U.S. Energy Department Releases Plan To Decarbonize Transportation Sector

In partnership with other federal agencies, the U.S. Department of Energy recently released a U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, which sets a path for decarbonizing the U.S. transportation sector by 2050.

This Blueprint is the first step in a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the sector. It attempts to align decision-making among agencies and identifies new opportunities for collaboration.

As a next step, the agencies involved, including the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency, will now each write their own detailed decarbonization Action Plans and will work with other federal agencies, governments at the regional, state, local, and Tribal levels, philanthropic organizations, the private sector, and with global partners to achieve dozens of milestones, including:

• Investing in rail, public transportation, and active transportation infrastructure to provide options to use more affordable and energy-efficient forms of transportation;
• Continuing to strengthen standards to further improve vehicle efficiency;
• Transitioning all new vehicles sales to zero-emission technologies and scaling up production and use of sustainable fuels; and
• Supporting fleet turnover to fully replace legacy vehicles and petroleum infrastructure with clean zero-emission solutions.

As part of its efforts, the U.S. Energy Department pledged to use “light-weighting and use of better materials” to help reduce emissions in the sector. Read the full report here.