[OPINION] How Obama can use the Earthquake to Create Jobs

The 5.8 magnitude earthquake that struck in Virginia and was felt throughout the eastern United States on Tuesday could be used by President Obama to create jobs. The president has said that he will present his new jobs bill in a speech shortly after Labor Day and if he wants a successful bill, he could use the earthquake as the reason for creating much-needed infrastructure jobs across America.

Luckily, there have currently been no reported deaths from the earthquake and the damage scale for the most part seems to be minimal, but the earthquake should be a wake-up call for the American people that we need to fix our country’s crumbling infrastructure. One of the biggest concerns during the earthquake was not only how the old buildings on the East Coast were standing up, but also the state of the North Anna nuclear power plant in Virgina, which had to be shut down. Fixing our old nuclear power plants is just one way this country can create new jobs.

More on jobs, jobs, jobs after the jump…

Posted by:

Justin Burkhardt

Nuclear Future: The Offless Switch

That picture fairly sums up everything else I’m going to say: what’s the difference between the left switch and the right? Options. Something we’re all woefully without when it comes to the nuclear standoff between man and his machines happening right now in Japan, by far the worst non-local-like-in-your-backyard news story still unfolding today…and potentially an in-your-backyard apocalypse. The tsunami and earthquake devastation in Japan would, by themselves, constitute a massive human tragedy. But the looming threat of nuclear meltdown has given the last few days a particular poignancy outside the scope of Mother Nature.

What safeguards do we have with an off-less switch? Open up.

Posted by:

Sam Patton

Paying YOU To Use Electricity?

Did your parents ever yell at you for wasting electricity? You know, for keeping the TV and the radio on at the same time? Or not turning your light off when you leave a room? Mine did. I was the child of a thrifty family.

So, naturally, this would drive my mother to drink: apparently, there is so much energy being generated by wind and nuclear power, that electricity has become ‘cheaper to use than free’ for certain people. Check this:

In west Texas and Illinois, when the wind blows at night and nuclear plants run around-the-clock, power generators produce more electricity than people need. This oversupply “has forced electricity prices into the negative range,” an expert explains—meaning that some customers are paid to use electricity.

Energy companies are experimenting with ways to store this excess energy, such as with compressed air. Pacific Gas and Energy can be done by “pumping compressed air into an underground reservoir, using mainly wind energy produced during non-peak hours, and then release it to generate electricity during periods of peak demand”. However, it’s going to take 5 years to develop this technology. As of now, there’s no technology in place, so all of this energy is going to waste. Is this drastically unsustainable? What do you think?

Posted by:

Steve Romain