Fuel Cell Technology: Policy, Features, and Applications – A Mini-review

Abstract

When Dwight D. Eisenhower became the 34th president of the United States, he was the first incumbent of the office that did not hold any political office within state government or within the US Congress, excluding military service, since Ulysses Grant. No president prior to or since has crafted and influenced energy policy to the degree of President Eisenhower. As the first officeholder without a past “congressional” career, he was viewed as pro-business and pro-military, and the expectations of his government were that nuclear energy would provide cheaper electricity. The challenges during his administration enabled him to adopt a more orthodox policy stance, and the nuclear energy policies did not proceed as anticipated or planned. The 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, is the only individual since Eisenhower without a prior congressional-type political career. Since he has a foundation in real estate business, like Eisenhower, he is perceived as “pro-business,” and it is pertinent to compare similar energy policies under the current administration. Although the current administration is only 100 days old, statements during the primaries, general election, and first 100 days in office and first proposed federal budget suggest that tax credits for electric vehicles and other tax assistance credits will be discontinued and that certain brackets of taxes will be eliminated or greatly reduced. And many federal policies enacted under the Obama administration related to environment and energy will be rolled back, favoring coal, drilling, and Keystone XL and the Dakota Access Pipelines. Whether these policies will promote domestic energy production, reduce the import-to-export gap, or lower the “energy deficiency” is too early to gauge. The introduction of potential import fees or border taxes may promote coal extraction at the expense of natural gas exploration. This may also impact gasoline prices at the pump since crude oil imported from other countries would have taxes or fees levied on it. Coupled with limiting environmental regulations and capping liabilities, lower corporate tax rates for oil exploration companies may promote domestic energy production, because of lower operating costs and liabilities, and may increase corporate profits, although these trends may not be observable within the lifetime of the first term of President Trump. In addition, the projected 3% growth in employment over the current 1.7% is again too early to discern, although most economist’s opinions are that these targets will not be met since these currently are proposals and not implemented policy.

Author Contribution

The first draft of this chapter was written by SB. The data in the figures and charts were by SB and modified by JL. The first draft was reviewed and edited by NKS. All three authors collectively conceived and discussed the concept of this chapter.