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6 Informing the Choices Ahead
Pages 195-208

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From page 195...
... To achieve this stability, the models suggest that annual emissions in three or four decades will need to be cut by up to 80 percent, even as population and the economy are projected to grow. The report reviews policy options for bringing about desired energy consumption and GHG emissions reductions from the U.S.
From page 196...
... efforts to reduce GHG emissions over the next 40 years. The report considers various opportunities for reducing transportation's emissions of CO2 and other GHGs through policies seeking to increase the energy efficiency of vehicles and their operations, reduce the amount of energy- and emissions-intensive transportation activity, and lower the carbon impacts of transportation fuels.
From page 197...
... Three decades later, supplier-targeted regulations, which now include GHG performance standards for new cars and light trucks, remain the primary approach by which the federal government seeks to curb energy use and emissions from the light-duty fleet. Planned fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks and the recent adoption of renewable fuel standards, which mandate that a certain percentage of the fuel supply consist of lower-carbon fuels, represent a continuation of the supplier-focused approach to policy making.
From page 198...
... With the exception of fuel taxes, most policy options listed in Table 6-1 have a narrow impact; they are targeted at specific modes and at only one of the factors influencing transportation energy use and emissions. Aligning Strategic Interests and Policies To achieve timely, sustained, and increasing reductions in GHG emissions, a combination of policies may be needed.
From page 199...
... emissions-saving responses, such as compatible land use and transportation infrastruc ture planning, may make the higher fuel taxes more accept able to consumers. (continued on next page)
From page 200...
... reductions in energy use and effect and being tightened for dimensional in that they do They are based on energy emissions will test consumer cars and light trucks. While not cause vehicle operators to consumed or emissions per acceptance.
From page 201...
... As with other policies standards will also cause some program. to control GHG emissions, the reduction in transportation ability to account for and verify activity and greater interest in emissions will affect imple energy-efficient vehicles and mentation potential.
From page 202...
... b Potential to generate large energy and emissions savings from the transportation sector over the next 25 to 50 years.
From page 203...
... The resistance encountered by proposals to raise fuel taxes even slightly to pay for transportation infrastructure has produced skepticism about the prospects for energy pricing to have a meaningful role in the near to medium term. Because of such resistance, other forms of user pricing, such as areawide tolls and fees per mile driven, are being considered to supplement or replace fuel taxes as methods of infrastructure financing.
From page 204...
... However, such mode- and vehicle-specific policies will need to be succeeded by policies that can generate much larger systemic responses, such as those produced by energy pricing. The strategic challenge ahead will lie in structuring and gaining public acceptance of these more far-reaching policies.
From page 205...
... considered the array of policy research that will be needed to inform decisions aimed at reducing emissions-intensive transportation activity, increasing the efficiency of vehicles and their operations, and furthering the demand for and supply of low-carbon energy sources. The report observed that as policy makers consider proposals intended to curb growth in passenger and freight activity, they will need fundamental information on the connections between transportation activity and economic productivity, such as the relative advantages of using fuel tax revenues to provide consumer rebates or invest in transportation alternatives.
From page 206...
... A recent National Research Council report (NRC 2010) on strategies for limiting climate change advised that while policy approaches must be sustained for decades, they must also retain the ability to adapt and respond to changing conditions and technologies and to the uncertainties about climate change risks and mitigation needs.
From page 207...
... 2009. Special Report 299: A Transportation Research Program for Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Conserving Energy.


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