Related Links: Georgia Slapped by Court in Tristate Water Dispute 11th Circuit Appeals Court 2011 Opinion In the latest salvo in a decades-long dispute, Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) says his state in September will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to force Georgia to share some of the water from the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint (ACF) river basins.According to a statement issued by Scott, the collapse of discussions, in 2003, among Alabama, Florida and Georgia "left Florida and Alabama in the same disadvantaged position" just as Georgia was able to stake more claims to the waters.The Apalachicola's water levels are
Related Links: Source of Forged Surety Bonds Remains Mysterious A Bold Individual Surety Claims His Coal-Backed Bonds are Rock Solid Contractors John Melching Jr. and Dallas Collins are based in Pennsylvania and Texas, respectively, and have never met, but they have something in common: They claim they have been cheated in the past year by a business transaction that involved Larry Polec, a Chicago-based surety-bond broker.Polec is easy to spot. He is a former Michigan State basketball player who stands 6 ft, 8 in. Less easy to spot, however, are his roles in and links to an informal network of
Photo Courtesy of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas Some say LNG terminals and liquefication equipment would provide thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to the economy. Related Links: DOE conditional approval of exporting LNG from Lake Charles Terminal U.S. LNG Boom Fueling Port Projects The announcement on Aug. 7 that the federal Energy Dept. would grant conditional approval to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas from a third U.S. terminal was met by cheers from several industry groups, including the American Petroleum Institute and the Center for Liquefied Gas. But some of those same groups complain that the
Courtesy of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Entrance to Yucca Mountain tunnel, under construction (November 2007 photo) Related Links: U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit decision Nuke Waste Disposal Solution Still Elusive (enr.com 6/18/12) A federal appeals court has ruled that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has violated a federal energy statute and directed it to restart its review of a proposed nuclear waste disposal site beneath Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.But NRC has limited funds on hand to deal with the Dept. of Energy’s application for the waste repository—let alone to build a storage facility at the Nevada site or in
Related Links: PDF of the DOE Report Smarter Grids Finding Limits The Obama administration is calling for more investment in the electric grid to reduce system disruptions caused by increasingly severe weather due to climate change.Released on Aug. 12, the report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the U.S. Dept. of Energy does not specify how much should be invested, but notes that, between 2003 and 2012, weather-related outages cost the U.S. economy an estimated $16 billion to $33 billion.Some of the strategies for modernizing the grid outlined in the report include working with utilities to harden
Related Links: White House Announcement on Appointments REI Chief Picked to Lead Interior Dept. President Obama's decision to nominate Michael L. Connor, the Interior Dept.'s Bureau of Reclamation commissioner, as deputy Interior secretary has won praise from key senators.Connor, whose nomination was sent to the Senate on July 31, has led BuRec since 2009. He was counsel to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee from 2001 to 2009. Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) calls Connor "a superb choice" for the Interior post. The energy committee's top Republican, Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), said of Connor, "I believe his integrity, work ethic
Related Links: NLRB Fact Sheet on Union Election Rule Supreme Court to Hear NLRB Recess Appointment Case For the first time in a decade, the National Labor Relations Board will have a full complement of five members. But several federal court challenges to NLRB decisions and policies will keep the panel under a cloud of uncertainty for the foreseeable future.The NLRB decides cases that directly affect employers and unions, including those in the construction industry. In recent years, the board has ruled on issues such as union members' rights to display banners criticizing labor practices of contractors working at construction
Related Links: Congressional Budget Office Testimony on Highway Trust Fund (House subcommittee hearing 7/23/13) DOT Moves To Streamline TIFIA Loan Decisions (enr.com 7/26/13) As the Highway Trust Fund's highway account heads toward a deficit late next year, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's new secretary, Anthony Foxx, says resources such as DOT's expanded loan program and President Obama's proposed infrastructure bank can give the unsteady fund some support. But Foxx also says they won't eliminate the funding gap.FOXXAt an Aug. 1 briefing, Foxx said, "I think that we are going to have to add some tools to the tool box." They
Related Links: Federal Appeals Court Invalidates NLRB Recess Appointments Supreme Court to Hear NLRB Recess Appointment Case The U.S. Senate has confirmed a full lineup of five National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) nominees, ending a long-running stalemate between the White House and Congress over the board's composition.The series of Senate votes on July 30 on the nominees ensures that the board will have a full complement for the first time in a decade. The NLRB decides cases that directly affect employers and unions, including those in the construction industry. In recent years, the board has ruled on such issues as
Related Links: World Bank release: FY13 aid commitments (preliminary figures) Link to 2012 update of World Bank Group Infrastructure Strategy World Bank release: approval of $250-million loan for Quito transit project The World Bank’s total financial commitments declined slightly in fiscal year 2013, and its aid to infrastructure sectors fell 13%. Within the infrastructure area, however, transportation funding posted an increase.The bank reported on July 23 that it provided $52.6 billion in loans, grants and other assistance in its fiscal year ended June 30, down about 1% from the previous year’s total. Bank spokesman David Theis said that, within that
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