The Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments on April 19 in an environmental case that could have broad ramifications on the ability of states and private parties to file public nuisance claims against utilities that emit greenhouse gasses. At issue in the case, American Electric Power v. Connecticut, is whether states and individuals can sue utilities under federal common law for contributing to global warming, and force them to reduce emissions of CO2. Legal observers say it is one of the most significant environmental cases since the landmark 2007 Mass. v. EPA, which gave the Environmental Protection Agency broad legal
The restoration of the Gulf of Mexico is expected to get a boost as a result of an agreement between the Natural Resource Trustees for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and BP. The agreement, announced on April 21, stipulates that BP will pay $1 billion for “early” restoration projects related to the Gulf spill. According to administration officials, BP is providing the restoration funds voluntarily. “This agreement accelerates our work on Gulf Coast restoration and in no way limits the ability of all the Natural Resource Trustees from seeking full damages from those who are responsible as the process moves
Late on April 19, a natural gas well in Bradford County, Pa. blew out and spewed thousands of gallons of drilling waste fluids into local fields, streams and Towanda Creek. Related Links: Drilling for Treasure The well blowout occurred during hydrofracking operations at a well operated by Oklahoma City�based Chesapeake Energy around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday evening. Although the well emitted what Chesapeake is calling “limited amounts of gas,” gas plume modeling performed by both the Bradford County Emergency Management Agency and Chesapeake suggests that “any natural �gas releases will not pose a risk to the area’s public safety,” says Brian
A U.S. Energy Dept. facility in Idaho that has stored melted fuel from the Three Mile Island nuclear plant since 1999 has not done enough to address crumbling concrete modules encasing radioactive material, says the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The facility holds damaged fuel from TMI unit 2, whose partial meltdown in 1979 resulted in the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. The concrete modules are “showing significant cracking and degradation,” though they were built to last 50 years, NRC says. DOE has determined the problem is worsening, NRC says. The cracks have no impact on the safe storage of
In a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority has agreed to shut some coal-fired generating units and install new or upgraded pollution-control equipment on others to cut air-pollution emissions at 11 of its powerplants. The pollution-control improvements will cost an estimated $3 billion to $5 billion. Under the settlement, announced on April 14, TVA will shut 18 of its generating units, which equal about 16% of its coal-fired electric power capacity. EPA says the measures will cut TVA nitrogen-oxide emissions by 69% and sulfur-dioxide emissions by 67%, compared with 2008 levels. The settlement addresses alleged
Fishermen's Energy, a Cape May, N.J.-based offshore wind energy developer, said April 6 that it has received permits from New Jersey regulators to build a six-turbine, 24-MW wind farm off the Atlantic City coast. Daniel Cohen, president of the firm, says the pilot project “will be the catalyst needed to jump-start” the state's offshore wind industry. A spokeswoman says the firm has received two coastal permits and a water quality certificate and is expecting Clean Water Act approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in May. Transmission line installation is set to begin in December, with the pilot project
The Abu Dhabi-based owner of a planned $11-billion railway network across the United Arab Emirates has selected a Parsons Corp.-AECOM joint venture as the project's program manager, say both company sources who did not wish to be named and published reports in the Middle East. The owner, Etihad Rail Co., formerly Union Railway, has declined requests to confirm either the selection or contract award. The joint venture would replace a team of Parsons and Paris-based SYSTRA, whose PM contract was canceled in January, just two months after Union Railway announced its selection. Reasons for the termination were not disclosed publicly
By this time next year, CBY Design Builders anticipates employing an estimated 350 workers on the $675- million, 44-month contract to construct permanent canal closures and pump stations at New Orleans' three outfall canals for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The USACE Hurricane Protection Office in New Orleans announced the award of the design-build, firm-fixed-price contract on April 13. CBY—a joint venture of CDM, Cambridge, Mass., Brasfield & Gorrie, Birmingham, Ala., and Yates Construction, Philadelphia, Miss.—beat out six other contracting teams to win. The competition included various pairings of well-known engineering companies: Weston, Archer Western, Kiewit, Arcadis, HNTB, Bechtel,
As Tokyo Electric Power Co. on April 17 released its plans to bring its Fukushiyma Daiichi reactors under control and protect the area from radiation, U.S. engineering and construction companies are working with Japanese partners to help TEPCO deal with the immediate problems and craft a long-term solution for the damaged plant. TEPCO's nine-month plan sets goals: to maintain the cooling of the reactors, install storage and decontamination facilities, remove debris, install a concrete cover over the damaged reactors and solidify the contaminated soil. San Francisco-based Bechtel, Charlotte, N.C.-based Babcock & Wilcox, and Baton Rouge, La.-based The Shaw Group, all
New Hampshire landowners are fighting the Northern Pass project, a $1.1-billion transmission line designed to import a reliable source of renewable hydropower from Canada into New England, where transmission and generation are constrained. Developers of the 180-mile line recently agreed to remove five alternatives for the line and focus on routes that would use existing rights-of-way south of Groveton, N.H., as well as a preferred route and several alternatives to the north that would require new rights-of-way. In an April 12 filing with the U.S. Dept. of Energy, Northern Pass officials successfully obtained an extension until June 14 to identify
RSS
