Blaming U.S. Passenger Vehicles for Climate Change Is Ignorant but Lucrative

Alan ReynoldsA CNN report says, “Making American cars greener is a key component of Biden’s economic and climate agendas… But the transition will be difficult;passenger vehicles contribute 29% of total US greenhouse gas emissions, and EVs and plug ‐​in hybrids combined only account for around 2% of the US auto sales, according to a UAW analysis.”Similar claims – that “passenger vehicles contribute 29% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions” – have been echoed repeatedly for a decade but are totally false. Theentire transportation sector accounts for 29% of U.S. greenhouse gases, according to the Energy Information Agency. But Transportation includes airplanes, trains, buses, large trucks, and pipelines.The attached page from Chapter 2  of the latestTransportation Energy Data Bookshows that passenger cars and light trucks account for only 56.6% of the energy used in transportation. Since transportation ‐​related greenhouse gases are almost entirely from energy use, and transportation contributes 29% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, that means passenger vehicles account for roughly 16.4% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.Confusing transportation with passenger cars is a  familiar bait and switch trick long used to promote taxpayer subsidies for alternative fuels and vehicles. It was an old hoax back in 2012 when I labeled it “The Transportation Fallacy” in my chapter on “The Politics of Alternative Energy” in theHandbook of Oil Politi...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs