In the Gulf of Mexico, in underwater terrain akin to a mountain range in waters reaching 10,000 ft deep, Netherlands-based Royal Dutch Shell plc, its partners and an extensive team of contractors are setting records for ultradeep oil and gas engineering, construction and development. At 7,817 ft, the Perdido project will be the deepest spar platform in the world as well as the deepest drilling and production facility. It also will have the deepest producing subsea well, at 9,627 ft, and will deploy the first commercial-scale subsea oil-and-gas separation plant. Photo: Shell Oil Co. Perdido’s topsides were towed to the

Brilliant minds—Nikola Tesla, Thomas A. Edison—and great engineers produced the marvel of the electric grid. It has united and fed the vast complex that is modern industrial and post-industrial society. But like the Scarecrow in Oz, the grid lacks a brain. Advances in electronics, communication and information technology now are enabling engineers to give the grid a brain. In the last decade, grassroots initiatives have sprung up around the country to create what has come to be called the smart grid. In a smart grid, sensors can anticipate system disturbances and respond to them before they cripple the system. Communication

The U.S. House of Representatives took the first steps toward approving an ambitious and wide-ranging global-warming bill on May 21. The Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill that industry sources are calling historic by a 33-25 vote, largely along party lines. Photo: AP/WideWorld Bill sponsor Waxman (center) and GOP’s Barton oversaw a week of markups. Photo: AEP Bill sets 83% target reduction by 2050. The massive bill—more than 930 pages—is the result of weeks of hearings and negotiations in the House, and it is supported by a wide range of environmental groups, corporations, electric utilities and energy companies. But

Thirty-two years after the last polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were discharged into the Hudson River from manufacturing complexes, General Electric Co. began dredging on May 15 to remove 400,000 tons of contaminated sediment along a six-mile stretch near Fort Edward, N.Y. Additional dredging is planned downriver along a 34-mile section to Troy for a 2015 completion. + Image Source: General Electric Co. Drainage gallery will collect seeping PCBs for treatment and disposal. Related Links: Perdido Shatters Deepsea Records Fairfield, Conn.-based GE has not released costs, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates total cleanup at about $750 million. Additionally, New York

In New Orleans, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is spending billions of dollars constructing, elevating and bolstering flood defenses, establishing hardy, fast-growing ground cover to protect levees from erosion and overwash damage is a critical part of the process. “The name of the game is getting grass established quickly,” says Jeff Beasley, turf-grass physiologist with the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge. On May 20, the center partnered with the Corps and Jesco Environmental & Geotechnical Services Inc., Jennings, La., to conduct the first, “possibly annual” course in levee re-vegetation and erosion-control techniques. Photo: Angelle Bergeron

Atlanta-based Southern Co. plans to demonstrate carbon dioxide capture and storage technology at a coal-fired powerplant near Mobile, Ala., with a portion of the carbon emissions at the plant captured for underground storage in a deep saline geologic formation. Southern, along with the Dept. of Energy, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Electric Power Research Institute and others, will build a demonstration facility at Alabama Power’s 2,657-MW Barry generating plant. Beginning in 2011, between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, or the equivalent of emissions from 25 MW of the plant’s capacity, will be captured for storage. The CO2

Crews recently topped out the $640-million Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The design-build project is being constructed on the site of the existing National Naval Medical Center as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2005 by a joint venture of Clark Construction Group, Bethesda, and Balfour Beatty Construction, Fairfax, Va. When completed, the building will feature a new 560,000-sq-ft ambulatory care clinic and a 165,000-sq-ft in-patient addition to the existing hospital. The team also is constructing an eight-story, 944-space patient parking garage, a 700-ft-long logistics tunnel and 450,000 sq ft of phased renovations

The Senate confirmed a batch of nominees for top federal positions, including officials to fill several key posts at the Dept. of Transportation and a new head for the Interior Dept.'s Bureau of Reclamation. Those confirmed on May 21, just before the start of the Memorial Day recess, include former Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari, who was approved to be deputy secretary of U.S. DOT. Porcari served two terms as head of Maryland DOT, both times under Democratic governors--from 1999 to 2003 and from 2007 until he is sworn in to his new federal job. Peter M. Rogoff, a

The House has approved a $53.5-billion measure to fund Federal Aviation Administration programs for the next three years, including an increase for airport construction grants and a hike in airport passenger facility charges (PFCs), which finance infrastructure work. But prospects for final congressional approval rest with the Senate, where a multi-year FAA bill has yet to emerge. Photo: Aileen Cho for ENR Funding levels are uncertain for airports, like this one, now completed, in North Carolina. The last multi-year FAA measure lapsed last Sept. 30. But with a successor bill bogged down in the Senate, FAA programs have been operating

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on May 21 approved an ambitious energy/global warming bill by a 33-25 vote, largely along party lines. The massive bill—more than 930 pages—is the result of weeks of hearings and negotiations in the House and is supported by a wide range of environmental groups, corporations and electric utilities and energy companies. But the bill’s ultimate prospects are uncertain. The legislation still has numerous critics, and must be approved by the Ways and Means and other House committees before it can move to the floor for a vote. Meanwhile, the Senate does not have a