“Faster Deliveries in the U.S. are Hurting Climate Progress: Study Finds Unexpected Consequences”

Deliveries are getting faster than ever in the U.S., but the faster movement of goods is undercutting the country’s climate progress, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Energy.

The study, conducted by a researcher from CU Boulder and his collaborator, found that federal regulations aimed at enhancing heavy-duty trucks’ energy efficiency could be as much as 20% less effective than policymakers initially anticipated. This is because the regulations make trucking cheaper, leading more shippers to switch from using less energy-intensive rail transportation to more energy-intensive trucks.

Jonathan Hughes, the paper’s corresponding author and professor in the Department of Economics at CU Boulder, stated, “Increasing vehicles’ energy efficiency is very costly for truck makers, so it’s important to know how much benefit we can realistically get from these costly regulations.”

The phenomenon of increased consumption due to improved efficiency and reduced costs, known as the rebound effect, was a key focus of the study. The researchers wanted to study the extent of the rebound effect in the freight sector, which represents approximately 10% of total U.S. energy consumption and contributes to 27% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.

The majority of emissions from the freight sector come from trucking, which has seen a 76% increase in greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. In an effort to reduce emissions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has implemented regulations to improve heavy-duty vehicles’ energy efficiency since 2011.

However, while these regulations make trucks more energy-efficient, they also make trucking cheaper by reducing fuel costs. This has led to many shippers opting to transport goods by truck instead of rail, as trucks can reach destinations faster, allowing for quicker product sales. The study estimated that the rebound effect in the freight sector would reduce the total fuel savings from federal regulations by 20%.

The researchers suggest that making fuel pricier and transportation more expensive through programs like taxing carbon emissions would be a more effective way to reduce energy use in transportation. However, they acknowledge that such policies may be challenging to implement due to political considerations.

Overall, the study highlights the importance of considering the unintended consequences of regulations aimed at improving energy efficiency in the transportation sector to ensure that they do not inadvertently hinder progress towards climate and energy goals.