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Peer Review of March 2013 LDV Rebound Report By Small and Hymel
Citation:
Peer Review of March 2013 LDV Rebound Report By Small and Hymel. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
Impact/Purpose:
To use the peer review process to help assure that the methodologies considered by the U.S. EPA for estimating VMT rebound have been thoroughly examined.
Description:
The regulatory option of encouraging the adoption of advanced technologies for improving vehicle efficiency can result in significant fuel savings and GHG emissions benefits. At the same time, it is possible that some of these benefits might be offset by additional driving that is encouraged by the reduced costs of operating more efficient vehicles. This so called “rebound effect”, the increased driving that results from an improvement in the energy efficiency of a vehicle, must be determined in order to reliably estimate the overall benefits of GHG regulations for light-duty vehicles. Dr. Ken Small, an Economist at the Department of Economics, University of California at Irvine, with contributions by Dr. Kent Hymel, Department of Economics, California State University at Northridge, have developed a methodology to estimate the rebound effect for light-duty vehicles in the U.S. Specifically, rebound is estimated as the change in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) with respect to the change in per mile fuel costs that can occur, for example, when vehicle operating efficiency is improved. The model analyzes aggregate personal motor-vehicle travel within a simultaneous model of aggregate VMT, fleet size, fuel efficiency, and congestion formation.
URLs/Downloads:
Charge Letter and Peer Review Report for December 2013 LDV Rebound Report by Small and Hymel (PDF, NA pp, 1904 KB, about PDF)The Rebound Effect From Fuel Efficiency Standards (420-R-15-012)
EPA Response (Section III) in Peer Review of "The Rebound Effect from Fuel Efficiency Standards: Measurement and Projection to 2035" (EPA-420r15013) (PDF, NA pp, 3018 KB, about PDF)
Peer Review of December 2013 LDV Rebound Report by Small and Hymel (PDF, NA pp, 1904 KB, about PDF)