Regional and Urban Design Committee

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The Regional and Urban Design Committee (RUDC) aims to improve the quality of the regional and urban environment by promoting excellence in design, planning, and public policy in the built environment. This will be achieved through its member and public education, in concert with allied community and professional groups. Join us!

2024 Symposium

The 2024 symposium will be held in Indianapolis, IN in November. Stay tuned for dates and location. Registration will open in July.

2023 RUDC Symposium

The RUDC Symposium, held in Washington, DC October 19-20, covered emerging trends, theories, and technologies that are shaping the future of regional and urban design. Watch the engaging highlight and speaker videos >.

Forget CAFE standards, the combustion engine will be obsolete anyway

  • 1.  Forget CAFE standards, the combustion engine will be obsolete anyway

    Posted 04-04-2018 09:02 AM

    Forget the EPA Ruling - Gas Cars Will be Obsolete by 2025 

    No matter that EPA chief Scott Pruitt wants to roll back the phase Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards of 2015 which require fleet gas consumption to be cut in half over 2010 values by 2025, this horse is out of the barn. 
    It will matter little what Pruitt does with the CAFE standards
    The brewing federal fight is not just between California, which vows to maintain the higher standards,  but also with the rest of the world. Chiefly it won't be a fight about regulations but fighting economics and technology. Clearly the US government doesn't have an enviable position in this. It can't possibly win because nothing that becomes as uneconomical as the privately owned internal combustion engine car will endure in the long run, no matter how many incentives it has been given and no matter how long it already endured in spite of its inherent non-sustainability.

    The US is also in a bad position because its auto-industry makes most of its profit from pick-up trucks and SUVs, both gas guzzlers which are artificially propped up by low gas taxes and by an energy policy favoring fossil fuels. The exception and shining star, when it comes to pivoting to the future, is Tesla and its all-electric fleet. But the Trump-Pruitt edict won't help Tesla in its financial difficulties. and it will also make it more difficult for GM to hold a significant segment in the electric market, no matter that its small and perky Chevy Bolt is an attractive product.

    Japan and Korea already sell all electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles for under $30,000, i.e. at the price-point...
    READ FULL STORY


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    [Klaus] Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
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