Public Policy
The Bush administration believes that hydrogen cars hold to key to reducing pollution, decreasing dependence of foreign oil, making energy more affordable and overcoming resource shortages (Onion, 2004). In Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, he revealed his goal of having significant numbers of hydrogen cars on the road by 2020, pledging $1.2 billion in federal funding to achieve his objective. In 2004, the energy department included $318 million for fuel cells and hydrogen production in its 2005 budget. However, abundant evidence suggests that hybrids, not fuel cells should be the focus of public policy for the immediate future. This research discusses why public policy needs to embrace a short-term strategy involving hybrids and hydrogen research and development with a longer-term focus on selecting proven technologies.
The illusory lure of hydrogen cars is the fact that they will eliminate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars when driven. Unlike gasoline-driven combustion engines, the hydrogen fuel cell generates power not by burning, but through a chemical reaction in which hydrogen and oxygen are converted into energy with water as the only by product (Onion, 2004). But, these gains in pollution elimination tell only part of the overall picture. This is because hydrogen manufacture and distribution creates CO2, introducing potential for pollution problems greater than those posed by current gasoline-driven cars (Korchinski, 2004). According to Korchinski, the largest emissions source is in the hydrogen generation plant -- via the furnace stack and the CO2 vent. The next largest contributor results from the natural-gas-fired power generation required for electricity, much of which is used to compress the hydrogen for transportation. With these factors in mind, simulations ran by Korchinski reveal that the effect of converting vehicles to run on hydrogen would be marginal. In fact, Korchinski shows that if hydrogen cars are made to have the same performance characteristics...
Public Policy in the State of Maryland: An Examination of Revenues and Potential Funding Options The objective of this work is to examine the funding policies in the State of Maryland of the Department of Natural Resources funding allotments and to critically analyze funding decision-making in this area of economic finance for the State of Maryland. The State of Maryland invests deeply in its natural resources, which is shown by the
Public Policy The process of setting congress agendas and policies has always been complex and contentious. Since some issues warrant consideration by policy makers, intense competitive exists in a position on the congressional policy agenda. This study discusses the trends in Congressional agenda setting as provided in the chart. As seen in the chart, Bipartisan Corporation has declined in the Congress. This is considered as one of the hallmark attributes of the
Policy Proposal The public policy proposal is that the state should have an action plan for a potential Ebola outbreak. There are several reasons for this. The first reason is the health reason, where clearly there is a need to ensure that should there be any outbreak of Ebola, that it is contained, and that it does not get out into the general public. While the odds of an outbreak are
However, there are many limitations that are seen when it comes to the public policy ideas that are generated and the value they have (Newton & Van Deth, 2005). The first limitation is the perceived value of an idea for a public policy creation or change. In other words, if the community (or at least a large portion of it) does not see the value of the idea there
Public Policy in Local Government In a general setting, the public policy is understood as a set of regulations implemented by the state in order to manage a specific issue within the parameters imposed by the current legislations. In a different formulation, "Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws, regulatory measures, courses of action, and funding priorities concerning a given topic promulgated by a governmental entity or its
Public Policy Analysis Introducing more PE into schools as a way of reducing childhood obesity Childhood obesity is one of the most commonly-identified problems facing the nation today, yet lawmakers have struggled to address it effectively because of its multifactorial nature. "It is the No. 1 health problem in children…a study this year in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that obese children were twice as likely to die of disease
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