Transportation Energy Use in United States

United States

Transportation accounts for more than one-fourth of the energy consumed in the United States annually. It accounts for more than any other sector except the industrial sector and about 27% more than the residential sector.

Energy used for transportation in the U.S. predominantly comes from petroleum, a fossil fuel. Burning fossil fuel products such as diesel or gasoline releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses (GHG) that trap heat and lead to the warming of the atmosphere. The transportation sector is the largest contributor to GHG emissions. Within the transportation sector, 57% of GHG emissions in 2022 came from light-duty vehicles (passenger cars and light-duty trucks), followed by medium- and heavy-duty trucks at 23%. 

The consequences of fossil fuel use extend beyond global warming. Transportation emissions have damaging and far-reaching effects on our air, water, environment and ecosystem, contributing to acid rain, smog, contaminated drinking water, heavy metal poisoning, mass extinction events and declines in quality and longevity of human life. Research on the impact of pollution on health reveals strong associations with adverse birth outcomes, asthma, cancer and other serious health impacts.

The fossil fuels used for transportation contribute to climate change, which impacts everyone. However, some populations are disproportionately affected, including pregnant women, children, older adults, individuals with disabilities, poor communities and communities of color.

Achieving carbon-neutral industrial transportation is challenging, as there are currently no technologies apart from petroleum-fueled internal combustion engines capable of powering shipping freighters or planes. However, steps can be taken to reduce fossil fuel use in transportation, such as:

• Developing technologies that reduce the amount of fuel used to operate vehicles. These technologies include advanced internal combustion engines and start-stop systems.
• Expanding the market for electric vehicles and other low-carbon technologies by creating automobile fuel economy standards, mandates for the supply of renewable fuels, tax incentives to promote electric vehicles and renewable fuel use and funding public transportation. 
• Accelerating the development of technologies that could save fuel in freight-hauling trucks.
• Reducing or reforming fossil fuel subsidies. 
• Engaging existing oil and gas companies in the transition to clean energy. 
• Ensuring strict regulation of U.S. oil and gas production to reduce methane emissions and routine gas flaring (the burning of natural gas) during production. 

The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions suggests actions individuals can take to reduce their transportation energy footprint.

The Alliance to Save Energy aims to cut transportation energy use in half by 2050.

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National Research Council, ed. Policy Options for Reducing Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Transportation. Transportation Research Board Special Report 307. Washington, D.C.: Transportation Research Board, 2011. https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/sr/sr307.pdf.

Rodrigue, Jean-Paul. “The Environmental Relationships of Transportation Systems.” In The Geography of Transport Systems, 6th ed. London: Routledge, 2024. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003343196.

The Alliance 50x50 Commission on U.S. Transportation Sector Efficiency. “Halving Transportation Energy Consumption By 2050.” The Alliance to Save Energy, February 2018. https://www.ase.org/sites/ase.org/files/transportation-white-paper-feb2018.pdf.

U.S. Department of Energy. “Natural Gas Flaring and Venting: State and Federal Regulatory Overview, Trends, and Impacts.” U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Oil and Natural Gas, Office of Fossil Energy, June 2019. https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2019/08/f65/Natural%20Gas%20Flaring%20and%20Venting%20Report.pdf.