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.