More Compact Development Could Reduce Vehicle Travel, Energy Use, CO2 Emissions

September 1 -- By increasing population and employment density in metropolitan areas, vehicle travel, energy use, and CO2 emissions could decrease anywhere from less than 1 percent up to 11 percent by 2050, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council. The reductions depend on the extent to which current development patterns could be reversed, and some members of the study committee disagreed on the plausibility of achieving the higher estimate.

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