President invoked the Defense Production Act to strengthen the domestic supply chain, as senators and industry debated strategies and risks to cut reliance on Russia, China and other “unreliable foreign sources” for key metals needed in U.S. manufacturing, clean energy.
Kuwaiti translators hired by a former AECOM business and contractor DynCorp under two large US Army contracts claim in a whistleblower lawsuit that the firms knew of alleged abuses, a case that a US district court judge allowed on March 9 to proceed; the firms now operate as Amentum.
In appeals court filing, Justice Dept. says Louisiana judge's Feb. 14 injunction of metric is "illogical, unreasonable, and unlawful," and has halted work on oil and gas permits, NEPA reviews and rulemaking.
White House seeks comment by March 18 on approaches to extract CO2 from sources and from the air, with $2B for new pipelines. Capture projects have strong critics, but DOE also funds $4M of planned Rio Tinto-Talon Metals nickel mine demo project in Minnesota.
Delays mount for PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. grid, to integrate deluge of proposed solar and other clean energy projects, as it revamps a process suited to large fossil fuel power plants.
Energy giant's action, which it says will elevate its role in carbon capture and production of lower-emission fuels, follows pressure from activist investors.
Protests from losing bidders Bechtel and BWXT, which claim conflict of interest and improprieties in award of contract worth up to $28B over ten years, spur agency review and possible rebid.