1. Articles from npr.org

    1-13 of 13

    1. Laid-Off Furniture Workers Try To Leap To Google

      Explore npr.org (Dec 17 2009)

      Laid-Off Furniture Workers Try To Leap To Google First in a three-part series More than 2 million manufacturing jobs have disappeared in the recession, and many workers are trying to retrain. But as jobs change, can workers adapt? The story of Lenoir,N.C., a town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, offers some clues. Lenoir once called itself the "Furniture Capital of the South." But earlier this decade, thousands of workers there lost their furniture jobs to China. A brave few returned to school to study information technology with this ambitious goal: Try to leap into the knowledge economy and land a job at Google. Have you changed careers late in life? Share Your Stories Of Career Reinvention Dec. 16, 2009 Bill Curtis was one of them. Curtis spent three decades cutting cloth for Broyhill Furniture. When the company sent his job to China a few years ago, it tore him up. "The first two ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Google   NPR

    2. Where's My Carbon Credit, Dude?

      Explore npr.org (Jun 12 2009) Cap and Trade , Carbon Tax , Emissions , Fossil Fuel

      Where's My Carbon Credit, Dude? We took a righteous stab this morning at explaining the basics of how a cap-and-trade program like the one being considered in congress might be used to limit global warming and carbon emissions. Or, say, limit the use of the word dude. Internally, there was much debate here about what movie clip to use. Our producer Jacob Ganz emailed : "Dude, you can totally tax a turtle." Our editor Uri Berliner remembered the Bud Light ads (video above, other ads here and here.) And let me point out, it's not just economists debating whether a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade approach would be better. I just got this press release from the dudes at the National Pork Producer's Council, titled "Cap And Trade Preferable To Carbon Tax." A quote: "We are already losing money today for every pig sold, and any additional costs will simply drive us deeper and ... (Read Full Article)

    3. Power Hungry: Reinventing The U.S. Electric Grid

      Explore npr.org (May 1 2009) Solar , Wind

      Power Hungry: Reinventing The U.S. Electric Grid It makes our modern lives possible, but we hardly give it a thought. It's the key to plans for cleaner, greener sources of power, but it is fed by the oldest and dirtiest fuels. The electricity grid is a marvel of reliability, but, in many ways, it's a throwback to century-old technology. And for a future with more computers and gizmos of every kind — and more power from renewable sources — the grid is going to need some major work. Seeing a source of jobs and environmental benefits, politicians are embracing the need for an updated power grid. The stimulus bill signed in February includes $11 billion for improvements. But that's just a drop in the bucket. It will take hundreds of billions more (total estimates are impossible to find), years of work, and new technologies to turn the current grid into the smart grid of the future. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   NPR

    4. Power Structures Shape Northwest Landscape

      Explore npr.org (Apr 30 2009) Wind , Cloud Computing

      Power Structures Shape Northwest Landscape or an area possessed of great natural beauty, the Pacific Northwest is also a great dumping ground for really big toys — the titanic structures that have helped bring power to this region. Some still play an important role in keeping the lights on. The Columbia River is punctuated by 14 huge dams that still generate electricity for the millions who live along its watershed, and as the region shifts to other sources of renewable energy, it's giving birth to new giants — awe-inspiring structures that will stare down at us for centuries. (Read Full Article)

    5. Power Industry Sees New Phase In Energy Use

      Explore npr.org (Apr 30 2009)

      Power Industry Sees New Phase In Energy Use The U.S. electricity grid is in the midst of a revolution. It has a track record of 99.97 percent reliability, but there are plans for a massive overhaul of the grid to accommodate increasing demand and more renewable forms of energy, like wind and solar. While some proponents of changing the grid can be almost breathless in their enthusiasm, the utilities that will end up performing a lot of the work are a more conservative lot. "The traditional regulated utility has one job, and that's to keep the lights on," says Martha Duggan, vice president for government affairs at solar energy company SunEdison. (Read Full Article)

    6. The Challenge: Constant Current From Fickle Winds

      Explore npr.org (Apr 29 2009) Wind

      The Challenge: Constant Current From Fickle Winds In many remote areas of the country where wind is plentiful, no power is harnessed from the land because there aren't enough transmission lines to carry the electricity. And though the Plains offer untapped electrical potential, grid managers worry that the erratic nature of wind could make the grid unreliable. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Barack Obama

    7. The Grid May Be Smart, But Will It Also Be Green?

      Explore npr.org (Apr 29 2009) Geothermal

      The push is on to make the nation's aging electricity grid smarter, so it can handle our growing demand for electricity. Many assume that a smart grid will also be a green grid — delivering clean electricity and helping to address climate change. But that's not necessarily so. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   The Green Grid

    8. Building Power Lines Creates A Web Of Problems

      Explore npr.org (Apr 28 2009) Wind

      Building Power Lines Creates A Web Of Problems To create a new energy economy with much more solar and wind energy, thousands of miles of new transmission lines must be built across the nation. But finding suitable locations to place the lines is incredibly complicated without a federal body to oversee planning. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Barack Obama   Steven Chu   Energy Department

    9. An Aged Electric Grid Looks To A Brighter Future

      Explore npr.org (Apr 27 2009)

      The nation's electricity grid is facing a crisis — it's outdated and unprepared for increasing demand and a future that includes more renewable sources of energy. A new digital smart grid is part of the picture envisioned by advocates, as is building new electricity infrastructure. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   NPR

    10. A Green Challenge: Make Renewables Reliable

      Explore npr.org (Apr 27 2009) Solar , Wind , Storage

      Bringing renewable energies like wind and solar power onto the electric grid is the first step toward making the grid both green and smart, but engineers and power companies must also find solutions to the challenges of renewable energies, which don't produce consistent, reliable power. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Department of Energy   American Electric Power

    11. Putting A Price On Smart Power

      Explore npr.org (Apr 27 2009) Solar , Wind

      An improved electric grid could potentially make electricity more reliable, more efficient, cleaner and perhaps even cheaper. But what would it cost to actually build it, and how much would it save? (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Steven Chu   NPR   American Electric Power

    12. A Modern Electric Grid: The New Highway System?

      Explore npr.org (Apr 27 2009)

      The prospect of building a national, modern electric grid shares many of the same political and social challenges that President Eisenhower faced when pioneering the national highway system in the mid-1950s. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Europe   American Electric Power

    13. Series Overview: Electricity In America

      Explore npr.org (Apr 24 2009)

      Series Overview: Electricity In America In a series of stories airing this week on Morning Edition and All Things Considered and published here on NPR.org, we examine the costs, the politics and other challenges of upgrading the country's electricity grid. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   NPR