aside from Russian icebreakers) or wind power driving a car. There, one is forced to use fossil fuels. However, if one can eliminate their use in electricity generation, that reduces their consumption, and ergo, whatever pollution they create. Hopefully, one day, solar powered cars would be completely viable.

Looks like the trend is right as far as reducing pollution due to electricity goes.

Re:This simply means we're succeeding.

[houstonbofh]

Air travel should be one of those novelty things that the lucky few can justify, same with having something air freighted, sure its nice to get stuff 2 days, but reality is waiting a week or two isnt a problem.

The rest of us should be traveling via high speed rail or hyperloop.

Thank you for deciding how fast I need to travel, or how quickly I need something. And thanks for killing many people as auto travel is much more dangerous then air travel. Sure appreciate it! And can you direct me to a hyperloop, please? I can't seem to find mine.

I live not too far from a major highway

[linuxguy]

I live not too far from major highway. Noise and pollution from automobiles worry me. The electric revolution cannot come soon enough. Also, I don't know if it is old age or something else, but those extremely loud motorcycles annoy me to no end. I wish I could stop them and beat the shit out of them. Anybody else feel that way? And why the hell do these riders intentionally make their bikes so loud?

An excellent paper on that subject

[Weaselmancer]

I take this article to be good news. Renewable energy is finally contributing to the grid well enough to where emissions will drop below the carbon emitted from transportation. This is excellent progress and excellent news.

Now, here's how you fix the transportation part. A wonderful article you can only find on the Wayback Machine, from 2004. UNH Biodiesel Group, Widescale Biodiesel Production from Algae, Michael Briggs, University of New Hampshire, Physics Department.

It's my favorite paper on the topic and I'll take any opportunity to post it.

TL;DR - if we really wanted to, we (meaning the USA) could utilize biodiesel entirely for our current transportation needs. It would be 100% renewable, carbon neutral, and all the money spent would stay inside our own borders. And any other country could easily do the same. There is absolutely NO need to haul oil out of the ground anymore.

Check the math in the paper. We really could do this.

Re:This simply means we're succeeding.

[dgatwood]

Air travel should be something that you do when you're crossing an ocean, because trains over water (and subduction zones) are physically impractical, and ships are too slow to be practical.

That said, we badly need a high speed rail network in the U.S.; Amtrak is kind of fun to ride, but it takes three days each way to get across the country. As such, it is a luxury that few can afford on a regular basis.

And trucks

[WillAffleckUW]

Actually, the bizarre thing is many firms manufacture more efficient and less polluting planes, trains, and vehicles, including trucks.

End the tax exemptions for business use of fossil fuels: as fuel, in depreciation for vehicles, in deductions for business miles travelled in fossil fuel vehicles of any type.

The Invisible Hand of Capitalism will then crush fossil fuels, which are massively subsidized, and eat up large segment of national and state and county and municipal budgets.

This includes any lanes for fossil fuel vehicle usage, by passenger mile traveled.

Capitalism cares nothing about fossil fuels. It will crush these buggy whip manufacturers and kerosene users like it did before, if you give it the proper signals.