NEW YORK — McGraw-Hill Construction released its 2012 Dodge Construction Outlook Midyear Update projections, which revise the forecasts provided last October at the firm’s annual Outlook Conference in Washington, D.C. The Outlook Midyear Update predicts that total construction starts for the U.S. will increase 2 percent this year to $445 billion, up from the $434 billion reported for 2011. While slightly better than the flat performance for 2012 construction starts predicted last fall, the updated forecast still portrays an industry struggling to gain upward momentum. “The construction industry has yet to move from a hesitant up-and-down pattern to more sustained … Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of the Obama Administration's all of the above approach to American energy, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approved a 350-megawatt solar energy project on tribal trust land of the Moapa Band of Paiute Indians (Tribe) in Clark County, Nev. The project marks a milestone as the first utility-scale solar project approved for development on tribal lands, and is one of the many steps the administration has taken to help strengthen tribal communities. The project is also the 31st utility-scale renewable energy project that Interior has approved since 2009 as part of a Department-wide effort … Read more