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President Barack Obama declared a “Sputnik moment” for our country to recognize the dangers involved in our unquenchable need for oil and the civil unrest that marks the countries that supply us with petroleum. He established as a goal that 80 percent of U.S. energy come from clean generation sources by 2035. Just as engineers…
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This past week started off with a great victory in the war on terror. It is my hope that the death of Osama bin Laden brings some amount of justice and closure to the families of the victims of September 11th and to those who have lost loved ones throughout the war on terror. As…
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It’s been just a year since the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Rather than focus on enacting much needed safety and environmental reforms, Rep. Goodlatte wants to open Virginia’s waters to drilling, as if last year never happened (“Goodlatte bill would push offshore drilling off Virginia waters,” April 6, 2011). The notion that…
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While the recent February jobs report issued by the Department of Labor suggests some welcome signs of improvement, our national unemployment rate still remains unacceptably high and our economic recovery still has a long way to go. The House has taken several steps to remove the barriers to job growth by remaining committed to cutting…
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Backing a recently released final report on the 2010 BP oil spill, a local wildlife expert said it is likely that the oil company responsible for the 208 million-gallon spill into the Gulf of Mexico will likely get away with paying for little or none of the damage, and that the federal government’s efforts to…
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A hobby I pursue infrequently is performing magic tricks. Recently I did a magic show for preschoolers to help the United Christian Parish Preschool that my wife Jane directs raise money to improve the preschool library. As I explained to my eager audience, magic can make the seemingly impossible take place. When the children were…
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Before Wall Street drove our economy off a cliff, bullish Citigroup strategists dubbed the United States a “plutonomy.” They said, “There are rich consumers, few in number, but disproportionate in the gigantic slice of income and consumption they take. There are the rest, the ‘non-rich,’ the multitudinous many, but only accounting for surprisingly small bites…
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Virginia’s wind energy industry received a “shot in the arm” this week when Google announced it will invest $200 million in a project to harvest electricity from wind farms off the Mid-Atlantic coast. Dr. Jonathan Miles, director of the Virginia Center for Wind Energy at James Madison University, said Google’s 37.5 percent stake in the…
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The $4.55 million package of local and state incentives seems a pretty price to pay, but in the current economic environment, the 41 jobs that will come with the expansion of the PGI facility in Waynesboro might just have extra value. “Manufacturing has taken a big hit nationally. People think of jobs going offshore. But…
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As we fight through this deep recession, we must start manufacturing, building, and growing things in America again. For too long, elites in both parties have pursued policies that ship our jobs overseas and undermine the middle and working class. Manufacturing, construction, and agriculture cannot be treated as yesterday’s news but rather must be part…
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