Transportation Energy – What is Best?
Mark Delucchi
Research Scientist
Transportation Sustainability Research Center
Institute of Transportation Studies
U.C. Berkeley
What is the best alternative to petroleum energy in transportation? I define “best” broadly, encompassing a wide a range of criteria including climate change, air quality, energy security, water use, land-use and biodiversity, full cost, safety, and more. I focus on motor-vehicles, but do touch briefly on other modes of transportation and the interaction of transportation with larger energy and urban systems. I take a global, long-term perspective. My evaluation is informed by comprehensive analyses of: i) the external costs of motor-vehicle use; ii) important global trends in indicators related to transportation energy use; iii) lifecycle CO2-equivalent greenhouse-gas (CO2e GHG) emissions from transportation, energy, and material systems; iv) energy-use and lifetime costs of advanced electric vehicles; and v) global energy systems powered entirely by wind, water, and solar (WWS) power. With these analyses and evaluation criteria, I conclude that it is best to electrify transportation and integrate it into a world run (almost) entirely on WWS power. The key drivers of this conclusion are the high social cost of CO2e GHG emissions, the relatively low lifetime cost of WWS power and electrified transportation, and the comparatively low CO2e GHG emissions of electrified transportation. While more research is needed an all areas, it is perhaps most important to develop and evaluate plans for development of large-scale urban/energy/transportation infrastructure.