Related Links: Link to Indictment and California Attorney General announcement Link to PG&E investor site-April 2 filing to SEC San Bruno Fire May Cost California Utility More Than $4 Billion PG&E Pledges To Stay Focused On Safety Despite Federal Charges Fatal NYC Blast Underscores Commonplace Gas Leak Explosions in U.S., Expert Says Officials of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. are set to appear in U.S. district court in San Francisco on April 9 to plead not guilty to the giant utility’s indictment on 12 criminal charges in the 2010 gas line blast that killed eight and destroyed 38 homes in
Related Links: DOE Conditionally Approves $7.7B Oregon LNG Export Facility Platt's: Expedited Federal Export Approvals Don't Mean US LNG into Europe Soon, Panels Say Sterne Agee Highlights Recent Government and Private Sector Moves of U.S. LNG Exports Action on North American liquified-natural-gas export-terminal projects accelerated late last month as regulators advanced projects on the Pacific coast and U.S. politicians debated faster approvals as a "geopolitical tool" to counter Russia's moves in the Ukraine.On March 24, the estimated $7.7-billion Jordan Cove Energy terminal in Coos Bay, Ore., became the first LNG project on the West Coast—and the first greenfield project in
Yahoo Finance and ENR Art Dept. URS has experienced "choppy trading" over the past few years, said one analyst. Related Links: URS Stock Tumbles on Weak Year-End Results, Outlook Seeking Alpha: URS Corp., Undervaluation And Catalysts To Drive The Stock Higher Activist Investor Sends Ripples to Make Waves URS Corp. has agreed to a call from a key investor, activist hedge fund JANA Partners, to reshape the firm's board to allow JANA more input in choosing a successor to Martin M. Koffel, who has run URS for more than 25 years and intends to step down.The moves follow the firm's
Related Links: See who else is moving up, and moving on in the AEC sector Globe and Mail: Genivar Fuelled by Insatiable Appetite for Growth Arranged Marriages: Two Recent Deals Point to Growing Number of Mergers and Acquisitions Among Design Firms N.J. Turnpike Interchange 6-9 Widening David Ackert will join Montreal-based engineer WSP Global Inc. as CEO of its WSP Canada Inc. unit when the parent firm completes its stock and cash purchase of Focus Group Holding Inc., a 1,700-person design and geomatics company in Edmonton, Alberta. The $366-million deal, announced on March 12, is set to close within one
Sempra Energy Louisiana LNG site expansion would allow natural gas exports overseas. Related Links: Fluor Oil-and-Gas Work Flows to Bottom Line Fluor JV Wins Giant Canada LNG Project Gas-Fired Projects Are Gaining Momentum As some analysts predicted, Texas-based CB&I and Japan’s Chiyoda International Corp. have won the estimated $6-billion engineer-procure-construct contract for the Cameron liquid natural gas export project near Lake Charles, La.Last month, the project had received conditional U.S. Dept. of Energy authorization to export domestic LNG to countries that don’t have free-trade pacts with the U.S., CB&I said in a March 17 announcementThe project includes construction of three
Related Links: Read obituaries of other AEC leaders and innovators Joseph Dear, 62, who, as head of the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration in the 1990s, streamlined safety rules and pushed industry to develop its own voluntary measures, died on Feb. 26 in Sacramento of cancer.Most recently, he was chief investment officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CALPERS), the largest U.S. pension fund.DEARDear joined the U.S. Labor Dept. as assistant secretary and OSHA chief in 1993, after heading a Washington state labor agency.He hiked penalties for willful violations and "was a bold and forward-thinking leader who embraced
Australian engineer GHD and Canada-based designer Conestoga-Rovers & Associates (CRA) are seeking to link in what they say would be a true "merger" to create a more globalized megafirm.The firms announced March 12 an agreement to combine, in a nearly 100% stock deal that would create an employee-owned firm with an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue.Deal participants say the approach is unusual for a combination of this size, since others usually include more cash in the transaction.A key feature of the planned merger is that all ongoing employee shareholders in Waterloo, Ont.-based CRA would become immediate shareholders of Sydney-based GHD,
Related Links: New NJ Superfund sites contractor pleads guilty April 4 to false statements at debarment hearing A U.S. District Court judge in Newark, N.J., on March 3 sentenced Gordon D. McDonald, a former project manager at two New Jersey Superfund sites, to 14 years in prison and a $50,000 fine for "participating in multiple bid-rigging, fraud and kickback schemes" involving subcontract awards, says the U.S. Justice Dept.McDonald was convicted last September. The agency says the prison term is the longest ever imposed for "an antitrust crime."Justice says McDonald accepted kickbacks from three subcontractors in exchange for contract awards and
Related Links: SNC-Lavalin Ethics and Compliance See who else is moving up, or moving on, in the AEC sector Major Gen. Theresa C. Carter, U.S. Air Force civil engineer, will become special assistant to the commander of the Air Force Materiel Command. She will relocate from the Pentagon to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. CARTERBrig. Gen. Timothy S. Green, director of installations and mission support for the Air Combat Command, located at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, succeeds her in the renamed role of director of civil engineering. Other staff and organizational changes in the service's engineering and construction operations
Related Links: A conversation with: New Jersey Turnpike Authority Executive Director Veronique Hakim P3s, Maintenance In the Future for NYC Area, Transpo Leaders Say NJ Transit director channels inner Zen to steer agency through crises D.C. Silver Line Delay Could Cost Dulles Transit Partners Millions in Fines HakimVeronique "Ronnie" Hakim was appointed on Feb. 24 as executive director of New Jersey Transit, which serves New Jersey and parts of New York and Pennsylvania. It is the largest statewide public transit system and, by ridership, the third-largest U.S. provider of bus, rail and light rail. She replaces James Weinstein, who
