A serious effort to begin the transition to a post-petroleum age has been underway in the United States since the late 1980s. The Clean Air Act of 1990 and the Energy Policy Act of 1992 both contain mandates and incentives for alternative transportation fuel use in specific automotive fleets. Several of these fleets are required to use an increasing amount of alternative fuels beginning in 1997. Furthermore, more than thirty state governments have acted on their own to establish alternative transportation fuel use mandates and incentives that are often more vigorous than federal efforts. California and Massachusetts, for example, have adopted requirements for the development of demonstration vehicle programs, followed by the introduction of zero-emission vehicles early in the next decade.

Due to these efforts, a substantial alternative transportation fuel industry has formed in the 1990s. Use of natural gas, propane, and alcohol fuels in transportation, although still minuscule compared to oil use, has increased dramatically, paving the way for the zero-emission electric vehicle technologies now entering the marketplace. Table 1 shows the current status of U.S. transportation fuel use.²⁶

The emergence of a nascent alternative transportation fuels industry in the United States has recently been threatened by a counter movement from the major auto and oil companies which favor oil-derived fuels and conventional pollution abatement strategies based on tailpipe emission control technology. Moreover, some government programs are under attack by opponents of alternative fuel mandates, who view them as inappropriate market intervention. Insufficient funding hampers several government fleet conversion projects and concern over fiscal impacts undermines support for some alternative fuel use financial incentives. Nonetheless, innovation in transportation is far more vibrant today than a decade ago, in contrast to the erosion of renewable energy opportunities in the electricity industry during the same period due to industry restructuring.

Abstract Table of Contents Previous section Next section