Office of Operations Freight Management and Operations

Freight Facts and Figures 2010

Figure 5-1. Share of Energy Consumption by Freight Transportation Mode: 2008

In 2008, trucking accounted for more than two-thirds of freight transportation energy consumption. Water was a distant second with roughly one-sixth of freight energy consumption.

 

Figure 5-1. Pie chart. Data is described in text above and table below. Note: Data do not include energy consumed by oil pipelines (crude petroleum and petroleum products) or coal slurry/water slurry pipelines.

[PDF 34KB]

 

Data represented in the figure.

Table in Excel format

Trillions of BTUs

Blank cell. 1980 1990 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Truck (thousand gallons) 2,768 3,397 4,886 4,879 5,104 4,535 4,455 5,028 5,130 5,209 4,955
Class I Rail (Distillate/diesel fuel) (million gallons) 541 432 513 515 517 531 563 568 581 563 539
Water (thousand gallons) 1,677 1,396 1,414 1,218 1,149 1,026 1,182 1,211 1,280 1,367 1,065
Pipeline (natural gas only) (million cubic feet) 654 680 662 644 688 610 584 602 602 642 668

Key: BTU = British thermal unit.

Sources:

Highway: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics, (Washington, DC: annual issues), table VM-1, available at www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2008/ as of April 25, 2010.

Rail: Association of American Railroads, Railroad Facts (Washington, DC: annual issues), p. 40.

Water: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Fuel Oil and Kerosene Sales 2008 (Washington, DC: 2009), tables 2, 4, and similar tables in earlier editions; U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Highway Statistics (Washington, DC: annual issues), table MF-24, available at www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2008/ as of April 25, 2010.

Pipeline: U.S. Department of Energy, Natural Gas Annual 2008, (Washington, DC: January 2010), table 15 and similar tables in earlier editions.

 


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