Senate Easily Approves Water Resources Bill
>>>>Climate-Change Amendment Fails

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved the long-overdue Water Resources Development Act of 2007 (H.R. 1495) this week by a vote of 91 to 4. 

The $13.9-billion bill authorizes about 600 Army Corps of Engineers flood control, navigation, environmental restoration, and shoreline protection projects. 

A much anticipated global warming amendment sponsored by Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) that directed the Corps of Engineers to consider global climate changes when formulating projects protracted into a two-hour debate between Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Kerry. 

An earlier agreement required that there would be no second-degree amendments to the Kerry/Feingold amendment and that without 60 votes, the amendment would be withdrawn.  The amendment failed by a vote of 51-42.

Of particular interest to NACA members, the bill authorizes rehabilitation projects on the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway.  The legislation also requires peer review of projects that cost more than $40 million.

The House overwhelmingly approved its WRDA reauthorization bill earlier this year by a vote of 394 to 25.  A House-Senate conference committee is expected to convene shortly to hammer out a final bill.

Contact David Hubbard.

Aviation Bill Clears Senate Commerce Committee

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on Wednesday approved the Aviation Investment and Modernization Act of 2007 (S. 1300) that reauthorizes Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) programs over the next four years.

PCA staff worked with key Senators and committee staff to add language providing for the reauthorization of the concrete airfield pavement research program.  ACPA staff provided important technical support for the lobbying effort.  The legislation authorizes $8 million over four years for concrete pavement research.  The Committee-approved bill provides similar research language for asphalt pavements. 

The legislation provides $16 billion for airport infrastructure grants, authorizing $3.8 billion in FY 2008 and increasing by $100 million each fiscal year through 2011.  The bill also streamlines the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) process that funds many construction projects. 

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is currently drafting its FAA reauthorization bill. 

Contact David Hubbard, John Sullivan, or Gary Mitchell.

Senate Holds Hearing on High-Performance Buildings

The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday held a hearing on ways to improve the energy efficiency of federal buildings through the adoption of green building standards. 

Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality, has introduced a bill, S. 506, which would place the General Services Administration in overall charge of coordinating research and development into improving lighting, insulation, fixtures, windows, and other features.  To view the bill, click here and visit the Thomas locator website. (Note: the website does not allow for direct links, and so the bill name or number will have to be entered on the home page.)

Sen. Lautenberg wants to make the USGBC's Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Silver rating, the minimum benchmark for federal buildings.

The committee's ranking member, Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), said he supports the bill as a way to enhance the nation's energy security. Sen. Inhofe noted he also wants to leave the door open for GSA to use other green-building rating tools such as the Green Building Initiative.

Contact John Sullivan.

Agency Issues Grant for Magnetic Levitation Project

The Federal Railroad Administration announced late last week is issuing a $962,240 grant to the Nevada Department of Transportation to complete preliminary environmental and engineering studies for a 35-mile segment of a proposed magnetic levitation passenger train corridor between Las Vegas and Primm, Nev.

Contact John Sullivan.

Senators Introduce Bill to Create Greenhouse Gas Registry

Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced legislation Monday that would establish a national greenhouse gas registry to track greenhouse gas emissions by major industries.

S. 1387 would amend the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act so facilities have to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions and add them to their annual reports to the appropriate state emergency response commission.

The bill's purpose is to establish a mandatory greenhouse gas inventory, registry, and information system that will provide data that can be used by public and private entities to design greenhouse gas emission reduction strategies.

According to Klobuchar's office, the bill is intended to lay the foundation for a national greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program. While numerous states have recently enacted similar registries, S. 1387 is the only measure that would provide for a nationwide uniform system for reporting and recording greenhouse gases, sources said.

Definitions and Scope
The bill defines the term greenhouse gas to include carbon dioxide, mercury, methane, nitrous oxides, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and "any other anthropogenically-emitted gas that the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, after notice and comment, determines to contribute to global warming."

The registry would contain each report received from a state emergency response commission; an estimate of the quantity of emissions of each greenhouse gas by each source category; and a detailed analysis of trends in the quantity, composition, and sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, the registry would have to include an estimate of mobile source emissions and direct stationary combustion source emissions, the quantity of petroleum products sold or imported by each affected facility, and the quantity of greenhouse gases that would be emitted when those products are used for transportation. The registry also would have to include the total quantity of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions created by greenhouse gas offsets.

Under the bill, the Environmental Protection Agency would have to collect the data and make an economy wide estimate, including estimates of the transportation sector. Small businesses that generate fewer than 10,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions would be excluded. The legislation defines small businesses as those with fewer than 500 employees and less than $6.5 million in annual revenue.

The bill does not label greenhouse gases as toxics, require an emergency response plan, or place limits on which greenhouse gases can be stored, used, released, disposed, or transferred at a facility. The bill would give the EPA administrator the discretion to create a new framework for greenhouse gas emission reporting after three years.

Hearings have not been scheduled at this time.

Contact Deidra Ciriello.

Contact John Sullivan.

PCA, Environmental Agency Meet on Ozone Standard

The Portland Cement Association, along with group of other industry association representatives, met this week with Administrator Steve Johnson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to discuss potential changes to the ozone national ambient air quality standard. 

EPA is under a court imposed deadline to review the standard.  The agency plans to propose a rule in the coming weeks and finalize any potential change to the standard early in 2008.  PCA has been working with a coalition of potentially affected industry sectors on this matter for almost a year in anticipation of the proposed rule.   

The Administrator is clearly under pressure, both internally and externally, to lower the current standard of 0.08 part per million (ppm).  Proponents of a lower standard point to research alleging human health effects at the current standard.  In conducting the review required by the court, EPA staff has employed some new scientific approaches. 

PCA and other industry representatives explained to the Administrator that these approaches may generate erroneous scientific conclusions.  In addition to these supporting science concerns, the industry group requested that the Administrator avoid expressing a preference for a particular alternative to the current standard (e.g., 0.075 ppm) and rather propose a series or a range of potential alternatives, including the current standard. 

The Administrator listened intently and expressed a willingness to entertain the industry perspectives. 

The industry coalition will prepare detailed comments on the proposal once it is published by EPA in June. 

Contact Andy O'Hare or Tom Carter.

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