Related Links: OSHA Proposes Tougher Limit for Silica-Dust Exposure (enr.com 8/23/13) Text of OSHA proposed silica-dust rule A newly formed 11-member construction safety coalition says it is concerned about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Aug. 23 proposal to reduce construction workers' exposure to crystalline silica dust.The groups object to the more-stringent exposure limits OSHA proposed and are urging the agency to consider factors that are unique to construction. OSHA has said it welcomes input from industry.
Related Links: Labor Dept. Affirmative-Action Rules Draw Construction Groups' Ire (enr.com 8/28/13) Associated Builders and Contractors statement Associated General Contractors of America statement Two newly issued Labor Dept. affirmative-action rules for federal contractors have sparked harsh criticism from construction- contractor organizations.The final rules, which Labor announced on Aug. 27, set new requirements for federal contractors in recruiting and hiring veterans and people with disabilities.The department says the regulations will provide more job opportunities for people in those groups. Advocacy groups for veterans and people with disabilities viewed Labor's move as a positive step. But Sherman Gillums Jr., a Paralyzed Veterans
Photo by Don Wilson, Port of Seattle Port Support Senators Murray and Cantwell say their tax proposal would recapture for U.S. ports, such as Seattle, freight now moving through ports in Canada and Mexico. Related Links: Focus on Water-Resources Bill Shifts to the House (ENR 6/3/13) Lawmakers Eye Harbor Maintenance Fund's Surplus (ENR 2/11/13) Washington state's U.S. senators, Democrats Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, want to repeal the harbor maintenance tax (HMT), a major funding source for dredging projects, and replace it with a new fee on maritime freight. They say their plan, announced on Aug. 15, would double funding
Related Links: U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Aug. 20 ruling EPA Webpage on Sewage Sludge Incinerators A federal appeals court has remanded portions of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 sewage-sludge incinerator rule to the agency for further review but left the current maximum achievable control-technology air-emission limits in place.At issue in the case was EPA’s methodology for setting new limits for emissions from new and existing sewage-sludge incineration (SSI) units at wastewater treatment plants. The new limits require numerous wastewater treatment plants that have SSI units to add costly air-emission controls, says Nathan Gardner-Andrews, general counsel for the
Related Links: Description of Sandia's advanced microgrid technology Video of Moniz's August 26 speech at Columbia University on climate change policy The Obama administration will provide $1 million for an effort to develop a more resilient electric grid for New Jersey’s public transit systems.U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) announced on Aug. 26 that they had signed a memorandum of understanding in which the DOE agreed to partner with New Jersey Transit, the state of New Jersey and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to assess New Jersey Transit’s energy needs.The DOE and
Denver Hospital Complaint Exhibit Handwritten note cited by Kiewit-Turner as Exhibit A. Courtesy of Kiewit-Turner Multi-building complex may come in at a cost close to $1 billion, says the construction joint venture. To measure how far apart the Kiewit-Turner joint venture is from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) on the final cost of completing a new veterans hospital in Aurora, Colo., you can start with their differing views of “the note.”The note is a handwritten agreement completed in November 2011. In it, both the contracting venture and the department pledge to devote resources to keep the project cost to
Photo Courtesy of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Judge says NRC must resume Nevada waste-site plan review. Work stopped there several years ago. Related Links: U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's decision Link to Senate nuclear-waste bill text (as introduced), summary and section-by-section analysis The federal appeals court's Aug. 13 ruling was crystal clear. It said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission violated the law when it halted its review of a Dept. of Energy application for an underground nuclear-waste disposal site in Nevada. The court also directed NRC to reopen its evaluation.The next steps in the proposed Yucca Mountain repository's
Related Links: Georgia Slapped by Court in Tristate Water Dispute 11th Circuit Appeals Court 2011 Opinion In the latest salvo in a decades-long dispute, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) says his state in September will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to force Georgia to share some of the water from the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint (ACF) river basins.According to a statement issued by Scott, the collapse of discussions, in 2003, among Alabama, Florida and Georgia "left Florida and Alabama in the same disadvantaged position" just as Georgia was able to stake more claims to the waters.The Apalachicola's water levels are
Related Links: Source of Forged Surety Bonds Remains Mysterious A Bold Individual Surety Claims His Coal-Backed Bonds are Rock Solid Contractors John Melching Jr. and Dallas Collins are based in Pennsylvania and Texas, respectively, and have never met, but they have something in common: They claim they have been cheated in the past year by a business transaction that involved Larry Polec, a Chicago-based surety-bond broker.Polec is easy to spot. He is a former Michigan State basketball player who stands 6 ft, 8 in. Less easy to spot, however, are his roles in and links to an informal network of
Photo Courtesy of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas Some say LNG terminals and liquefication equipment would provide thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the economy. Related Links: DOE conditional approval of exporting LNG from Lake Charles Terminal U.S. LNG Boom Fueling Port Projects The announcement on Aug. 7 that the federal Energy Dept. would grant conditional approval to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas from a third U.S. terminal was met by cheers from several industry groups, including the American Petroleum Institute and the Center for Liquefied Gas. But some of those same groups complain that the
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