WC Archive

We at INFORM recently published a report. Here's a summary:

The Transportation Boom in Asia: Crisis and Opportunity for the United States carefully details the nexus between transportation policies, oil usage, the potential crisis over access to oil, and the opportunities that face China, India, and the US. It also provides short- and long-term solutions that can reduce the price we are paying for our addiction to oil.

In 2005, the combined population of China and India was 2.2 billion people, more than one-third of the world’s population. Projections estimate that by 2010, these two countries will add another 246 million people. As these populations swell and the economies of these countries expand, they also aspire to a lifestyle similar to that in industrialized nations—which leads to growing motor vehicle fleets and fuels additional oil consumption. This increasing thirst for oil puts China and India on a collision course with the US, which previously enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the world’s oil resources.

Using this scenario as a backdrop, The Transportation Boom in Asia examines four key issues that will affect the outcome of this potential conflict:

- The trends in transportation development and oil consumption in China and India as they relate to forecasts about the future of oil
- The consequences of the US’s oil dependence, particularly for its transportation system, and the effect that China’s and India’s soaring oil use will have on the US if Congress and the president do not act

- The goals that these three countries have established for developing sustainable transportation

- The efforts that they are, or are not, taking to address the impending crisis over access to the world’s oil resources

The report details two major trends in China and India. First, oil consumption in both countries exceeds production, forcing them to seek foreign sources of oil to meet their needs. Of course, their need for oil will only increase as their motor vehicle fleets continue to grow, which will increase the competition for limited oil supplies. Second, realizing that they cannot build transportation systems dependent solely on oil-derived fuels and that the combustion of gasoline and diesel fuels produce adverse health effects, both countries have aggressively pursued the use of natural gas vehicle (NGV) technology. China and India have already become two of the top-ten countries using NGVs, with India’s fleet of 200,000 NGVs ranking even larger than the US’s. Aside from reducing oil dependence and urban air pollution, NGV technology establishes the foundational systems needed to shift to hydrogen-fuel technology.

The report also describes two trends in the US. One trend involves the risks posed by the country’s dependence on foreign oil. Even though the US already consumes more oil than any other nation (25 percent of world oil consumption, despite having only 5 percent of the world’s population), its demand for oil is still increasing, which only increases its dependence on foreign oil. This continuing reliance on oil-derived fuels places the US economy and national security at risk, particularly as the US closes military bases in other nations and concentrates its forces on US soil. The other trend concerns the US political leadership, which has neglected the alternative-fuel programs launched in the 1990s—programs that demonstrated the feasibility of developing natural gas and hydrogen–electric technologies. Even though the US has pledged $1.7 billion over five years to develop hydrogen technologies, it has refused to support the NGV technology that could help meet this five-year goal.

As The Transportation Boom in Asia explains, NGVs offer an immediate short-term solution to the impending crisis over the access to oil. Furthermore, using and refining NGV technology offers several benefits: reduced air pollution, diversified domestic fuel capabilities, and technology that opens a pathway to hydrogen fuel. Developing hydrogen technology, which relies on a pollution-free fuel that can be made from water using renewable energy sources, is the final step in the transition to sustainable transportation.

The US could benefit in numerous ways if it chose to pursue NGV technology for domestic use. Beyond reducing air pollution and the greenhouse gases responsible for causing global climate change, the US could create jobs and bolster a vital domestic industry if existing and future NGV technology was exported to China, India, and other Asian nations. However, without taking this initial step, the path to hydrogen could lead through Beijing or New Delhi, rather than Washington.

The Transportation Boom in Asia also makes eight policy recommendations that government policymakers could follow to ensure a healthier, more secure future for America and to collaborate with Asian and other industrializing nations in building a sustainable world. Acting on these recommendations would expand the NGV industry in the US, deploy NGV and related technologies from the US to industrializing nations in Asia, and develop renewable energy technologies such as wind power, photovoltaics, and hydropower.

It is available on our site.

The Transportation Boom in Asia: Crisis and Opportunity for the United States carefully details the nexus between transportation policies, oil usage, the potential crisis over access to oil, and the opportunities that face China, India, and the US. It also provides short- and long-term solutions that can reduce the price we are paying for our addiction to oil.

In 2005, the combined population of China and India was 2.2 billion people, more than one-third of the world’s population. Projections estimate that by 2010, these two countries will add another 246 million people. As these populations swell and the economies of these countries expand, they also aspire to a lifestyle similar to that in industrialized nations—which leads to growing motor vehicle fleets and fuels additional oil consumption. This increasing thirst for oil puts China and India on a collision course with the US, which previously enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the world’s oil resources.

Using this scenario as a backdrop, The Transportation Boom in Asia examines four key issues that will affect the outcome of this potential conflict:

ó The trends in transportation development and oil consumption in China and India as they relate to forecasts about the future of oil
ó The consequences of the US’s oil dependence, particularly for its transportation system, and the effect that China’s and India’s soaring oil use will have on the US if Congress and the president do not act
ó The goals that these three countries have established for developing sustainable transportation
ó The efforts that they are, or are not, taking to address the impending crisis over access to the world’s oil resources

The report details two major trends in China and India. First, oil consumption in both countries exceeds production, forcing them to seek foreign sources of oil to meet their needs. Of course, their need for oil will only increase as their motor vehicle fleets continue to grow, which will increase the competition for limited oil supplies. Second, realizing that they cannot build transportation systems dependent solely on oil-derived fuels and that the combustion of gasoline and diesel fuels produce adverse health effects, both countries have aggressively pursued the use of natural gas vehicle (NGV) technology. China and India have already become two of the top-ten countries using NGVs, with India’s fleet of 200,000 NGVs ranking even larger than the US’s. Aside from reducing oil dependence and urban air pollution, NGV technology establishes the foundational systems needed to shift to hydrogen-fuel technology.

The report also describes two trends in the US. One trend involves the risks posed by the country’s dependence on foreign oil. Even though the US already consumes more oil than any other nation (25 percent of world oil consumption, despite having only 5 percent of the world’s population), its demand for oil is still increasing, which only increases its dependence on foreign oil. This continuing reliance on oil-derived fuels places the US economy and national security at risk, particularly as the US closes military bases in other nations and concentrates its forces on US soil. The other trend concerns the US political leadership, which has neglected the alternative-fuel programs launched in the 1990s—programs that demonstrated the feasibility of developing natural gas and hydrogen–electric technologies. Even though the US has pledged $1.7 billion over five years to develop hydrogen technologies, it has refused to support the NGV technology that could help meet this five-year goal.

As The Transportation Boom in Asia explains, NGVs offer an immediate short-term solution to the impending crisis over the access to oil. Furthermore, using and refining NGV technology offers several benefits: reduced air pollution, diversified domestic fuel capabilities, and technology that opens a pathway to hydrogen fuel. Developing hydrogen technology, which relies on a pollution-free fuel that can be made from water using renewable energy sources, is the final step in the transition to sustainable transportation.

The US could benefit in numerous ways if it chose to pursue NGV technology for domestic use. Beyond reducing air pollution and the greenhouse gases responsible for causing global climate change, the US could create jobs and bolster a vital domestic industry if existing and future NGV technology was exported to China, India, and other Asian nations. However, without taking this initial step, the path to hydrogen could lead through Beijing or New Delhi, rather than Washington.

The Transportation Boom in Asia also makes eight policy recommendations that government policymakers could follow to ensure a healthier, more secure future for America and to collaborate with Asian and other industrializing nations in building a sustainable world. Acting on these recommendations would expand the NGV industry in the US, deploy NGV and related technologies from the US to industrializing nations in Asia, and develop renewable energy technologies such as wind power, photovoltaics, and hydropower.

It's available on our site front page.

When I was in India this past December a similar vehicle was used all over the place - an often three wheeled vehicle they were used as open air taxis, but also transportation vehicles for many other items.

However at least in Delhi they all ran on compressed natural gas.

I wonder if similar technology might be importable from India to China to cut down on emissions?

Shannon