MEETING THE ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHALLENGE FOR TRANSPORTATION IN THE UNITED-STATES

Mitigating global climate change will require a profound transformatio n of energy use sectors throughout the world and this challenge is par ticularly acute for the United States transportation sector. Market fo rces alone are unlikely to change transportation-energy technologies a nd infrastructures sufficiently to address the needs for an environmen tally sustainable system. A set of policies for encouraging technologi cal advances and promoting sustainable planning, operations, and prici ng of transportation services was analysed for its effects on sector e nergy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Baseline projections sho w US transport sector GHG emissions increasing over the 1990 level 28% by 2010 and 58% by 2030. The combined impacts of the policies analyse d would be substantial emission reductions that grow over time, with G HG emissions returned to the 1990 level by 2010 and cut to 35% lower b y 2030. Due to fuel savings from technology-based efficiency improveme nts, it was found that the economic benefits accruing from these reduc tions would outpace costs almost from the outset. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sc ience Ltd. All rights reserved.