Related Links: White House Statement Threatening Veto Press Release from Bill Sponsor, Rep. Bob Goodlatte The House has passed legislation that would require federal rules to undergo more rigorous cost and scientific analyses.Supporters say the bill, sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and approved on Jan. 13 by a 250-175 vote, would modernize the regulatory process and make it more transparent. However, opponents warn that it would stymie efforts to write health and environmental rules. The White House has issued a veto threat.
Related Links: DOE Contract and Project Management Working Group Report More Troubles, Less Support for Energy Dept.'s MOX Project U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz on Jan. 15 outlined actions his department is taking to improve project management and performance on troubled projects, such as the Mixed- Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in Savannah River, S.C., and the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in Washington state.Some of those steps include requiring more-developed designs before major projects can begin, reconstituting the Energy Systems Advisory Board process and establishing a portfolio review board to provide independent assessments of the risk profiles for all major
Related Links: 1/13/15 Supreme Court Oral Argument Transcript Supreme Court's New Term Include Two New Cases U.S. Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical of arguments that the 1942 Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act should cover civil, as well as criminal, offenses, during Jan. 13 oral arguments in a case involving contractor Kellogg Brown & Root. If the court rules that the law does apply to civil offenses, federal contractors, including construction companies, could face more liability.The case centers on allegations by Benjamin Carter, an ex-KBR employee, that the company fraudulently billed the government for services at an Iraq water-purification plant in
The controversial $3.3-billion Keystone XL pipeline has cleared two more hurdles, with a Nebraska court victory and House passage of a bill authorizing the project's construction, but the White House says its threat to veto the pipeline legislation still stands.
House and Senate supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline are moving quickly in the new Congress on legislation that would advance the long-pending $3.3-billiion project toward construction.
Photo Courtesy of Southern Co. The Kemper energy facility in Mississippi, now in the startup and testing phase, has garnered international attention as the first U.S. commercial-scale powerplant to implement carbon capture and storage technology, the linchpin of the Obama administration's carbon pollution plan for new powerplants. Related Links: Clean Coal: Is Carbon Capture and Storage Fossil Fuels' Best Hope? Front and center in environmental oversight this year were the Obama administration’s efforts to push through measures to address climate change through regulatory, rather than legislative means.President Obama announced his Climate Action plan in 2013, and federal agencies unrolled several
Related Links: Rand Corporation Study Construction industry executives say that major projects could be stalled in the near future if Congress fails to extend the federal terrorism insurance law, which expired on Dec. 31. The Senate went home for the year without passing the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA), which would extend the federal backstop for insurance coverage in the event of a terrorist attack for another six years. TRIA was originally enacted in 2002 in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and extended in 2007. The construction industry's concern is that major stadium, skyscraper and other projects could be
Related Links: Link to EPA regulation Court Orders EPA to Move forward with Coal Ash Regulation Construction industry groups praised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision not to designate coal ash, a byproduct of coal combustion from coal-fired powerplants, as a hazardous waste under the agency’s first regulations for coal-residuals disposal.Instead, coal ash will be regulated under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act's Subtitle D, the primary law governing solid waste.Since the catastrophic 2008 coal ash spill in Kingston, Tenn., and the Dan River spill in North Carolina in February 2014, much attention has been focused on establishing safeguards for preventing
President Obama’s surprise announcement that the U.S. will seek to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba after more than 50 years includes a call for increased exports of building materials for housing and, down the road, also could provide export opportunities for U.S. construction-equipment manufacturers, industry officials say.
Related Links: ENR Editorial: "Urge Your Senator to Support Three Easy Steps to Help Small Business" House DOD Bill Includes Design-Build, Individual Sureties Amendments The Senate approved a $585-billion Dept. of Defense authorization bill by an 89-11 vote on Dec. 12, one of the last days of the lame-duck session.With the Senate's passage late on Dec. 13 of the $1.1-trillion “CRominbus”—a neologism that combines "continuing resolution," or "CR," and "omnibus"—spending bill that authorizes spending for most of the government through Sept. 30, 2015, the chamber has only two major pieces of legislation to consider before lawmakers go home for the
