4 ms·
Given the efficiency of rail, is fuel even a considerable part of their costs?
by Seattle3503 5y ago
Given the efficiency of rail, is fuel even a considerable part of their costs?
- epistasis 5y agoI don't know, actually! So some napkin math... Rail is 2% of transportation emissions, which is 29% of total US emissions [1], which was 6.558e6 metric tons in 2019 [2]. So rail is 3.8e7 kg of CO2 emissions. Diesel emits 10 kg/gallon [3], so that's 3.8e6 gallons, and at a cost of $3/gallon that's only $10M dollars out of what is an $80B industry [4]. That's so vanishingly small that I wonder if I have done something wrong here... [1] https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-... [2] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas... [3] https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-calculator-calculations-and-references https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-ca... [4] https://railroads.dot.gov/rail-network-development/freight-rail-overview https://railroads.dot.gov/rail-network-development/freight-r...
- epistasis 5y agoMy mistake: the starting amount of CO2 is low by a factor of 1000, and therefore fuel costs are around $10B of the $80B industry. That's in line with my initial expectations, and cutting fuel costs by even, say, 30% could be a big win.