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Southwest Energy Efficiency Project Southwest Energy Efficiency Project

Colorado Transportation Blueprint

Anticipating that climate legislation requiring an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will be enacted in the near future, SWEEP has released the Colorado Transportation Blueprint for the New Energy Economy, a new report which analyzes a wide range of strategies to reduce CO2 emissions from the transportation sector in Colorado.

The report demonstrates that projected CO2 emissions in 2040 can be reduced by over 40% while simultaneously reducing transportation costs, saving consumers billions of dollars, and supporting thousands of new jobs in the state. About $34 billion in net economic savings can be achieved in the state between 2010 and 2040 by:

  1. replacing gasoline fueled cars and diesel trucks with battery powered motors that can be charged nightly from the grid by electricity generated in Colorado;
  2. accommodating future growth by co-locating new development with enhanced transit services to provide mobility that is faster, less expensive and more convenient than auto trips; and
  3. improving the fuel efficiency of existing vehicles.

The Blueprint concludes that strategies available to the State can achieve the 80% reduction target by 2050 only if augmented by further regulatory action at the federal level to improve vehicle fuel efficiency well beyond the levels proposed by the Obama Administration for 2016. The Blueprint also concludes that because of Colorado's rapid population growth, the 80% reduction target can be achieved with advanced vehicle technologies only if the rate of increase in vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) is slowed to the rate of population growth.