Assessment of Costs and Benefits of Flexible and Alternative Fuel Use in the US Transportation Sector. Technical Report 2: A Context for Estimating Economic and Energy Security Benefits.

摘要

As the transportation sector increasingly dominates the demand for petroleum fuels and as US dependence on imported petroleum grows, interest in substitutes for petroleum-based motor fuels intensifies. Interest arises from the belief that having significant alternatives to petroleum fuels will bring about lower crude oil prices and will reduce both the likelihood of an oil market disruption and its potential magnitude. This report addresses the framework, methods, and assumptions necessary to evaluate these questions, as they apply to methanol derived from low cost natural gas feedstocks. 32 refs., 13 figs.