Transportation Energy Futures Series: Freight Transportation Demand: Energy-Efficient Scenarios for a Low-Carbon Future
Freight transportation demand is projected to grow to 27.5 billion tons in 2040, and to nearly 30.2 billion tons in 2050. This report describes the current and future demand for freight transportation in terms of tons and ton-miles of commodities moved by truck, rail, water, pipeline, and air freight carriers. It outlines the economic, logistics, transportation, and policy and regulatory factorsthat shape freight demand, the trends and 2050 outlook for these factors, and their anticipated effect on freight demand. After describing federal policy actions that could influence future freight demand, the report then summarizes the capabilities of available analytical models for forecasting freight demand. This is one in a series of reports produced as a result of the Transportation EnergyFutures project, a Department of Energy-sponsored multi-agency effort to pinpoint underexplored strategies for reducing GHGs and petroleum dependence related to transportation.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Analysis and Evaluation
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1072830
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/TP-6A20-55641; DOE/GO-102013-3711
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: Prepared by Cambridge Systematics, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois; and Energy & Environmental Research Associates, Rochester, New York
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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