ABSTRACT
The transportation sector in the United States is an important focus of both energy and environmental policy because it is a large consumer of energy, primarily oil, and a large source of air pollution emissions linked with both urban smog and global warming. At stake are national economic health, energy security, and the earth's climate. Among the many actions that can be taken to improve the situation, increasing the fuel economy of light vehicles should have a high priority. Major changes will be required to reduce light vehicle energy use, or to even check its growth. The chapter argues that improves energy efficiency and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, while providing daily "access" for people, and maintaining or improving values such as safety and environmental quality. A competing, or perhaps complementary, approach for vehicles may be to measure and record emissions performance with on-board technology that is beginning to be developed.
