The Impact of Electric Vehicles on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHG) caused by the increased use of fossil fuels for energy services—notably transportation, heating, and the generation of electricity—is known to be one of the foremost drivers of climate change. The United States is responsible for one-fourth of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions, representing only 5% of the world population and it becomes the world’s single largest emitter of atmospheric greenhouse gasses (EPA, 2011) . Since 1970, the U.S. share of net import of crude oil and consumption had been increased significantly and the majority of the imported liquid-based petroleum fuels were used for U.S. transportation sector (EIA, 2010). Today, the transportation is the second largest source of the end-use energy sector (CO2) emissions next to the electric power sector in the U.S. In 2008, the U.S. transportation sector becomes the significant contributor of CO2 emissions, which accounts for 95 percent of U.S. transportations GHG emissions and one-third of the total U.S. GHG emissions (EPA, 2011). In the same year, the U.S. light-duty transportation sector, including passenger cars and light-duty trucks consumed roughly about 60% of the total liquid-based petroleum fuel supplies (EIA, 2010). Due to the high-carbon intensive fossil fuel energy supply, the GHG emissions from light-duty vehicles accounted for about 40% of the total U.S. transportation’s GHG emissions (EIA, 2010).

Over the next few decades, it is projected that the demand for liquid-based petroleum fuels required for light-duty transportation is to be expected to grow rapidly (EIA, 2010). Due to the increase in consumption of gasoline for combustion of internal engines, there could be increase in the G...

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