Peak Oil is You
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Page added on December 8, 2005
Transport electrification – a peak oil solution
My own view is that the electrification of transportation is a natural and highly efficient response to the problem of “Peaking of World Oil Production” (hereafter cited simply as “Peak Oil”). Furthermore, substantial oil substitution can be effected within 10 to 12 years by a combination of market forces, government action to facilitate the quick and efficient realization of these market forces, and transforming the means that government uses to promote and provide transportation. The DOE report completely overlooks this possibility.
The technology for electrification of transportation is extremely well proven and widely used (more so outside the US) and, from an energy BTU/joule point-of-view, highly efficient. Well-established modes of electrified transportation in use today provide many more freight ton-miles/BTU and passenger-miles per BTU than the competing rubber-tired, oil-burning transportation alternatives.
The ratio in energy efficiency is so great, especially when electrified rail is substituted for “18 wheeler” tractor trailers and single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs), that minimal, if any, expansion of the national electricity grid will be required to reduce U.S. national oil consumption by 10%, or about two million barrels per day.
Electrified transportation is also much more environmentally benign as well. Central power plants are more efficient thermodynamically and their emissions can be more easily controlled. Electric motors are dramatically more efficient than internal combustion engines.
There are three viable electrified modes available in the USA today: (1) urban rail
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