Greening Mass Transit & Metro Regions: The Final Report - MTA

Energy/Carbon
Energy use, fuel consumption, emissions and CO2 avoidance
For policymakers worldwide, climate change is now an
established fact demanding concerted action. Already, data
indicate a closing window of opportunity if we are to forestall
the worst environmental and economic effects of global
warming. Against this backdrop, the MTA offers a working
model of high-value infrastructure for a low-carbon economy.
The MTA system provides the rapid mobility essential to
a prosperous economy while reducing fossil fuel consumption.
As a result, the MTA region enjoys one of the highest
rates of economic productivity and lowest rates of energy
consumption in the world. The MTA system demonstrates
how investment can mitigate global warming while sustaining
economic growth.
The Commission looked at innovative ways to further
improve the MTA system’s carbon efficiency. The resulting
recommendations fall into two categories. The first is integral
to the MTA’s mission as the nation’s largest public transit
system. With every extension of its transit operations, the
MTA system takes tens of thousands of additional drivers
off the roads (typically on a permanent commuting basis),
transporting them instead on fuel-efficient subways, trains,
and clean-technology buses – thus reducing oil consumption
and CO2 output. A slight increase in transit carbon output
typically signals an exponentially higher increase in carbon
avoidance. In other words, growing the MTA’s carbon
footprint actually shrinks the region’s net carbon footprint.
Having assumed an even greater global urgency, this traditional
mission will continue to be the MTA’s foremost contribution
to sustainability. Quantifying this regional benefit
should provide new ways to identify and evaluate funds or
resources for the MTA. The Commission’s recommendations
for expanding MTA transit access region-wide are addressed
primarily in the Smart-Growth/TOD and Strategy for the
21st Century: Legislative and Policy Recommendations
chapters of this report.
Total Regional GHG Emissions
Mass
Transit
Other
Transportation
Mass
Transit
Other
Transportation
Less Mass Transit More Mass Transit
A small increase in transit’s carbon footprint typically delivers
an exponentially greater decrease in the region’s carbon
footprint, resulting in substantial net carbon avoidance.
Source: T. Papandreau, LA Metro
The second category, the main focus of this chapter,
concerns energy and carbon reductions within the MTA
system itself. The MTA has a history of pioneering cleaner,
more efficient energy consumption at every level of operations,
from the nation’s largest all-CNG bus fleet at Long Island
Bus to innovations in track design and green architecture.
The sustainability gains show up in a number of statistics.
For example, the MTA accounts for 65 percent of all New
York City commutes while using just 5 percent of New York
City’s total energy consumption. Likewise, the fact that New
Yorkers consume one quarter as much energy per capita as
the average American is largely attributable to the MTA
system. In other words, if the entire nation matched the
energy/carbon profile of the MTA’s transit radius, we would
cut foreign oil dependency dramatically and achieve the
Kyoto Protocol carbon emission targets decades ahead
of schedule.
The Commission looked at energy/carbon solutions in
all areas of operations, as outlined below. Since no single
initiative can radically alter the MTA’s current energy consumption,
the recommendations focus on a combination of
traditional efficiency programs and strategic investments in
new energy technologies. Several programs deserve special
mention. The first involves energy retrofits of MTA facilities
in conjunction with the New York Power Authority (NYPA),
an ongoing program that is projected to save greater than
78,000 megawatt hours of electricity and 123,000 gallons
of diesel fuel per year by 2010. Related upgrades to energyefficient
lighting throughout the system include compact
fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) in subway tunnels and lightemitting
diode (LED) lighting for the Verrazano Narrows
Bridge, one of the first LED lighting systems installed on
any major U.S. span. The second program of particular note
involves the development and piloting of green technology
initiatives, including the use of energy generated by solar
panels and tidal turbines, as well as testing of energy storage
technologies and researching wind energy potential on MTA
facilities and corridors. Finally, to help obtain 80 percent of
the MTA electrical power from green sources by 2050, the
MTA should join forces with NYPA and others to develop
the vast potential of offshore wind power. If carried out as
recommended, this transformational clean-energy initiative
would completely alter the energy/carbon profile of the
MTA and its service area. Since energy/carbon reductions
are a primary goal of all sustainability programs, additional
initiatives can be found under the Facilities chapter and the
other sections of this report.
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