White House Photo by Pete Souza Gary Le Francois, building manager Transwesterns senior vice president, briefs Obama, Clinton on upgrade project. President Obama and former President Bill Clinton have kicked off a $4-billion public-private program to upgrade a wide range of buildings to make them more energy efficient. Design and construction officials praised the initiative but said other measures could deepen its impact.Unveiled on Dec. 2 as Obama and Clinton toured a Washington, D.C., renovation project, the plan follows earlier green-buildings efforts by the White House and private companies. In a nod to Capitol Hill realities, the program has no

States' fiscal results continue to record slow improvement but haven't rebounded to where they were before the recession struck.The National Governors Association-National Association of State Budget Officers latest fiscal survey, released on Nov. 29, says states' projected fiscal 2012 general-fund revenue collections rose 1.6%, to $659.4 billion. But that figure is still $20.8 billion below states' cumulative 2008 level. A Dec. 1 National Council of State Legislatures report sketches a similar overall picture.Only Colorado and Missouri cut fiscal 2012 transportation spending so far, compared with seven states' imposing mid-year 2011 transportation reductions totaling $392.4 million.

Business groups contend that a resolution approved by the National Labor Relations Board on Nov. 30 would prove problematic for employers. Unions counter that the proposal, drafted by the labor panel's chairman, Mark Gaston Pearce, would streamline the election process and create a more level playing field for employees.The NLRB voted 2-1 to move forward with a proposal to amend certain representation election procedures to reduce unnecessary litigation in disputed cases. The Democrats on the panel, Pearce and Craig Becker, voted in favor of the proposal, while Brian Hayes, the lone Republican, voted no. The panel will now draft a

The Environmental Protection Agency's revision of its March 2011 proposed rule on boiler maximum achievable control technology (MACT), announced on Dec. 2, would offer industry more flexibility in meeting emission targets, the agency says. EPA plans to finalize the rule, which would apply to the 1% of boilers that emit the most pollutants, in spring 2012. The Council of Industrial Boiler Owners says the revision would ease compliance for sources.

Related Links: U.S. Court of Appeals decision Neither industry nor environmentalists got all they had hoped for in a federal appeals court ruling in a case dealing with the Portland Cement Association's challenge to Environmental Protection Agency rules governing air emissions from cement kilns.In a Dec. 9 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided partly with PCA by blocking one EPA standard, but also agreed partly with EPA by letting two other rules stand.The ruling by a three-judge panel of the appellate court deals with two final EPA air-pollution rules issued in 2010: National

Military construction contracting officials touted their efforts to award work to small businesses at an industry conference last month, but attendees noted the procurements are fraught with issues, from slow-moving awards to bait-and-switch tactics by prime contractors.Tracy Pinson, director of small-business programs for the U.S. Army, highlighted its "robust" small-business contracting program to the 1,900 attendees at the Society of Military Engineers event in suburban Washington, D.C. In fiscal 2011, the Army let approximately $90 billion in construction contracts to U.S. firms—close to $24 billion, or about 26%, went to small businesses. Other officials, such as Brig. Gen. Stephen Leisenring,

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. says its financial help—and potential future exposure—to failing multi-employer pension funds has climbed. Multi-employer plans are common in construction's unionized sector, covering more than three million of the industry's workers and retirees.PBGC, a federal agency that assists or takes over troubled pension plans, projects in its fiscal 2011 report that the number of insolvent multi-employer plans will more than double in five years.In the report issued on Nov. 14, PBGC Director Josh Gotbaum said many multi-employer plans "are substantially underfunded; for some, the traditional remedies of increasing funding or reducing future benefit accruals won't be

Some congressional GOP lawmakers and state officials oppose the Environmental Protection Agency's coming proposal to regulate wastewater derived from shale-gas extraction. They fear the new rules could stifle a growing, jobs-producing industry. But EPA and environmental groups say federal effluent standards are needed to ensure the expanding shale-gas extraction business operates safely nationwide.At issue is EPA's October announcement that it will issue a proposal in 2014, under its Clean Water Act authority, to regulate wastewater from shale-gas production and extraction. Such wastewater is not federally regulated now but is regulated by many states. GIBBSThe debate over EPA's plan was evident at

Related Links: White House background information, including list of companies, organizations in the program Transcript of Obama and Clinton remarks at program launch President Obama and former President Bill Clinton have announced an $4-billion federal-private sector-local government program to upgrade a wide range of existing buildings to make them more energy efficient.The plan expands an earlier green-building effort by the Clinton Global Initiative. But in a bow to political realities, the program doesn't involve any new federal spending or tax breaks.In announcing the plan at a Washington, D.C., renovation project, Obama called energy-efficiency improvements to buildings “a trifecta.” He said

The National Labor Relations Board voted 2-1 on Nov. 30 to move forward with a proposal to amend certain representation election procedures in order to reduce unnecessary litigation in disputed cases.Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce and Craig Becker, both Democrats, voted in favor of the proposal, with Brian Hayes, the lone Republican board member, voting no. The panel will now draft a final rule that the board must vote on and approve before it could go into effect.How the vote would go, and whether Hayes would even participate in the vote, was the subject of much speculation in the press and