Technical Corrections Bill Passes Senate

By a vote of 88 to 2, the U.S. Senate yesterday passed H.R. 1195, To amend the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users to make technical corrections, and for other purposes. 

The Senate added an amendment to the bill which calls for a Department of Justice review of “allegations of impropriety regarding item 462 in section 1934(c) of Public Law 109-59 to ascertain if a violation of Federal criminal law has occurred."  This refers to the Coconut Road Interchange project in the Florida earmark.

Among other things, the passage of H.R. 1195 corrects the Federal cost share element in section 5202 (b) (3) (B), “ HIGH-PERFORMANCE CONCRETE BRIDGE TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AND DEPLOYMENT” of SAFETEA-LU from 50-50 to 80-20. 

The bill also provides contract authority and funding, $45 million for FY 2008 and 2009, for the high speed Magnetic Levitation (MAGLEV) rail project.  The 50 percent of the funds would be allocated to the Las Vegas to Prim segment and the remaining “for existing MAGLEV projects located east of the Mississippi River using such criteria as the Secretary deems appropriate.”

The bill must now go back to the House, which will review and vote on the amended version of H.R. 1195.  The House can either agree to pass the Senate version of the bill (which now includes a Justice Department investigation of the inner workings of the House) or strike or modify the provision and send the bill back to the Senate again.

Contact John Sullivan, David Hubbard, or Leif Wathne.

Senate Democrats Aiming to Add Infrastructure Funding
to War Supplemental

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this week, key Democrats made it clear that they intend to add a large infrastructure spending package to the war supplemental appropriations measure. 

Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.V.) and Transportation and Housing Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) mentioned the supplemental may include funding for highways, bridge, water infrastructure, rail, and aviation programs. 

The President recently warned that he would be against adding any domestic spending to the supplemental appropriations measure.  Chairman Byrd indicated the Committee will mark up the measure in the next few weeks.

Contact David Hubbard.

Senate Leaders Working to Move Aviation Legislation

Senate Democratic leaders this week said that they are working to reach a compromise on the stalled legislation that reauthorize's Federal aviation programs (S. 1300) .  Leaders hope to have the bill on the Senate floor prior to the Memorial Day recess.

The legislation has been stalled due to disagreements between Senate Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.V.) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) regarding the details of the financing title.  Chairman Rockefeller declared the legislation dead for the year as recently as February 13.  The two Senators are reportedly now working on a compromise financing approach.

The House of Representatives passed its aviation reauthorization bill on September 20.

Contact David Hubbard.

Administration Outlines Carbon Emissions Plan

The President on Wednesday offered a plan on how to shape U.S. global warming policy for the next several decades.   During a speech in the Rose Garden, the President touched on nearly all corners of the contentious issue.

The speech marked the first time the President has called for an outright limit on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The White House initiative suggests a freeze on U.S. heat-trapping pollution by 2025, plus a peak in electric utility emissions in 10-15 years.

The President did not endorse any specific legislation proposal for achieving these goals. Both of his goals would allow absolute emissions to rise–a provision that represents a sharp difference with a Senate bill due for floor debate in June. However, the President's statement is seen in some quarters as a critical opening in the search for compromise.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.), quoting the President, said the he wants Congress to find a way out of the "glorious mess" that would be made by a Federal effort to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act , and National Environmental Policy Act.

Click here to read more about this issue.

Contact Andy O'Hare.

Risk Assessment Links Adverse Effects with Short-Term Nitrogen Dioxide Exposure

An U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) draft risk assessment reports that evidence from recent studies is "sufficient to infer a likely causal relationship" between short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide and adverse effects on the respiratory system.  The risk assessment is part of the agency’s review of ambient air quality standards for the pollutant.

The national ambient air quality standard for nitrogen dioxide is currently 0.053 parts per million for exposure in a single 24-hour period outdoors.

Between 2003 and 2005, the national mean nitrogen dioxide concentration was 0.015 ppm. 

Ambient concentrations of nitrogen dioxide dropped 41 percent between 1980 and 2006, according to the risk assessment, which is being used to complete the first update to the standards since 1993.

The highest concentrations of ambient nitrogen dioxide are typically found around Los Angeles, as well as the midwestern and northwestern United States, according to the draft risk assessment. Mobile sources represent 60 percent of nitrogen dioxide emissions, with the remainder largely from power plants and other stationary sources.

Children, whose lung function continues to develop into adolescence, and those older than the age of 65 are also particularly susceptible to nitrogen dioxide exposure.

EPA published a request for comment on the draft assessment in the Federal Register on April 14. (73 Fed. Reg. 20,045).

Contact Tyrone P. Wilson.

Advisory Panel Urges Tougher Ozone Standards During Next Review

The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee's (CASAC) Ozone Review Panel registered its complaints about new ambient air quality standards for ozone in a recent letter to agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, hoping the objections would lead to tighter restrictions in the future.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set the new primary ozone standard at 0.075 parts per million March 12, down from 0.08 parts per million previously. However, the reduction was well below the 0.06 to 0.07 ppm standard CASAC would have liked to have seen.

In a letter on April 7, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee's Ozone Review Panel said it was "unanimous in strongly urging you or your successor as EPA Administrator to ensure these recommendations be considered during the next review cycle" for ozone ambient air quality standards. The standards are re-evaluated every five years, and the next review period for ozone—a lung irritant that can aggravate asthma and increase respiratory infections—begins in 2009.

EPA is expected to make the final ozone attainment area designations by March 12, 2010, but an agency spokesperson said the agency could spend another year working on the regulations if there is "insufficient information available."

Contact Tyrone P. Wilson.

Agency to Post Updates On Initiatives for Regulatory Agenda Review

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will post monthly updates on new regulatory initiatives on the Internet, the agency said Monday.

The monthly updates will supplement the agency's Semi-Annual Regulatory Agenda, which is released twice a year, and posted at a Web site called the Action Initiation List.

Information on new regulatory initiatives, such as forthcoming proposed rules, will be posted on the Web site at roughly the end of each month. Updates will describe those actions that were approved for commencement during the given month, according to EPA, making environmental regulation more transparent.

The regulatory agenda lists the initiatives the agency has under way or in the initial planning stages. It provides information on what each initiative entails and a description of its status and schedule for major action.

EPA last updated the regulatory agenda Dec. 10 (72 Fed. Reg. 69,922; 237 DEN A-4, 12/11/07).

Click here for more information about the updates.

Contact Tyrone P. Wilson.

Agency Settles Lawsuit With Coke Manufacturers

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last Friday announced it had settled a lawsuit filed by coke manufacturers challenging new emissions standards for fossil fuel-fired electric power plants (Coke Oven Environmental Task Force v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 06-1131, settlement announced 4/11/08, 73 Fed. Reg. 19,838).

The agreement, to be filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, settles a lawsuit filed by the Coke Oven Environmental Task Force, an arm of the American Coke and Coal Chemicals Institute.

The industry trade group filed the lawsuit after the agency finalized new monitoring and emissions requirements for particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides for new fossil fuel-fired electric power plants in June 2007.

As part of the settlement, EPA will issue a direct final rule or a proposed rule by May 31 clarifying the emissions monitoring standards and relieving coke oven gas-powered boilers and plants from the burden of monitoring particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions.

Under the rule, new plants or older facilities that are significantly upgraded would have to meet the new emissions and monitoring standards.

Contact Tyrone P. Wilson.

the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday, held a hearing to discuss the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007 (CWRA), H.R. 2421.

.The bill, sponsored by Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), would amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly known as the Clean Water Act, to expand the jurisdiction the federal government has over U.S. waters.

The committee heard testimony from representatives of the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the U.S. Department of Justice; state and local governments; industry; and many others with an interest in the CWRA.

Summarizing the sentiment of the bill’s supporters, Mark Squillace, professor of law and the director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado’s School of Law, said in his testimony that, “maintaining the integrity of our nation’s waters depends upon maintaining broad Federal regulatory authority.”

Opponents of the bill, including members of the North American Concrete Alliance, are concerned that CWRA would make all waters, regardless of their size or depth, subject to federal regulation.

Harold Quinn, Jr., from the National Mining Association, testified that this change would “eliminate the Commerce Clause power as the outer bounds of the federal government’s reach.” 

Contact Robert Sullivan.

Association Comments on Daily Log Burden

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) issued comments yesterday on the March 19 Federal Register notice that sought confirmation of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) estimation that it takes truck drivers an average of 6.5 minutes each to fill out a record of duty status (RODS), or daily log.

NRMCA’s comments centered on the FMCSA’s failure to take into account the 2.4 million short-haul drivers, including concrete mixer truck drivers, who are forced to retroactively fill out the burdensome RODS when they reach the 12-hour return limit contained in the 100 air-mile log exemption. NRMCA estimates that for short-haul drivers, the time burden for completing the RODS is actually 25 to 35 minutes.

NRMCA suggested raising the 12-hour threshold to 14 hours, which would allow concrete mixer truck drivers to take full advantage of the 100 air-mile radius log exemption for the entire 14 hours of on-duty time.

Contact Kevin Walgenbach.

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