Pursuing the Gulf of Mexico oil spill case will be the leading 2011 enforcement priority for the Dept. of Justice's environmental division, says Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno, the unit's chief. Photo: U.S. Dept. of Justice Moreno, shown here with Attorney General Eric Holder, will focus heavily on Gulf oil spill Moreno, who heads the environment and natural resources division, said in a Jan. 13 speech that other construction-related areas of emphasis will include cases involving municipal sewage-treatment problems and defending against challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency's new greenhouse-gas regulations. Moreno told a District of Columbia Bar Association
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation is making headway in moving "TIGER" grants awarded early last year closer to actual construction. U.S. DOT announced on Dec. 29 that it had signed agreements with the Alabama and Tennessee DOTs on a $105-million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant for two intermodal freight facilities along the Norfolk Southern Corp.'s "Crescent Corridor". DOT release. Of the $105-million grant, half will go to Alabama to help finance a $97.5-million, 261-acre regional facility near McCalla, about 20 miles southwest of Birmingham. Norfolk Southern (NS) and other sources will fund the remainder of the project's total cost.
The 112th Congress has not begun well at all for highway construction advocates. Infographic By Walter Konefal New House rule would open the door for highway and transit cuts below the amounts SAFETEA-LU authorized. On Jan. 5, the first day the new Congress was in session, the House, now under Republican control, approved a procedural rule that breaches a 13-year-old legislative “firewall” and lets House appropriators cut highway and transit spending below sums authorized in 2005’s Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: a Legacy for Users. “We are very distressed,” says Pam Whitted, vice president for government affairs for
BELLAMAN The Associated Builders and Contractors has selected former Bovis Lend Lease executive Michael D. Bellaman to be its new president and CEO. Bellaman, 48 years old, who has been based in Chicago, starts his ABC job on Feb. 1, the association announced on Jan. 10. You can view ABC's announcement here. He succeeds M. Kirk Pickerel, who has been ABC's president and CEO since 2000. Pickerel announced last April that he would be retiring, effective March 31, 2011. Bellaman spent 23 years at Lend Lease Corp. Ltd., the Australia-based real estate, design and construction company, most recently as Bovis
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office is sharpening the focus of its probe into China’s policies supporting renewable energy. USTR Ron Kirk is targeting China’s Special Fund for Wind Power Manufacturing. He has asked for talks with China about that fund under World Trade Organization dispute-resolution provisions. In announcing the move on Dec. 22, the USTR office said China seems to be providing subsidies that are barred by WTO regulations. The agency says grants awarded by the wind-power fund appear to be conditioned on Chinese manufacturers in that sector using Chinese-made parts. USTR estimates the fund’s grants awarded since 2008 could
Congress has cleared legislation authorizing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to dole out up to $500 million over five years for diesel retrofits. The House passed the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) on Dec. 21, sending it to the White House. The bill is seen as a boon for clean air, contractors and suppliers. In its first five years, DERA returned about $20 in benefits for each $1 spent, according to the Diesel Technology Forum.
It looks like federal agencies will be operating under another short-term spending bill. The Senate on Dec. 21 passed a stopgap continuing resolution (CR) to fund construction accounts and other federal programs through March 4. The vote was 79-16. The House approved the measure within hours. The nine-week measure also would continue authorizations for surface-transportation programs through March 4. State transportation agencies and construction firms that pursue federally funded work would have preferred an extension at least through Sept. 30, when fiscal 2011 ends. Federal Aviation Administration programs, including airport construction grants, will fare a little better. The House and
The tax breaks that fill the $858-billion Middle Class Tax Relief Act will provide welcome benefits for construction workers, some small firms, family-owned businesses and companies mulling equipment purchases. But the key question for the still-struggling construction industry is whether the measure’s incentives, including an extension of 2001 and 2003 tax-rate reductions, will hoist the economy enough to get more projects under way. If that “trickle up” effect does come to pass, it could give construction markets a boost, but probably not a sharp spike and probably not right away. Photo: Ap Images/J. Scott Applewhite Nevertheless, industry economists and financial
With a short stopgap spending bill set to lapse on Dec. 21, Senate Democrats have introduced a new measure that would extend funding for federal construction accounts and other programs through March 4. It also would continue authorizations for surface-transportation programs through that date. If the full Senate passes the proposed nine-week continuing resolution (CR), which was introduced on Dec. 19, it would go to the House for a vote. The new CR would fund most programs at their fiscal 2010 spending levels. There are some exceptions, such as the latest round of Defense Dept.'s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)
Congress has approved a three-month extension of airport construction grants and other Federal Aviation Administration programs. The bill, which would authorize FAA programs through March 31, next goes to the White House for President Obama's expected signature. Final congressional action came on Dec. 18 when the Senate approved the measure by unanimous consent. The House had passed the bill on Dec. 2. The new stopgap is the 17th FAA extension since Sept. 30, 2007, when the last multi-year aviation authorization expired. The current extension�stopgap number 16�expires Dec. 31.
