QOTD: What Tech is Best for Decarbonization?

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey


A new federal report suggests that EVs, not hydrogen-fueled vehicles, are the way to go, at least when it comes to the passenger-vehicle fleet. Trucks, however, might be best served by hydrogen.


The report, named the U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization, is a joint product from the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, the department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency. It's part of a joint effort from those agencies to work together to improve transportation from both an environmental and accessibility standpoint by 2050.

The plan includes rethinking the design of cities and improving public transportation, but it also indicates that the biggest emissions reductions will come from vehicles. The agencies are particularly focused on electricity, hydrogen, and sustainable biofuels.

The report concludes that in its view, electricity is the best for the passenger fleet and hydrogen is the best approach for long-haul trucking. Sustainable fuels? For boats and planes.

Some of you in the B and B are probably actual experts on this topic, and many of the rest of you like to pretend you are. So, sound off below -- are EVs the best way forward for cleaner air when it comes to the passenger fleet? Or is hydrogen being given short shrift?

[Image: metamorworks/Shutterstock.com]

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by  subscribing to our newsletter.

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

Comments
Join the conversation
11 of 45 comments
  • Master Baiter Master Baiter on Jan 17, 2023

    This effort to "decarbonize" is a bunch of baloney based on climate hysteria. If you want a good summary of the history and state of climate science, listen to Jordan Peterson's podcast #320 with Dr. Richard Lindzen.


    One point he makes is that starting around the 1990s, science was hijacked by politicians and a Malthusian narrative of the type still espoused by that nut case Paul Ehrlich took hold. If, as a scientist you took a position counter to the "CO2 is going to kill us all" narrative, you could forget about getting published, funded, or promoted. That's how you get a majority of "scientists" to agree: Only fund research that agrees with your pre-ordained conclusion.


    The Left has been out to destroy fossil fuels, limit industrial development, control population, and inhibit human flourishing for over 50 years. If climate change didn't exist, they would have had to invent it--which is exactly what they did.



    • See 4 previous
    • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Jan 19, 2023

      "As an engineer, I have a pretty well developed BS detector"

      Perhaps you need to review the psychology behind confirmational bias.

  • Beachy Beachy on Jan 18, 2023

    It is now very clear that Exxon scientists did model global warming due to CO2 from fossil fuels accurately decades ago. The top management then decided to cloud the issue by claiming the science was unsettled. There will always be people who think the earth is flat and there will always be people who deny global warming, but new temperature records are being set every year. We are on course for very bad and irreversible changes to our planet.

  • Beachy Beachy on Jan 18, 2023

    Here is a link to a news story about the paper detailing the Exxon scientists’ work in the top scientific journal Science.

    https://phys.org/news/2023-01-exxon-mobil-accurately-1970s.html


  • Daniel J Daniel J on Jan 19, 2023

    Large scale? Nuclear. In regards to cars/vehicles, EVs/Hybrids. I know I've poopoo'd EVs here. I have no problem with EVs themselves. I am a free market capitalist and believes EVs should be purchased naturally in the market, not forced by governments. I also feel that infrastructure for said EVs is no where near what it needs to be for widespread adoption.

Next