Decarbonizing Transportation at the Federal Level

In a report from the Rhodium Group authored by John Larsen, Ben King, Hannah Kolus, and Emily Wimberger, the authors "assess the energy system and emissions impacts of potential new, long-term federal investments in on-road decarbonization and how investments might interact with potential new vehicle regulations." According to their research, "federal investment in the form of long-term extensions of current tax credits coupled with a build-out of charging infrastructure can catapult electric vehicles (EVs) from 2% of all light-duty vehicle (LDV) sales in 2020 to as high as 52% of all LDV sales in 2031."

With the transportation sector as the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions(representing 31% of the U.S. net total), its decarbonization is a crucial step toward reducing overall GHGs and fighting climate change. "Any action to decarbonize transportation through electrification will require ambitious and sustained effort to accelerate deployment of electric vehicles as quickly as possible." Yet "[u]nlike the electric power sector where a hard pivot from fossil energy to clean energy is entirely doable, it will take decades to replace all of the conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles on the road today with electric models." To get conventional fossil fuel vehicles off American roads, "every vehicle sale matters in the race to electrify and decarbonize transportation." According to the authors, robust investment in U.S. manufacturing and clean transportation at the federal level could "get the nation a few miles further down the long road of decarbonization."