May 2 - Alan Loeb, Esq., Legal-institutional advisory services on environmental law and regulatory policy (clients have included World Bank, USAID and Asian Development Bank)

"The Choice of Internal Combustion: How it Happened, and Why it is Relevant Today"

The choice of motive technology for the automobile is currently at issue, but not for the first time. When the automobile was introduced to America in 1895 there were three principal motive technologies -- steam, electric, and internal combustion. At first it was not apparent that only one would prevail, but within a few years internal combustion eclipsed its two rivals to become the single commercial technology.

The literature on the automobile is extensive, but the treatment of how this came about is surprisingly vague. Most writers have reasoned that internal combustion prevailed because of some inherent advantage such as technical superiority, low price, and/or the introduction of one critical innovation, the self-starter. Most of that is based on a presumption -- that since internal combustion won it must have been the deserving winner. On close examination, none of the presumed reasons explain the outcome. In consequence, this issue remains unresolved.

Given the importance of the issue, this article returns to the question to take a new and more rigorous look. The goal is to produce a factually and logically compelling account of the choice of internal combustion by asking, how did it happen? what was the process? and what does it mean to the present? By making a detailed examination of the evidence, the article refutes a number of common misconceptions and develops a comprehensive framework that integrates a broad set of factors. Copyright 8 5/1/08, A. Loeb.

Alan P. Loeb, Esq. earned an M.P.A. with emphasis on energy and environmental policy and finance from Harvard University as well as a J.D. from Tulane Law School. He has served as a consultant to public agencies and private firms on projects in the U.S. and abroad (including Egypt, China and India).

Earlier, Loeb was Energy/Environmental Attorney with the Argonne National Laboratory (U.S. Department of Energy and University of Chicago). In that capacity, he advised federal and state agencies on air, water and hazardous waste issues domestically, and multilateral and national government organizations on air pollution and chemical disarmament issues internationally. Loeb was also a Senior Attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where his service included chief counsel to the “lead phasedown” program and the alternative fuels program.

Parallel to his legal/consulting practice, Loeb has led an academic career teaching several graduate and undergraduate courses (including at the University of Maryland), and has published dozens of articles, reports and conference papers. In recent years, he has been analyzing the environmental implications of the auto and petroleum industries in research that is expected to be printed in three books (the first in 2008) under the working title: “The Car, Its Fuel, Air Pollution, and Regulation.”

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