ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND
Executive Summary
Solar powered ships. High-tech GPS truck tolling systems. Advanced diesel-electric engines. These are just a few of the technologies that the freight sector is using to reduce the pollution that comes from moving goods.
Trade is the lifeblood of the global economy, but it comes at a high price for the environment and local communities. Moving freight creates traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, toxic air pollution and noise in local communities. Without thoughtful infrastructure and operations improvements, projected increases in trade threaten to make these problems worse and place greater strains on the nation’s aging infrastructure. By 2020, 90.1 million tons of freight per day are expected to move throughout the United States, a 70% increase from 2002.
Generally, freight transportation—how to keep it functioning well and how to reduce its environmental and community impacts—has received little policy attention domestically or internationally. This has begun to change as trade becomes more international, infrastructure ages, and environmental damages worsen.
This report addresses the three principle freight modes: trucking, rail and ships. It focuses on real-world, innovative solutions that reduce pollution and increase freight transportation efficiency. While most of these solutions are in place somewhere in the world, they have not been widely adopted in the United States.
We focus on a handful of exemplary projects; there are many more that hold promise, such as on-dock rail initiatives and various technologies still in research stages. We discuss ten categories of innovative projects that are working right now to improve freight transport while reducing its environmental impacts:
– Port and corridor cleanup plans
– Shoreside power
– Ship cleanup
– Coastal shipping
– Rail yard and port cargo handling equipment
– Diesel engine emissions reduction and incentives
– Truck tolling
– Truck stop electrification
– Logistics
– On-the-horizon technologies for rail, port and maritime
Each case study is evaluated based on environmental benefits, co-benefits and economic benefits. We also touch on funding sources. For the purpose of this report, we define co-benefits as any health, quality of life or time-saving benefit that goes beyond emissions reduction or cost savings.
Widespread adoption of the solutions outlined in this report would help create a modern freight system that is cleaner and more efficient, supports a strong economy and creates stable jobs.
Download full version (PDF): The Good Haul
About Environmental Defense Fund
www.edf.org
“Environmental Defense Fund is a leading national nonprofit organization representing more than 500,000 members. Since 1967, we have linked science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable and cost-effective solutions to society’s most urgent environmental problems…Environmental Defense Fund is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. Among these rights are access to clean air and water, healthy and nourishing food, and flourishing ecosystems.”
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