The U.S. Energy Dept. is headed back to the drawing board for a national nuclear-waste depository. President Barack Obama, making good on a campaign pledge, is seeking an alternate dump site to Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. “I have consistently said that I am opposed to Yucca Mountain,” Obama told a Las Vegas crowd last January. “That will not change.” Photo: The U.S. DOE The budget at Yucca was cut $100 million for the rest of 2009. The U.S. Energy Dept. has spent over $10 billion since 1983 performing geological tests and studies at Yucca Mountain
After a nearly two-month delay, Hilda Solis, a former U.S. Representative from California, has been confirmed as Secretary of Labor. The Feb. 24 Senate vote was 80-17. Solis says that her top priorities will include promoting "green-collar" jobs, helping get Americans back to work, ensuring that workers are "paid what they deserve...and have safe and healthy workplaces," and providing employment assistance to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. She also will oversee the development of a rule implementing President Obama’s executive order reversing a Bush administration directive that requires employers to notify workers of their right not to join
President Obama’s ambitious $3.55-trillion budget outline for fiscal year 2010 is the latest salvo in his administration’s efforts to revive and reshape the nation’s economy. The proposed budget blueprint, unveiled Feb. 26, aims to cut the federal deficit in half by 2013 but doesn’t slash construction accounts to reach that g oal. Instead, it would boost funding for water infrastructure and create a National Infrastructure Bank. Photo: AP/Wideworld OMB’s Orszag (left) delivers plan to Rep. John Spratt (center) and Sen. Kent Conrad Meanwhile, Congress still needs to approve final spending numbers for fiscal 2009. Lawmakers approved a stopgap measure this
The White House on Feb. 26 unveiled a $3.55-trillion budget outline for fiscal year 2010 that would boost funding for water infrastructure and transportation programs while aiming to cut the federal deficit in half by 2013. White House officials say the outline provides a broad framework for fiscal policy over the next 10 years. A more detailed budget proposal will be released in April. But the proposal is only the first step in a long legislative process. Months of hearings by appropriations and tax-writing committees will take place, followed by committee and floor votes. Final numbers for 2010 spending won�t
In just its first month, the Obama administration is moving to reverse Bush administration Clean Air Act policies. One action deals with a rule governing mercury emissions, an important piece of the Bush team’s program. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had struck down the mercury rule and the Bush administration appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. But in early February, new Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced that EPA would not pursue the Bush administration appeal and said the agency instead would draft a new mercury regulation. The high court followed
After a nearly two-month delay, the embattled nominee for the top post at the Dept. of Labor won Senate confirmation Feb. 24. The Senate voted 80-17 to confirm Hilda Solis, a Democrat from California, as Labor Secretary. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said shortly after her confirmation, “America’s working men and women will be fortunate to have someone of Hilda’s tremendous talents leading the Dept. of Labor.” Unions describe Solis as a strong ally and advocate for working families and say that she built a solidly pro-labor voting record while in
States across the country are moving rapidly to start turning their shares of newly approved economic stimulus money into construction contracts. States are in line to receive about $40 billion of the stimulus measure’s estimated $130 billion in construction-related funds. That state funding includes $26.8 billion for highways, $7.4 billion for transit, $3.9 billion for clean water state revolving funds, about $2 billion for drinking-water SRFs and $3.1 billion for state energy programs. Most of those funds will be distributed among states according to existing formulas. President Obama calls on governors to promote transparency when bidding work funded by the
Industry sources describe the funds provided in the final stimulus package for the environmental sector as a good start that could help the Obama administration meet its goal of jumpstarting the economy by creating and saving more jobs. But they acknowledge that the $20.6 billion allocated for environmental projects ranging from water and wastewater infrastructure to levees, Superfund and Dept. of Energy nuclear cleanup falls far short of what is needed to address current and long-term needs. Photo: AP/Wideworld While the Corps received $6.4 billion, some say that is not enough. More flexibility has been provided to states in some
As Congress negotiates billions of dollars in potential federal funds for construction through the economic stimulus bill, President Barack Obama moved to bring back union-only project labor agreements as an option on federally funded projects. The president on Feb. 6 issued an executive order overturning a Bush administration ban on federal PLAs and opened the door to such pacts on projects of $25 million or more. The order fulfills a promise made during the presidential campaign to unions to advocate for their interests. Getting the PLA ban reversed was cited by union officials as a high priority on its wish
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has unveiled a sweeping plan to loosen up the still-tight credit markets. The plan, announced on Feb. 10, aims to restore lenders’ confidence and make it easier for small businesses, real estate firms and other potential borrowers to obtain loans. “Our plan will help restart the flow of credit, clean up and strengthen our banks and provide critical aid for homeowners and small business,” Geithner said. A key component of the plan is expanding the Federal Reserve’s Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) from $200 billion to as much as $1 trillion. The Fed launched TALF