After spending much of his career examining the vulnerability of nuclear powerplants to earthquakes, Greg Hardy, a senior principal at Los Angeles-based Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc., is comfortable living between two facilities along California’s coast— even after the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant. But Hardy says that he can understand how other people—including his wife—might not be as comfortable after seeing images of the crippled and ominous nuclear units. “They just think it could happen anywhere,” he says. “It’s going to be a difficult job to convey that and convince people” that the U.S. plants are safe. “It
Two members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to conduct a “comprehensive investigation” of all nuclear facilities in the United States to assess their capacity to withstand catastrophic natural or man-made disasters. Related Links: Fallout From Nuclear Disaaster: China Puts Brakes on Nuke Power Nuclear Nightmare Updates on Japan: Eyewitness Report From Sendai In a March 17 letter, Committee Chairman Barber Boxer (D-Calif.), and Tom Carper (D-Del.), chairman of the Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, asked the NRC to provide the committee with a full evaluation of the nation’s domestic nuclear
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee has approved a measure that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from moving forward with greenhouse-gas regulations under the Clean Air Act. The bill, sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), cleared a subcommittee of his panel on March 10. In the Senate, James Inhofe (R-Okla.) has introduced a companion bill.
A House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee chairman has told the General Service Administration’s Public Buildings Service that the panel will not approve any new GSA leases until the agency provides more information about its leased and owned properties, including those on which GSA loses money. At a March 10 hearing, subcommittee Chairman Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) criticized GSA, which has many surplus properties. “Given the financial crisis facing our country, we must reduce the amount of money we spend to house federal employees,” he said. PBS Commissioner Robert Peck said he would provide the data Denham is seeking. GSA’s 2012 budget
Another short-term spending bill has advanced in Congress. The House on March 15 passed a measure to fund federal agencies through April 8, with $6 billion in spending cuts. The vote was 271-158. The cuts include all $894 million slated for the General Services Administration construction account. Senate approval of the measure is needed by March 18, when the current stopgap expires. Among the House bill’s $6 billion in cuts is $2.6 billion in earmarks, including the GSA construction money. The measure also trims GSA’s repairs and alterations account by $130 million but still leaves it with $284 million. Congress
Administration officials say that nuclear power will remain an integral part of the United States' energy portfolio, despite the disaster unfolding in Japan. In light of Japan's growing nuclear emergency, some lawmakers, including Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), have called for a moratorium on the building of new nuclear powerplants in the U.S. But at a March 14 White House briefing, officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Dept. of Energy said they remained confident that the nuclear reactors in the U.S. are built to high enough standards that they could withstand the effects of major earthquakes, tornadoes and tsunami. They
As another federal funding deadline looms on March 18, congressional Democrats and Republicans are far apart on spending levels for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year. Construction industry officials say spending cuts are all but inevitable. They hope an eventual compromise won’t have reductions that inflict as much pain on infrastructure programs as the cuts in a bill that the House recently approved. “Everybody agrees that there’s going to be cuts,” says Andrew Goldberg, the American Institute of Architects’ senior director of federal relations. The question is how deep the reductions will be, Goldberg observes. A proposal that Senate
The Environmental Protection Agency has approved final rules governing air emissions from industrial boilers and incinerators that burn solid waste and sewage sludge. Gina McCarthy, EPA assistant administrator for air and radiation, says the rules, signed on Feb. 21, were revised significantly from the original proposal because of industry concerns. “These are achievable and realistic,” she says. The rules take effect between 2014 and 2016. One change was to forgo numeric emission limits on some smaller facilities and instead use work-practice standards when possible. But emissions from larger coal- or biomass-fired units still must comply with numeric limits. The National
The House on March 1 approved by a 335-91 vote a bill to fund federal agencies for two weeks, but with $4 billion in cuts. Construction reductions include: $650 million from highways, $293 million from other surface transportation projects and $341 million from Corps of Engineers civil works. The stopgap would succeed a bill due to lapse on March 4 and give lawmakers time to work out a measure to last through Sept. 30. The House had passed a nine-month extension on Feb. 19 that extends through September, with $61 billion in cuts. But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye
Issued by a consortium of energy-efficiency advocates, two new reports recommend ways to overcome hurdles to achieving net-zero emissions in commercial buildings. Barriers include cost and a reliance on prescriptive, instead of performance-based, energy codes. The reports, commissioned by the Dept. of Energy, represent input from more than 430 groups, including the American Institute of Architects and the National Association of State Energy Officials.
