Foreign Policy Blogs

Lower Gasoline Consumption = Lower GHG Output

recharging-leaf

An article from Reuters yesterday flagged the fact that the US fleet has been averaging more miles per gallon thus reducing gasoline use and fewer carbon dioxide emissions.  The President made an announcement on raising the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards last April but the trend to more MPG and fewer GHGs has been ongoing for six years according to EPA.

I was at a very interesting “dialogue” the past couple of days on a major oil source.  (I’m embargoed from writing about this event until a White Paper on the series of dialogues that are being held is issued.)  It is okay for me to say here that I warned folks that as electric vehicles gain traction – and every indication is that they’re going to skyrocket – and renewables continue to burgeon in a new energy economy, that oil and coal are going to be left behind.  We are entering a post-carbon world.

Wishful thinking?  GM has already announced that they need to step up their production of the Volt even before it hits the streets for the first time.  Reason?  “Huge demand.”

More portents?  The Electrification Coalition, a group of business leaders from little Mom-and-Pop shops named Cisco, NRG energy, PG&E, Nissan, GE, FedEx, Johnson Controls, Siemens, among others, has just released its Electrification Roadmap.

Lower Gasoline Consumption = Lower GHG Output

What’s the bottom line?  It’s “…the business case for electric-drive technology adoption among the more than 16 million commercial, corporate, and government fleet vehicles in the United States.”

The radically inefficient internal combustion may, finally, be coming to the end of its life.

 

Author

Bill Hewitt

Bill Hewitt has been an environmental activist and professional for nearly 25 years. He was deeply involved in the battle to curtail acid rain, and was also a Sierra Club leader in New York City. He spent 11 years in public affairs for the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation, and worked on environmental issues for two NYC mayoral campaigns and a presidential campaign. He is a writer and editor and is the principal of Hewitt Communications. He has an M.S. in international affairs, has taught political science at Pace University, and has graduate and continuing education classes on climate change, sustainability, and energy and the environment at The Center for Global Affairs at NYU. His book, "A Newer World - Politics, Money, Technology, and What’s Really Being Done to Solve the Climate Crisis," will be out from the University Press of New England in December.



Areas of Focus:
the policy, politics, science and economics of environmental protection, sustainability, energy and climate change

Contact