U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization released

In Washington, the US government released The U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, a strategy for cutting all greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector by 2050. The Blueprint was developed by the EPA, along with Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Transportation (DOT), and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

The Blueprint provides a comprehensive, system-level perspective of the entire transportation system across all passenger and freight travel modes and fuels, and lays out three key strategies to achieve decarbonization:

1. Increase convenience by supporting community design and land-use planning at the local and regional levels that ensure that job centers, shopping, schools, entertainment, and essential services are strategically located near where people live to reduce commute burdens, improve walkability and bikeability, and improve quality of life.
2.  Improve efficiency by expanding affordable, accessible, efficient, and reliable options like public transportation and rail, and improving the efficiency of all vehicles.
3. Transition to clean options by deploying zero-emission vehicles and fuels for cars, commercial trucks, transit, boats, airplanes, and more.

The report exemplifies a whole-of-government approach to addressing the climate crisis and will help reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and was made possible by a Memorandum of Understanding established between EPA, DOE, DOT, and HUD to coordinate on policy and accelerate the research, development, demonstration, and deployment needed for innovative solutions and technologies that enable a clean, safe, accessible, equitable, and decarbonized transportation system for all.

More on the story.