U.S. taxpayers outspend private insurers three-to-one to cover climate disruption costs. Paying for climate disruption was one of the largest non-defense discretionary budget items in 2012. Private insurers themselves only covered about 25 percent of these costs, leaving the federal government and its public insurance enterprises to pay for the majority of the remaining claims.
climate
VMT in the news: A warning to investors, a policy lesson for Congress, a reality check on climate policy, and charts
Flat-to-declining highway transportation demand has been with us for about a decade, and consensus is building for the position that it is not a historic aberration but rather a durable trend. A roundup of recent VMT-related news.
ACEEE finds U.S. ranks last in energy efficiency in transportation
A new report from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy finds that, among 12 major world economies analyzed for the report, the U.S. ranks dead last in the energy efficiency of its transportation sector. Improving transportation’s energy efficiency hinges on supporting multiple modes of transportation and can be accomplished by dramatically improving the accessibility of other transportation modes such as rail, carpooling, bus, biking, and walking. Without adoption of new policies and standards, the U.S. transportation system will continue drag on the economy, wasting energy and limiting opportunities for economic development. The ACEE graph below shows how the U.S. transportation sector energy consumption far outstrips that of the other countries evaluated as part of the study.
Falling VMT and Insurance Rates with PAYD?
In its Clean Energy and Climate Plan, the authors assert that a mandatory charge-per-mile system for the entire state would reduce VMT by up to 9.5%. Massachusetts would like to find out. For a voluntary system, …
Getting Back on Track: Aligning State Transportation Policy with Climate Change Goals
A new report by NRDC and Smart Growth America analyzes each state’s transportation policies and evaluates how they support efforts to reduce GHG emissions. The report can be found on both the NRDC and Smart …
Transportation’s Role in Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions (U.S. DOT, 2010)
Read the study here.