Transportation Fuels Conservation
| In May, 2010, the ECO released its first Annual Report on the progress of activities in Ontario to reduce or make more efficient use of electricity, natural gas, propane, oil and transportation fuels. Click here for more information on this report, including videos and communications materials. | |||||
Transportation accounts for the highest demand for energy in Ontario. Passenger transportation energy is primarily met
through one fuel – gasoline – and freight transportation is dominated by the use of diesel fuel. In 2007, transportation
fuels accounted for 36 per cent or 953 PJ of total energy demand in Ontario. The large and growing consumption of
petroleum-based transportation fuels is unsustainable and has a significant impact on the environment, affecting air quality and GHG emissions.
Ontario does not have energy reduction targets for the conservation of transportation fuels. However, GHG reduction targets are contained in Go Green: Ontario’s Action Plan on Climate Change. Ontario’s transportation energy policy, to date, has emphasized fuel switching. This may explain why substitution of lower carbon and alternative transportation fuels (like electric vehicles) plays a prominent role in Ontario’s transportation energy initiatives.
The largest reduction in transportation energy use is expected to come from federal regulation of fuel efficiency standards in new passenger vehicles and light trucks. Current provincial government efforts focus on three areas: fuel switching, fleet efficiency and transit funding.
The government has continued tax rebates for alternative fuel vehicles, implemented in the 1980s and 1990s (the Ministry of Revenue indicates that the rebate will end on June 30, 2010 with the introduction of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)). The recent announcement of additional rebates for the purchase of electric vehicles builds upon the policy of the 1980s and 1990s.
Also, the Ontario Budget 2010 announced that funding for the Ontario Bus Replacement Program (a program which provides funding for municipalities to replace conventional and specialized transit buses with new lower fuel consumption and lower emission vehicles) would be sunsetted, and there would be delays funding Ontario government buildings and transit expansion.
The government has also encouraged fleet efficiency by regulation. For example, in 2009 it introduced initiatives like speed limiters for large trucks, increasing axle weight allowances to accommodate single wide tires for transport trucks, and allowing rear-of-trailer aerodynamic fairings to reduce fuel consumption. The government has also provided incentives to improve fleet efficiency. For example, the four-year $2.9 million Green Commercial Vehicle program offers grants for anti-idling technologies and other devices.
Some initiatives aimed at transportation demand management (TDM), fleet efficiency and fuel substitution in passenger cars are in place. These are a modest continuation of Ministry of Transportation (MTO) programs – like TruckSave, DriveSave and clean fuel transit vehicles – from the 1980s-1990s.
The government continues to fund transit through mechanisms, such as the Gas Tax Funding. Metrolinx developed and adopted a regional transportation policy for the greater Toronto and Hamilton Area with municipal and other partners. The plan requires significant capital funding. The Province reduced operating funding to municipal authorities in the mid-1990s, although Gas Tax Program funding can be used for certain operating expenditures by municipalities.
The ECO believes that the policy and program initiatives to conserve energy in the transportation sector do not adequately address current levels of transportation fuel consumption and its expected growth. The rate of personal vehicle use exceeds the rate of population growth. According to MTO data, between 2000-06, Ontario’s population grew by nine per cent, but vehicle kilometres travelled increased by 11 per cent.
In Ontario, trucking – the most energy intensive mode for land-based freight transport – is the dominant mode of shipping freight and goods. The annual average increase of freight transportation energy use is double the annual growth rate for passenger transportation. As noted in the ECO’s Annual Greenhouse Gas Progress Report 2008/2009 there has been a lack of initiatives associated with transportation, especially modes such as heavy vehicles and freight.
The ECO believes that the government should expand its use of available TDM policy levers, such as modal shift to public transit, road pricing, vehicle technology and driver behaviour, active transportation modes and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The government should also maintain the financial incentives available, such as grants to encourage consumers to purchase alternative fuel vehicles. The government should recalibrate feebates, like the Tax for Fuel Conservation, that encourage manufacturers to sell and consumers to purchase fuel efficient vehicles. As noted in other sections of this report, it is desirable to coordinate these policies with conservation objectives related to other fuels.
The lack of new initiatives on the scale needed to address conservation may arise from the fact that the government’s policy capacity for transportation energy, as well as formal cooperation between ministries to develop policy and programs, has atrophied over the years. Responding to a request for information from the ECO, the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure’s sparse reply spoke volumes: “[the Ministry] did not undertake any activities to conserve transportation fuels in 2009. ”
| Addressing Transport’s Carbon Footprint versus Building a Conservation Culture |
|---|
| The Province has taken some steps toward a fuel substitution strategy. As of 2007, fuel suppliers were required to ensure that gasoline sold in Ontario contains, on average, a five per cent blend of the alcohol fuel ethanol. Federal requirements under development are expected to add a renewable content requirement for diesel fuel (biodiesel) beginning in 2011.
In May 2007, Ontario announced plans to develop a low carbon fuel standard that would require a reduction of 10 per cent in carbon emissions from transportation fuels by 2020, and signed an agreement with California to co-ordinate policy development. A low carbon fuel standard could stimulate the production of a broader range of transportation fuel alternatives. While California has subsequently implemented its standard through a regulation that requires emissions reductions beginning in 2011, Ontario has not yet taken similar action. In July 2009, the Ontario government announced an electric vehicle plan. Under this plan, buyers will receive rebates between $4,000 and $10,000 for plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles purchased after July 1, 2010. To encourage and reward early adopters of electric vehicles, a green vehicle license plate will be introduced allowing single-occupant electric vehicles access to high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes for a limited time, as well as accessing public charging facilities. Ontario’s electric vehicle plan is a challenge to Ontarians to use their purchasing power and consumer leverage to support an electric vehicle infrastructure. However, implementation of the plan requires additional commitment by the government. Since July 2009, there have been no further announcements regarding the plan or any indication that funding has been approved for the plan. Although there are strong linkages between climate change programs and energy conservation, reducing transport’s carbon footprint does not always support building a conservation culture. Fuel substitution strategies reduce the reliance on or consumption of petroleum products, thereby reducing the GHG emissions but it may not lead to reductions in total energy use, particularly if it is not combined with initiatives that reduce growth of vehicle- kilometres travelled. |
Until the mid-1990s, the energy and transportation ministries had policy and program units dedicated to transportation
energy and jointly developed TDM initiatives. The Transportation Energy Management Program (TEMP) was launched in
1980 as Ontario emerged from the second oil supply and price disruption in less than a decade and governments sought
ways to reduce their dependence on oil from politically volatile countries. Since the core problem was oil, attention on the
transportation sector was merited to increase energy security.
TEMP was designed to further three strategies: (1) overall reduction of energy demand for transportation by promoting technologies and practices to replace transportation; (2) increased efficiencies through technology, infrastructure changes and improved driving practices; and (3) the substitution of alternative transportation fuels. DriveSave, TruckSave, municipal fleet programs, carpooling, cycling and telecommuting programs, and planning high-occupancy vehicle lane networks were examples of initiatives delivered through this successful collaboration between ministries, other governments and the private sector.
The ECO urges the government to address this loss of capacity. In addition, there is the need to re-establish co-operation between ministries for a coordinated approach to energy conservation. The Ministry of Transportation has begun development of a sustainability strategy but it is directed at the ministry’s own needs and operation with no linkage to the activities of other ministries.
Citing This Article:
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2010. Annual Energy Conservation Progress Report, 2009 (Volume One): Rethinking Energy Conservation in Ontario. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. pp. 33-35
