Aggregate News:

August 2010-Knife River CEO: 'A need for real jobs meeting real needs'.  National Stone & Gravel Association (NSSGA) Chairman Bill Schneider, president and CEO of Knife River Corp. testified July 27 before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the stimulus and impacts on the aggregates industry. (read the entire statement here).

July 2010-http://www.nssga.org/communications/pressreleases/pressrelease.cfm?whichrel=258- 'AGGREGATES PRODUCTION INDUSTRY REMOVED FROM PROVISIONS OF NEW MINE SAFETY BILL'-

House committee recognizes differences between underground coal mines and aggregates mines

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 — At a full House Education and Labor Committee markup of proposed mine safety legislation today, surface and underground aggregates mines were excluded from potentially devastating provisions that were designed to prevent reoccurrences of disasters like the Upper Big Branch coal mine tragedy in West Virginia in April.
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NSSGA and a coalition of other non-coal mining industries had been covering Capitol Hill for weeks in an effort to prevent being swept up by wide ranging legislation that proposes to increase penalties, criminalize even inadvertent violations of the act, and mandate onerous new reporting requirements, among other things. The bill, H.R. 5663 (originally introduced as the “Miner Safety and Health Act of 2010,” but now k...(continue to full story)

June 2010-http://www.aggman.com/house-votes-to-add-521-million-to-federal-highway-program/- 'House votes to add $521 Million to Federal Highway Program'-The House of Representatives approved legislation on May 28, 2010 that would provide $521 million in additional highway funding, increasing allocations for 37 states, according to the AASHTO Journal. The following is what information appeared in the AASHTO Journal:

This provision is contained in a tax-extenders bill, HR 4213, the American Jobs & Closing Tax Loopholes Act, which the House passed 215-204.  The bill also contains an extension of Build America Bonds, which were created by the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009. The federal government subsidizes interest costs for the bonds paid by state and local governments when they borrow money to finance infrastructure projects.

House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minnesota, has been working for more than two months to amend two highway funding categories that were set by the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act. The HIRE Act mandates...(continue to full story)

June 2010-http://www.aggregateresearch.com-'One man's fix for epic BP oil spill? Just add cement'-

(Texas)  --  South Austin trim carpenter Michael Riester woke up one morning this week with an idea on how to fix the oil leak ruining Louisiana and beyond.  And why not? BP couldn't unclog a toilet if you spotted them the plunger.

"If the Russkies can plug up Chernobyl with concrete, why can't we do it?" said Riester, 54. His plan is for BP to build a huge steel box, put a stovepipe hole on top, and blow concrete down a tube running into the stovepipe, which would force out the ocean water inside the steel box and plug up the leaking pipe.That's his theory, and he's sticking to it. "The hot dog engineers will say it's not...(continue to full story)

January 2010-www.montgomeryadvertiser.com-'Democrats: $1B would help roads, employment'-

They came up short last year, but Democrats in the Alabama Senate want to try again in 2010 to pass a bill that would take $100 million a year from the Alabama Trust Fund to improve roads and bridges in the state.

Democrats and road builders believe the proposal, if approved by the Legislature and voters, would put people back to work, make Alabama roads safer and boost the infrastructure...(continue to full story)

December 2009-www.aggregateresearch.com-'Portland Cement Study-'decline in cement use likely'- While many economists say it’s the beginning of the end of the recession, conditions facing the construction industry are likely to cause a drag on cement consumption, according to a new study from the Portland Cement Association.
In a document announced this week, the PCA said it expects 2009 to “represent a trough for United States’ total cement consumption,” or a 26.6-percent decline from weak 2008 levels.  However, the association also expects a modest 5-percent increase for ...(continue to full story)

October 2009-www.nwaonline.net-'Council Passes Quarry Ordinance'- Designated quiet hours and blasting limited to only a handful of days a year could be in the future for rock and red dirt quarries inside and around Fayetteville.  An ordinance to limit noise and explosive shock coming from rock quarries within one mile...(continue to full story)

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July 2009-Aggregates Manager-'Rock Solid, Rock Along'- Unique materials and diversity have helped this quarry stay afloat during rough economic seas. The east coast of Florida isn’t exactly the kind of place someone would expect to find a rock quarry, but that’s exactly where you’ll find Rock Solid Rock LLC. The quarry mines a unique material — coquina — in the form of rock, shell, and sand. The operation is located in Titusville, a small coastal city where townspeople can look right across the Indian River...(continue to full story)

June 2010-www.One man's fix for epic BP oil spill? Just add cement

Coal News:

January 2010-The Register Herald-'Mine permits'Time will tell if a breakthrough has been made. A breakthrough? Perhaps.  Time will tell.  But it’s encouraging news for the coal industry, thought by many, both in and out of government, to be under attack by the Obama administration.  As reported first by The Register-Herald last Sunday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave its assent...(continue to full story)

December 2009-Wall Street Journal-'Progress to Shut Coal-Fired Plants'-Bowing to rising environmental pressures, Progress Energy Inc. said it will shut 11 coal-fired power plants at four sites in North Carolina by 2017 and replace the capacity with gas-burning units. The action is part of a trend in which utilities are shuttering...(continue to full story)

September 2009-New York Times-'Refitted to Bury Emissions, Plant Draws Attention'-Poking out of the ground near the smokestacks of the Mountaineer power plant are two wells that look much like those that draw natural gas to the surface. But these are about to do something new: inject a power plant’s carbon dioxide into the earth...(continue to full story)

September 2009-www.theenergydaily.com-'Court Revives CO2 'Nuisance' Suit Against Utilities'- In another major legal victory for states pressing for controls on industry emissions of carbon dioxide, a federal appeals court this week reversed a lower court decision and ruled that eight states and the city of New York City could bring “nuisance” suits against five coal-burning utilities...(continue to full story)

September 2009-www.wvmetronews.com-'Permit Review Brings More Uncertainty to Coal Industry'-One of the largest surface mining permits in West Virginia hangs in doubt amid scrutiny from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  The Obama administration last week penned a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, urging the agency to reconsider a permit issued in 2007 for Arch Coal's Spruce Number 1 mine in Logan County. The permit has been tied up in litigation...(continue to full story)

Asphalt News:

June 2010-www.aggregateresearch.com-'"$500-600 billion" needed for road, bridge improvements'-(Sainte Genevieve Missouri) -- So far, Missouri has received and spent more than a quarter-billion dollars in stimulus funding to rebuild roads and bridges across the state.

But with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act scheduled to wrap up by the end of this year, U.S. Transportation secretary Ray LaHood says it's time to think about the next phase in funding new construction projects.  "Everybody agrees on what needs to be done for America in terms of building roads, fixing up our bridges, more transit," LaHood said...(continue to full story)

December 2009-www.google.com-'Roll up the pavement: Gravel is making a comback'-

Ever since the invention of the automobile, paved roads have meant progress. Now some cash-strapped towns and counties are finding progress too expensive, and they are tearing up battered roads and putting down gravel.

The high price of pavement and the sour economy have driven municipalities in states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Vermont to roll up the asphalt — a mile here, a few miles there, mostly on back roads — rather than repave.

Some drivers don't like it and warn of danger ahead, including mud, dust and damage to their cars.

"It kind of looks like we're going a step back rather than a step forward," admitted Randy Stearns, who heads the road commission in...(continue to full story)

October 2009-www.forbes.com-'Astec Industries' 3Q profit plunges 79 percent'-Astec Industries Inc., a maker of asphalt paving and other equipment for public works, said Tuesday its third-quarter profit sank due to a decline in residential markets and uncertainty in infrastructure spending.  Net income of $3.3 million, or 15 cents per share, was down 79 percent from $16 million, or 71 cents per share, in the...(continue to full story)

Pulp & Paper News:

June 2009-The Wall Street Journal-'The Black Liquor War: The U.S. and Canada duke it out over an alternative-fuel boondoggle.'-Congress's unrelenting efforts to rid the world of fossil fuel have now produced a North American trade war over an obscure substance called "black liquor." Let us explain.  This story begins with Congress's 2005 highway bill. It included a subsidy to encourage businesses to power their motor vehicles with "alternative fuels" such as ethanol, rather than fossil fuels such as diesel. Congress said businesses could receive a 50-cent tax credit...(continue to full story)

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