The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has invited the public to participate in a comprehensive review of its “significant” environmental regulations to determine whether any such rules should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed to make the Agency's regulatory program more effective or less burdensome in achieving its objectives.

On February 19, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to fund the U.S. government for the rest of the federal fiscal year through the passage of a continuing resolution that cuts the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget by $3 billion from its current level of $10.3 billion and that limits the agency’s authority in other ways. The bill passed by a vote of 235-189; only three Republicans voted against the bill.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is seeking public comment by April 18, 2011, on its proposal to renew and revise Nationwide Permits (NWP) for work in wetlands and other waters that are regulated by Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and/or Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899.  In addition, the Corps is proposing to issue two new NWPs that would authorize certain renewable energy generation projects. The current set of NWPs expires March 18, 2012.  The proposed NWPs will replace the expiring set.

AGC’s 92nd Annual Convention—Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 21-25—provides members with an opportunity to learn more about recent developments associated with construction equipment, lead-based paint, stormwater controls, reuse of industrial materials and green construction.

On March 24, AGC will co-host a full-day Green Roads Summit at CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas.  Transportation and industry leaders will show the path of the green highways movement across the nation, an extension of the green building movement that now so dominates the construction industry.

Guide to LEED 2009 Estimating and Preconstruction Strategies walks the reader step by step through the LEED 2009 for New Construction process, offering advanced techniques for estimating the actual costs, in time and money, for building green.

AGC released a statement Thursday in response to the Obama Administration’s new “Better Buildings Initiative,” intended to encourage private sector energy upgrades.

The extent of federal authority over construction work in “waters of the United States” is becoming even more confusing for the regulated community. Sources say the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are poised to release a new “guidance” document that would expand what constitutes federally-controlled waters, by revisiting U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have created competing tests to determine the scope of federal jurisdiction.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced for the third time that it needs more time to issue a set of rules that decide how aggressively the United States will need to fight ground-level ozone (smog). 

AGC is playing a lead role in securing federal funding to help member companies retrofit their equipment on a voluntary basis and earn positive national recognition.  We worked to attain reauthorization of federal Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) grants through 2016 and to amend certain provisions of the bill to help Chapters and members compete for federal aid under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Funding Assistance Program.