TRANSPORTATION - BTS - Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Figure 5-21Changes in the Energy Intensiveness of U.S. Passenger Travel:1975, 1990, and 1997Btu/passenger-mile8,0006,0004,0002,0001975199019970AirdomesticAirinternationalPassengercarLighttruckTransitbusAmtrakNote: 1975 Passenger bus data are not available.Source: U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National TransportationStatistics 1999, BTS99-04 (Washington, DC: 1999), p. 309.Oil Dependence: The U.S. economy’s dependence on petroleum is driven principally by thetransportation sector’s dependence on it. The risks of oil dependence was a major theme ofthe 1977 National Transportation Trends and Choices report [USDOT 1977]. Not only is transportationnearly totally dependent on petroleum as an energy source, but it also is the largest andfastest growing consumer of petroleum products. According to the Department of Energy,transportation derives 97 percent of its energy from petroleum (figure 5-19), although thisincludes a small percentage of nonpetroleum gasoline blending stocks such as ethanol[USDOE EIA 1999a].Transportation consumes 66 percent of the petroleum products supplied to the U.S. economy,up from 55 percent in 1975. As a result of the oil price shocks of the 1970s and 1980s and thederegulation of U.S. natural gas markets, oil use in residential and commercial buildings andby utilities to generate electricity has fallen to about half of its 1975 level (figure 5-22). Industrialuse of petroleum is up by 26 percent over 1975 consumption, but transportation oil use isup 93 percent over the same period [USDOE EIA 1999a].Figure 5-22Petroleum Use in the U.S. Economy: 1975-99 (Annual totals)25Millions of barrels per day2015105UtilitiesBuildingsIndustrialTransportation01975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 1999, table 5.12,available at www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/petrol.html, as of June 23, 2000.5-21