By Sam Haessly
Problem Statement
America is heavily contributing to the global warming crisis due to its heavy amounts of fossil fuel emissions. Currently the United States contributes to 17% of the world’s emissions. With transportation being the economic sector in the United States with the largest contribution to greenhouse gases. It has become apparent changes in this sector will be needed if we are to reach our 2050 Nationally Determined Contribution goal of -80% emissions compared to 2005. Currently the United States missed its 2020 Copenhagen goal of cutting emissions by 17% compared to 2005. If we are going to reach our future milestone, extensive changes to our transportation sector will be needed.
Background
Currently, it is reported by the EPA that around 20% of the United States greenhouse gas emissions come from passenger transportation. A large majority of this 20% comes from light duty vehicles. While currently only about 1% of emissions come from passenger railways. For two reasons, railway passenger transportation has been proven to be by far the most energy efficient mode of transportation, and a frumpish rail system due to lack of investment for passenger railways within the United States.
With trains reaching speeds over 300mph on test tracks in the 1980s, it was only until 2010 that China implemented trains for public use that reached these speeds on railways of approximately 1000 miles long. This was largely due to advances in manufacturing and the development of new technologies and more efficient battery systems.
The United States railway system is privately held and operated while also being subsided in most inner cities, specifically Amtrak passenger railways. Amtrak has established its first large scale electric railway, the Amtrak Acela Express. This railway can get from New York City to Washington D.C. in just two and a half hours, where normally by car it’s around a four hour drive.
With rapid growth in the energy sectors for renewables such as solar and panels, and large sources of nuclear energy from plants in Wisconsin, these power generators connected to an electric railway in the midwest would result in complete carbon free transportation.
Relevance:
With the battle against climate change annually increasing on a global level, the United States will have to make significant reduction in its greenhouse gas emission levels in accordance with the Paris agreement. The United States missed its 2020 goals significantly from the Copenhagen Accord, and is currently not on track to reach its 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution goal according to the Paris agreement. Heavy technological changes to the transportation industry in the United States would significantly help us reach checkpoints in our greenhouse gas emissions.
In the last couple years, car manufactures have been releasing swaths of plans for electric vehicles in mass amounts. Manufacturers such as General Motors, Honda, Tesla, Ford, Volkswagen, and Subaru have combined plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into electric vehicles with goals of staying relevent. Around the world countries are even going as far as making plans to ban the sale of gas and diesel power cars such as the United Kingdom in 2030. With electric vehicles expected to not be on the cheap side of things, other means of transportation will have to be available to accompany the demands of travel and greenhouse gas emissions.
Additionally, as median house income continues to rise, the direct correlation with higher air travel demand and airline ticket prices will also occur. High Speed railways offer a much cheaper and sometimes more efficient means for transportation depending on the location.
Proposed Solution
My proposal is to aggressively expand electric passenger railways in the United States to help the United States reach its Nationally Determined Contribution 2050 goal through deep decarbonization. The railway system would help by aggressively cutting emissions in the transportation industry due to travel convenience and inexpensive transportation compared to owning a car or traveling by air.
In order to do this, policies focused specifically on utilizing the current rail network and minimizing technicality issues through funded federal mandates and subsidiary enticements to develop these high speed rails. The construction of these railways additionally being regarded to the Miller Act of 1935 to help ethical construction. Secondly, policies with basis around making different forms of transportation pay for their environmental impact. These would be rolled out on the basis of fuel emission using heavy fuel taxe to encourage electric modes of transportation.
Using the French TGV model, and estimates from the Seattle project, the cost per mile of railway would be estimated around forty million. A midwestern high speed route going from St Paul to Madison to Milwaukee to Chicago to Indianapolis to Cincinnati to Columbus would cost around thirty three billion dollars. This being paid for through federal grants and long term government loans with low interest rates and additionally the promise of subsidies to the rail companies of the Midwest Regional Rail System would allow for funding at a relative low cost to taxpayers.
Based on the ridership from Amtrak’s Acela and Northeast Regional high speed rails. Ridership across these seven cities could range anywhere from eight to twenty million passengers annually. This heavy use will help keep the rail system relevant and encourage long term passengers for many years.
The International Energy Agency estimates that in heavy rail implementation globally. About every Mtoe (Mega tons of oil equivalent) that we develop from renewable electricity, we will be able to cut back ten times the amount in oil equivalence due to primarily efficiency in these forms of power productions. This gives conclusion to a long term solution for energy efficiency and significantly lower carbon intensities from fuel sources.
Bibliography
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