Beyond the tailpipe.

AuthorDoherty, Eric
PositionFROM READERS - Letter to the editor

Neil Kolwey ("Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," March/April 2009) provided a good analysis of tailpipe emissions from transportation from an individual family perspective. However, looking only at tailpipe emissions means missing about one-third of transport emissions and results in an inadequate analysis for decision making.

For example, the 2006 Hydro Quebec study Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Transportation Options found that transport tailpipe emissions account for 31 percent of total Canadian GHG emissions but more than 50 percent of lifecycle emissions. Similarly, researchers from the UC Berkeley Center for Future Urban Transport estimated last year that total emissions for a typical U.S. passenger car are 57 percent higher than tailpipe emissions.

The lifecycle emissions from transportation include not only the obvious upstream emissions from extracting and refining petroleum, but also the emissions from manufacturing and maintaining vehicles, and building and maintaining roads and parking facilities. When you look at lifecycle emissions, automobile ownership becomes almost as big an issue as how much each car is driven. A two-car family can do a lot more by selling one of their cars and reducing the distances they drive than by just reducing the amount they drive.

The individual or family is also not a...

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