“But, after all, what good is it (generating electric current)?” William Gladstone British Chancellor of the Exchequer “Why sir, one day you will tax it.” Michael Faraday A LOOK AT ENERGY Jeff Houk – FHWA Mark Simon – NYSDOT Rob Graff – DVRPC Joe Rich - FHWA NTAQS 2012 Energy Efficiency in Transportation Jeff Houk FHWA Resource Center NTAQS Conference, August 7, 2012 3 Introduction: Transportation Energy Trivia Transportation is a major energy consumer in the US, 28% of total energy use and 72% of petroleum use; LDVs account for 64% of transportation energy use and trucks, 19%. Imports of petroleum contributed ~40% to the US trade deficit in 2010. The large trade deficit weakens the dollar, which further hurts our trade position (from 2/02 to 2/04, the price of oil went up 51% in dollars but only 4% in Euros). The US can’t export cars and trucks to most developed (and some developing) countries because they have higher fuel efficiency standards than we do. Oil price shocks and price manipulation by OPEC cost our economy about $1.9 trillion from 2004 to 2008—and each major shock was followed by a recession. As of April 2011, the average American household spent $369 a month on gas, 10% of their monthly income before taxes. Transportation is the second-largest monthly expense for most households. 4 Transportation Energy Efficiency Strategies 1) Improve vehicle energy efficiency (fuel economy) 2) Improve transportation system efficiency: 1) Reduce VMT (less travel for same economic activity) 2) Reduce congestion/improve operational efficiency 3) Transfer activity to more efficient modes 4) Improve infrastructure efficiency Most of the recent research related to energy efficiency in transportation has been in the context of potential GHG reductions—in the transportation sector, GHG emissions are almost totally a function of energy consumption. 5 Fuel Economy The 2012-2016 fuel economy standards are the first new car standards since the mid-80’s. Technology continued to improve, but it went into bigger and faster vehicles, not efficiency. The average 2012 passenger vehicle gets 23.8 mpg, not quite the gas mileage of a Ford Model T (25 mpg) If 1981 performance had stayed constant, the light duty fleet would be 33% more efficient today, more than displacing our year 2000 oil imports from the Persian Gulf. Source: EPA, Wards, Detroit News 6 Fueleconomy.gov 7 Recent Regulatory Actions NHTSA/EPA joint fuel economy/GHG rules for cars and light trucks • Previous standard: 27.5 mpg cars, 24.1 mpg light trucks • 2016 MY (phased in 2012-2016): 35.5 mpg fleet average • 2025 MY (proposed, 2017-2025 phase-in): 54.5 mpg average Heavy-duty rulemaking • First-ever standards for medium and heavy trucks • Standards cover model years 2014-2017; vary by truck type Benefits of these rules, combined: • 14 billion barrels of oil saved over the life of the vehicles • $500-$660 billion net economic benefit 8 Reducing VMT Growth Through Better Planning Regional VMT can be reduced through measures like urban growth boundaries, higher density in transportation corridors, expansions of regional transit, commuter measures, parking management Site-specific VMT can be reduced through tools like parking management, mixed-use development, transit-oriented development USDOT Report to Congress (2010) predicts 2.6-5.3% reductions possible by 2030, 3.9-9.1% by 2050 (expressed as GHG reductions) 9 Congestion Strategies/Speed Limitation According to the Texas Transportation Institute, in 2010, congestion caused 4.5B hours of travel delay and 1.9B gallons of wasted fuel, for a total cost of $101B. M. Barth, UC-Riverside, 2008 10 Mode shifts can also reduce total energy use: USDOT Report to Congress, 2010 11 Infrastructure Efficiency Low-energy pavements (e.g., warm mix asphalt, concrete additives) Long-life pavements (to reduce maintenance) Asset management (to extend service life of infrastructure (delay reconstruction), and keep surface smooth for vehicle efficiency) Accelerated construction techniques (reduce work zone congestion) Low-energy maintenance (in-place recycling) Efficient lighting and landscaping Signalization, roundabouts, ITS strategies Last webinar in the recent AMPO series has an extensive list of these type of strategies (see last slide for link) 12 Colorado Energy Smart Transportation Initiative Funded by SSTI grant, initiated to address requirement in CO law for the planning process to consider GHG reductions Colorado in a net importer of petroleum; each 1% improvement in efficiency keeps $300 million in the Colorado economy Workgroups formed to address travel-and technology-based energy efficiency strategies, along with data and modeling CDOT revenue (gas tax) model used to estimate fuel and GHG baseline, and reductions from various strategies 13 Colorado ESTI Strategies Ten strategies were adopted, based on ease of implementation and the strategies’ associated energy saving benefits. They include: Planning/project selection processes that take into account energy use Measures to accelerate non-petroleum fuel supply infrastructure Fleet conversion to non-petroleum vehicles Truck stop electrification Highway speed harmonization New efforts to track energy use by transportation system users Transit information improvements, and Transportation-energy education 14 ESTI reports Final project report: www.ssti.us/2012/04/the-colorado-energy-smarttransportation-initiative-a-framework-for-consideringenergy-in-transportation-ssti-and-colorado-dot-2012/ Webconference slides: www.ssti.us/Events/ssti-technical-assistance-spotlightcolorado-energy-smart-transportation-initiative/ 15 Energy Analysis Tools Relatively easy to model energy impacts of transportation plan alternatives, especially if AQ analysis is also conducted Operational energy consumption: MOVES EERPAT for analysis of policy options (other presentation) GREET and eGRID: upstream energy consumption/emissions Construction and maintenance: NYSDOT procedures GASCAN (NJ) Upcoming FHWA tool (available in 2013) 16 Transportation Energy Efficiency Resources Pretty much any report on transportation GHG reductions TRB Modal Primer on GHG and Energy Issues for the Transportation Industry EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook reports Pew Center report “Saving Oil and Reducing GHG Emissions through U.S. Federal Transportation Policy” AMPO climate change webinar series: http://www.ampo.org/content/index.php?pid=262