Related Links: April 23 Court Ruling (PDF) Earthjustice Amicus Brief The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has handed environmental groups a victory in their battle to restrict mountaintop removal mining, but coal advocates say the recent decision is not necessarily the death knell for the practice.The appeals court ruled on April 23 that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority under the Clean Water Act to retroactively veto a previously approved U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging permit.In 2011, EPA overturned a 2007 Corps permit issued to the Mingo Logan Coal Co., a subsidiary of
As Kimberly Spain, assistant superintendent at the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Haskell Co., makes the rounds on the project site for a new $200-million, high-tech cancer facility being built at the University of Maryland BioPark in West Baltimore, she makes frequent stops.With equal zeal, she explains the complex work being done on-site and some of the finer points of the state-of-the-art radiation cancer treatment technology for the 122,000-sq-ft facility. On the jobsite, she gently but firmly tells a worker to don protective headgear. He grins and nods yes. A few minutes later, she’s dealing with a ventilation problem that has cropped up.
Related Links: SNC-Lavalin Hires First Chief Compliance Officer SNC-Lavalin Sees Challenging Year Ahead In the most recent fallout over allegations of corruption at Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin Inc., the global engineering and construction firm and more than 100 of its affiliates have been debarred from working on World Bank projects for 10 years, according to a negotiated settlement between the firm and the bank.The agreement, reached in April, is linked to the longest debarment ever imposed by the World Bank. It results from a bank probe into allegations of bribery and corruption on the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project in Bangladesh as well
Related Links: EPA's Proposed Effluent Guidelines for the Steam Electric Power Generating Category Sierra Club Press Release Regarding EPA Plan Environmental groups praised the Environmental Protection Agency for proposing new coal-plant water pollution standards to limit the amounts and types of toxic metals and other pollutants released into America's waterways.EPA's proposed effluent limitation guidelines for steam-electric powerplants, released on April 19 to comply with a consent-decree deadline, primarily target coal-fired powerplants that use wet-ash handling and scrubbers, but they also will affect some nuclear, oil and natural-gas plants.The Sierra Club says the standards are necessary for reducing water pollution from
Related Links: Obama Nominates Justice Dept. Official to Lead Labor Dept. HELP Committee Ranking Member Lamar Alexander's opening statement Tom Perez, President Obama's pick to serve as the next Labor secretary, faced tough questioning from GOP lawmakers at his April 18 confirmation hearing before the Senate labor committee.But Democrats portrayed Perez, who heads the Justice Dept.'s civil-rights division, as a well-qualified consensus-builder who earned the support of both business and labor groups during his stints as Maryland's labor secretary and as a Montgomery County, Md., council member.Ranking member Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said he had concerns about Perez's role in the
Related Links: Bipartisan Group of Senators Outline Plans for Immigration Reform Text of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (PDF) The introduction of a comprehensive immigration reform bill has received lukewarm support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as well as from industry and some labor groups. Even the bill's authors acknowledge the bill is the first step in the legislative process and that there is room for improvement.The "Gang of Eight" senators, led by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), introduced the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act on April
Related Links: Wayne E. Jones Named ENR 2013 Award of Excellence Winner New Corps of Engineers Commander Taking Stock Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was in New York City on April 18 to attend ENR's annual Award of Excellence dinner. Before he spoke at the event, Bostick talked with Associate Editor Pam Hunter. Excerpts from the interview appear below. ENR: Like most federal entities, the Corps of Engineers is dealing with a budget crunch. How is the Corps managing its backlog? Bostick: The Corps has a backlog of $60 billion of
Related Links: Federal Appeals Court Invalidates NLRB Recess Appointments NLRB News Release on Nominees House-passed legislation temporarily restricting the National Labor Relations Board's authority faces an uncertain future.The bill—H.R. 1120, sponsored by Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.)—would prevent the NLRB from making decisions requiring a three-member quorum until the legal uncertainty created by a Jan. 25 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is resolved. That ruling held that two of the "recess" appointments made by President Obama in January 2012 were unconstitutional because they were made while the Senate was technically not in recess."The president's
Related Links: Obama Names Picks to Lead EPA, DOE EPA's Lisa Jackson Announces Resignation The Senate appears to be on course to approving all three of President Obama's picks to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, the Dept. of Energy, and the Dept. of Interior.On April 10, the Senate confirmed Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) CEO Sally Jewell, Obama's nominee to serve as Interior Secretary by an 87-11 vote.A day earlier, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a confirmation hearing on Obama's pick to lead the Dept. of Energy, Ernest Moniz. And on April 11, the Environment and Public Works
Photo AP Wideworld Obama released his budget almost two months later than usual. Congressional wrangling will likely delay final approval. Related Links: 2014 Budget documents President Obama's fiscal year 2014 budget proposal again makes a strong pitch for boosting federal infrastructure funding, but only some construction programs would share in the increases.Under the president's budget request, sent to Congress on April 10, highway and transit accounts would receive modest hikes compared with 2013 levels, and General Services Administration funding for federal buildings would soar. However, airport grants and wastewater-treatment facility aid would be cut.The proposal's fate will depend on congressional
