Pathways to Decarbonizing Transportation

Exploring potential strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks, and buses in Minnesota.

In the Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan, MnDOT committed to "work with transportation partners to identify and advance strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

The "Pathways to Decarbonizing Transportation" project will explore potential strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from cars, trucks, and buses in Minnesota with the goal of making progress towards state GHG reduction targets in the Next Generation Energy Act for years 2025 (-30% from 2005) and 2050 (-80% from 2005).

The effort is a starting point to help state agencies start thinking seriously about ways to reduce transportation GHG emissions: the #1 source of GHG emissions in Minnesota. The project will result in a summary report(s) on the emissions modeling and stakeholder feedback to inform future work by the state to decarbonize transportation.

Pathways is a collaboration between the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Department of Commerce, Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Environmental Quality Board, and the McKnight Foundation. The team has contracted with Energy and Environmental Economics (E3) to lead the emissions modeling and The Great Plains Institute to lead the stakeholder outreach.

The project will be complete by June 30, 2019. We expect a summary report for the public to be available in August 2019.