Essay on Efficient Energy Transportation
Today, the environment pollution is one of the major challenges to the world and well-developed nations, such as the US, confront the problem of the consistent deterioration of the environmental situation. In this regard, the transportation system is one of the major contributors to the deterioration of the environmental situation because vehicles are the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, transportation is one of the major sources of the environment pollution. Hence, energy efficient transportation is the major way to decrease the environment pollution and the reduction of the fuel consumption can help to reduce the environment pollution. However, the improvement of the environmental situation involves not only technological changes but also the change of the transportation culture. In actuality, the US is still facing the problem of the poor fuel efficiency because of the traditional American transportation culture and the reduction of the fuel consumption can be achieved through the change of the transportation culture in the US along with legislative changes that will stimulate consumers and car manufacturing companies to purchase and manufacture fuel efficient vehicles respectively.
At the moment, transportation contributes to over a quarter of energy consumption in the US. At the same time, transportation is one of the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions that are the major source of pollution of air and environment. Fossil fuels used as the source of energy to fuel cars cause greenhouse gas emissions, which are the major source of air and environment pollution (Teisl, Rubin, & Noblet, 2008). Fuel efficiency can minimize the consumption of fuel. This is why the energy efficient transportation involves the reduction of the fuel consumption.
The public grows more and more concerned about the environment pollution because the deterioration of the environmental situation leads to the deterioration of the public health and decline of the quality of life. The change of the public awareness is the result of the deterioration of the environment (Banerjee & Solomon 2003). People grow more and more aware of the negative impact of greenhouse gas emissions not only on the environment but also on the health of people. However, this trend is relatively new and cannot overcome the traditional American transportation culture oriented on the use of large cars that are not fuel efficient.
In addition, companies manufacturing cars tend to on the fuel efficiency to attract customers, while customers’ main driver to reduce fuel consumption and, therefore, greenhouse gas emissions is the growing price of gas. As a result, consumers prefer buying new cars, which are more fuel efficient than old ones and they prefer car models which are fuel efficient. In such a way, the consumer behavior influences policies conducted by car manufacturing companies. Car manufacturing companies attempt to match customers’ expectations. The growing demand of consumers for fuel efficient vehicles encourages car manufacturing companies to shift toward the development of new, fuel efficient cars.
At the same time, consumers, who are conscious of the negative impact of car use on the environment, tend to change their behavior preferring bicycles to their cars or using public transport instead of their cars. However, these consumers are quite a few compared to the large mass of consumers, who still use their cars. In fact, the US consumers still prefer to use their cars, instead of public transport or bicycles. Hypothetically, the shift from private cars toward the public transport and bicycles can change consistently the level of greenhouse gas emissions because this will lead to the consistent reduction of using private vehicles and, therefore, to the respective reduction of the fuel consumption that leads to greenhouse gas emissions. However, at the moment, Americans are not ready for the total shift from using private cars to using the public transport or bicycles.
On the other hand, more and more consumers prefer car pooling to save their fuel and transportation costs. This trend contributes to the energy efficient transportation because car pooling reduces the number of cars used by consumers on the regular basis since vehicles normally carry five people and car pooling allows five persons to use one car instead of five ones. In actuality, this trend becomes more and more popular in the US because it is efficient financially and allows Americans save their money and their fuel but, at the same time, car pooling saves environment because reduces the number of private cars in use and, therefore, reduces greenhouse gas emissions from private cars.
In actuality, there are several factors determining the consumer behavior and influencing their transportation habits. First, economic factors play the major part in changes of the consumer behavior. For example, the economic recession of 2008 contributed to the consistent reduction of car use and overall drop of car sales in the US. The reduction of car sales was the result of the inability of Americans to purchase new cars and their desire to save money.
Furthermore, the skyrocketing gas price stimulated consumers either refuse from using their cars and shift to the public transport or bicycles, or change their cars and purchase more fuel efficient cars, on the one hand, and sell their old, less fuel efficient cars instead. In addition, Americans just refused from the frequent use of their cars because they could not afford buying gas at the high price. This is why the overall reduction of car sales and use of cars caused by economic reasons resulted in the overall decline of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the US transportation.
Moreover, the economic recession and high gas prices encouraged car manufacturers to focus on the production of fuel efficient cars and introduce hybrid cars, which use alternative fuels along with gas or alternative fuels alone. In fact, car manufacturers responded to the change in the customer behavior (O’Gallachoir, Howley, Cunningham, & Bazilian, 2009). The economic background was the major reason for such a shift and car manufacturers just attempted to keep their cars selling. This is why fuel efficient cars were just the marketing tool that could attract customers and make them buying new cars.
On the other hand, the economic recovery has contributed to the rise of car sales, wider use of cars, and the overall return of car manufacturers for the production of less fuel efficient, large cars instead of small and more fuel efficient ones. 2013 marked the consistent growth of car sales compared to 2008 that reveals the fact that the improvement of the economic situation contributes to the increase of car use and fuel consumption.
Another important factor that contributes to the energy efficient transportation in the US is the transportation culture. To put it more precisely, the individual use of private cars is the distinct feature of the US transportation culture (Hensher, 2007). Moreover, Americans are accustomed to use large cars, which are not fuel efficient. For example, Americans tend to use large cars and disregard their fuel efficiency, while Europeans tend to buy small cars, which are suitable for driving in European cities with narrow streets and are more fuel efficient compared to American cars (De Witte, Macharis & Mairesse, 2008). Therefore, the American transportation culture tends to disregard fuel efficiency.
In response to the growing public pressure, the US authorities, including the US Department of Energy, attempt to develop policies aiming at the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions along with the reduction of fossil fuel consumption. At the moment, the US authorities focus on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the energy efficiency by means of the introduction of energy efficient policies in all industries. In this regard, transportation plays an important part in the reduction of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the government focuses on the commercial transport mainly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the US government stimulates the reduction of the fuel consumption by commercial vehicles offering recommendations contributing to the higher fuel efficiency along with the Department of Energy regulations that help to minimize the fuel consumption by commercial vehicles.
Thus, the US is still the country, where the efficient energy transportation is rather a future opportunity than a part of the present life. In spite of the growing consciousness of Americans of the negative impact of greenhouse gas emissions caused by their cars on their environment and health along with efforts of the government to encourage the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by transport, Americans still prefer using their private cars, instead of using the public transport or bicycles.
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