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Transit Solves Oil Dependence

Robust Transit key point where to solve domestic issues and foreign oil dependence

Linda Bailey is Senior Associate for Transportation at ICF International. “Public Transportation and Petroleum Savings in the U.S.: Reducing Dependence on Oil, http://www.icfi.com/Markets/Transportation/doc_files/public-transportation.pdf, January, Prepared for:

American Public Transportation Association.

Petroleum consumption is a major issue for the household budget, and for our nation. Our dependence on petroleum imported from the Middle East makes fuel consumption a national security issue; our stores and manufacturers depend on diesel-powered freight movement, making it an economic issue; and individuals who have no other means to get to work must pay the market price for gasoline, making it a household budget issue. Public transportation is an important part of reducing oil dependence, and this report quantifies the role that public transportation is playing for households and the nation, and what role it could play. The average price of gasoline in the U.S. was $2.73 per gallon for the year through September, including taxes (EIA, September 4, 2006). The majority of Americans continue to have few choices but to pay at the pump to get where they need to go. According to the 2001 National Household Transportation Survey (NHTS 2001), only half of all households have access to public transportation. Of those residents, not all have service that can deliver them to their destinations for work, school, shopping, and socializing. Of those who can, many have seized the opportunity to save money on fuel consumption by taking public transportation.

Direct correlation between robust transit reform and reduced oil dependence

Linda Bailey is Senior Associate for Transportation at ICF International. Patricia Lyon MokhtarianProfessor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chair, Transportation Technology and Policy Graduate Program, and Associate Director for Education, Institute of Transportation Studies at University of California, Davis. Andrew Little is president of Urban Policy Research Institute. “The Broader Connection between Public Transportation, Energy Conservation and Greenhouse Gas Reduction,” http://www.apta.com/research/info/online/documents/land_use.pdf, February.

In January 2007, APTA released an ICF International analysis that quantified the direct relationship between public transportation use and petroleum conservation in the United States. That study quantified the amount of petroleum that households are saving by taking public transportation in a direct, one-for-one analysis.

Public transit massively reduces reliance on oil

Each year, public transportation use in the U.S. saves 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline. This represents almost 4 million gallons of gasoline per day. The “leverage effect” of public transportation, supporting transportation efficient land use patterns, saves 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline. Each year, public transportation use saves the equivalent of 34 supertankers of oil, or a supertanker leaving the Middle East every 11 days. Each year, public transportation use save the equivalent of 140,769 service station tanker truck trips clogging our streets each year. Public transportation use saves the equivalent of 300,000 fewer automobile fill-ups every day. The typical public transit rider consumes on average one half of the oil consumed by an automobile rider.

AT: No Oil Dependence

Yes we are

Harris 4-3

David, Executive Director, AJC, and Senior Associate, St. Antony's College, Oxford University, “America's Achilles' Heel,” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-harris/americas-achilles-heel_b_844135.html

Ever since 1973, when the Arab Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (AOPEC) first imposed a crippling oil boycott, one president after another has promised to wean us off our dependence on unstable sources of oil. With great solemnity, our leaders have spoken of the dangers of our vulnerability, while pledging to usher in a new energy era. Yet, nearly four decades after the first oil shock, startlingly, our dependence on imported oil has jumped from one-third of total consumption to nearly two-thirds. So much for pledges and promises. Meanwhile, take a country like Brazil, nearly the size of our own. In 1973, it imported approximately 80 percent of its oil needs. Today, by contrast, the country is self-sufficient. The difference between the United States and Brazil? Above all, national will. Brazil's leaders didn't just talk up a good game. They acted with determination. They shifted vehicles to flex fuel, drawing on domestically-grown sugar cane to produce ethanol. They focused on renewable energy sources and made great strides. They explored for offshore oil and found vast deposits. The results speak for themselves. How tragic that we haven't quite followed suit! Take sugar-based ethanol as one telling example of the mess we're in. It's been tough to import for our vehicles. Why? Thanks to corn-growing states fearful of the competition, we've put in place high tariffs that make it prohibitively expensive to import from Brazil. That leaves us with corn-based ethanol, whose energy yield is approximately one-seventh -- yes, one-seventh -- of its sugar-based counterpart. We've had one chance after another to get serious, but to no avail. Think back to President Jimmy Carter's efforts to set an example of energy efficiency in the White House. Rather than emulate him, many Americans derided the chief executive. How dare we Americans be asked to drive less, drive slower, drive smaller, stay cooler in winter, or warmer in summer! Aren't these all violations of our birthright? Perhaps our best chance to get off the dime came right after 9/11. President Bush had the American people in the palm of his hand. He could have asked for just about anything he billed as serving America's vital interests, and he would have gotten it. At AJC, we urged the White House to seize the moment. We even had the chutzpah to draft a speech we hoped the president might deliver on the need to get serious -- and fast -- on energy security, and shared it with top White House advisers. But, in the end, the president didn't seize the moment and, within a short time, we were back to the all-too-familiar pattern of partisan and interest-group squabbling when it comes to energy. The result is that today we're on tenterhooks as Middle East crises unfold one after another, fearful of where the oil will come from, how much more prices will rise, and whether more costly oil will damage the chances for a sustained economic recovery.

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