Critical Infrastructures: Transportation Systems Sector

 

Welcome and let’s take a brief look at the transportation side as it relates to the chemical sector. TheTransportation Systems Sector consists of seven key subsectors, or what they call “modes.” They include:

• Aviation – involves, air traffic control systems, and about 19,700 airports, heliports, and landing strips. Additionally, the aviation mode includes commercial and recreational aircraft and a wide-variety of support services, such as aircraft repair stations, fueling facilities, navigation aids, and flight schools.
• Highway and Motor Carrier – encompasses more than 4 million miles of roadway, more than 600,000 bridges, and more than 350 tunnels. Vehicles include trucks, including those carrying hazardous materials; other commercial vehicles, and school buses; vehicle and driver licensing systems; traffic management systems; and cyber systems used for operational management.
• Maritime Transportation System – consists of about 95,000 miles of coastline, 361 ports, more than 25,000 miles of waterways, and intermodal landside connections that allow the various modes of transportation to move people and goods to, from, and on the water.
• Mass Transit and Passenger Rail – includes terminals, operational systems, and supporting infrastructure for passenger services by transit buses, trolleybuses, monorail, heavy rail—also known as subways or metros—light rail, passenger rail, and vanpool/rideshare.
• Pipeline Systems – consist of more than 2.5 million miles of pipelines spanning the country and carrying nearly all of the nation's natural gas and about 65 percent of hazardous liquids, as well as various chemicals.
• Freight Rail – consists of seven major carriers, hundreds of smaller railroads, over 138,000 miles of active railroad, over 1.33 million freight cars, and approximately 20,000 locomotives. An estimated 12,000 trains operate daily. The Department of Defense has designated 30,000 miles of track and structure as critical to mobilization and resupply of U.S. forces.
• Postal and Shipping – involves moving bout 720 million letters and packages each day and includes large integrated carriers, regional and local courier services, mail services, mail management firms, and chartered and delivery services

One of the concerning factors affecting the transportation sector and the environment particularly involving maritime, motor-carrier highway, and rail services is its transportation of oil products and its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Over the years, policymakers and stakeholder groups have proposed a number of policies aimed at reducing these emissions via mitigation policies. But in order to fully evaluate the effectiveness of these policies, they have to consider the direct responses associated with policy actions as well as the indirect responses.

In cases where there are multiple policies being employed, indirect effects can create policy interactions that are either complementary or opposing to where policymakers need to understand how these interactions operate in order to leverage policy collaborations and manage policy conflicts.

With that being said, other greenhouse gases and GHG emissions are a result of human activity. The following chart shows the energy consumption and emissions by the major fuel types:

 

 

Given its current state is there anything you would change, implement, or allow current policies and regulations to remain the same? What contributions to changes (if any) do you think would improve the quality of our environment?

Feel free to comment below. Your response is greatly appreciated!