The Great American Energy Diet is cutting lots of BTUs in transportation, where fuel efficiency rose 16% since 2007 and jumped 1.4 miles per gallon in 2012. Impressive gains already and more are ahead.
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/fetrends.htm.
Combined with growing oil substitutes like natural gas, electricity, and biofuels, fuel efficiency gains to date have driven US oil consumption down from its 2007 peak to the 1995 level. Total energy consumption also is back to the 1999 amount.
But bigger fuel efficiency gains are coming. EPA projects that fuel efficiency will improve nearly 2 miles per gallon on average every year from 2013 to 2025. Slimming down energy consumption for transportation is a big part of why the Great American Energy diet is gaining momentum!
OK, that's great but it also creates a problem. Each State and the federal government base their respective revenue source for transportation maintenance & improvements on their "gasoline tax." So if we are using less gasoline we are receiving less revenue to repair roads, bridges, and transit. So then how do we change the transportation funding source to resolve this continuing shortfall ?
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