InsideSources

Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics.

Energy

Environmental groups are spending an unprecedented $85 million in the 2014 elections
WASHINGTON POST
Chris Mooney
The spending plans are laid out in a document, acquired by The Post, that summarizes the activities of five top green groups — the Environmental Defense Action Fund, Steyer’s NextGen Climate, the NRDC Action Fund, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), and the Sierra Club — and has been circulated internally among them. Asked about the document, which is dated October 17, LCV president Gene Karpinski commented, “this is by far the biggest investment that the environmental community has ever made in politics.” Karpinski said that LCV will spend over $25 million this year, compared with $5 million in the 2010 election cycle and $15 million in 2012.

Trying to Raise Profile of Climate Change for Washington Voters
NEW YORK TIMES
Kirk Johnson
The effort by a California billionaire named Thomas F. Steyer to bolster global climate change measures in Washington has turned the battle over the State Senate into one of the most expensive legislative elections in state history.

Developing world embracing coal despite Obama’s efforts to limit use
WASHINGTON TIMES
Patrice Hill
Coal is more popular than ever as the cheapest fuel for generating electricity in the developing world, despite efforts by the Obama administration and environmentalists to limit its use. That’s the conclusion of a report to be released Tuesday by the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based think tank. The report, “Not Beyond Coal,” was provided exclusively to The Washington Times.

Gas at $3 Carries Rewards—and Risks
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Nick Timiraos
Gasoline prices have dropped below $3 a gallon at most U.S. gas stations, delivering a welcome lift to American consumers and retailers heading into the holidays. But the related oil-price drop has a thorny underside: It is threatening to slow the nation’s energy boom and hit the broader economy.

Keystone foes energized as price pinches oil sands allure
BLOOMBERG
Falling oil prices have energized opponents of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. … An environmental analysis released by the State Department said oil prices would have to fall to $75 a barrel for Keystone XL to affect development of Canadian heavy crude. The report said higher transportation costs might have a “substantial impact on oil sands production levels” at that price, a scenario they deemed as unlikely.

Technology

Missing in midterms: Net neutrality debate
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Alex Byers
After drawing almost 4 million messages to the FCC and surpassing Janet Jackson’s infamous Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction,” the issue of how the agency should rewrite the open Internet rules has received little traction in the midterm elections. Candidates are sticking with tried-and-true issues, like national security or the economy, to lure voters. A big reason: Net neutrality is not a simple issue.

Taxes on Information Technologies Threatening Economic Growth, Report Says
NEW YORK TIMES
Georgi Kantchev
Governments around the world, particularly in emerging markets, are raising taxes on information technologies, threatening to impede economic growth and slow consumers’ adoption of smartphones and broadband Internet access, a report to be released on Monday warns. At least 31 countries, most of which are in the developing world, are imposing the damaging high taxes on top of other sales or value-added taxes, according to the report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan research group in Washington.

Agency chief warns of ‘regulatory regime’ watching the Internet
THE HILL
Mario Trujillo
Disclosure rules pushed by Democrats could result in the creation of a government review board monitoring the Internet, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) warned Monday. “It really is a specter of a government review board culling the Internet daily,” Republican FEC Chairman Lee Goodman said during an interview with Fox News. “I don’t know how we could begin to regulate all the hundreds of thousands of political commentaries online.”

The Feds Want to Redefine TV, and That Has Cable Giants Nervous
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Brendan Sasso
The cable giants aren’t yet launching an all-out blitz against the FCC’s proposal, but they don’t like what they’ve seen so far. Earlier this month, top lawyers from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, which represents Comcast and other cable providers, met with FCC officials to urge them to drop the proposal. Expanding the definition of a video provider to include online services would misinterpret the law and “raise a host of practical and regulatory concerns,” the cable lawyers said, according to a public filing disclosing the meeting.

Equinix Inc., the Internet’s Biggest Landlord
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Drew Fitzgerald
Data-center giant Equinix Inc. is hardly a household name, but it’s hard to find a household that isn’t in some sense a customer. With a string of network hubs from Shanghai to Dubai, the company has become the Internet’s biggest landlord, renting slices of its air-conditioned floors to virtually every company that operates online. That commanding presence has made it a flashpoint in the debate between purists who see the Internet largely as a utility and companies like Equinix, which built its business on the commercialization of the Web’s connective tissue. It has also led an unlikely group of engineers from companies like Netflix Inc. and Comcast Corp. to launch a nonprofit association they hope will spur cheaper alternatives.

Icann, Regulators Clash Over Illegal Online Drug Sales
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jeff Elder
Because of its central role, regulators and law-enforcement agencies around the world say Icann could be crucial to their crackdown on illicit Internet operators of all kinds. Icann officials also say the organization, which is based in Los Angeles and has been overseen by the Commerce Department since 1998, does everything it can to prevent or stop illegal activity online. Critics misunderstand Icann’s role and the limits of its power, the organization’s top officials say.

Finance

More Risky Loans Allowed
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Washington has settled on a perfect credit-allocation strategy to stunt economic growth. Step One: Hand out mortgages with little or no money down. Step Two: Discourage loans to businesses.

Reinflating the housing bubble
WASHINGTON TIMES
Stephen Moore
None of these lessons from the last crisis have taken hold in Washington. The best and the brightest in President Obama’s camp want to roll the dice again and lower, not raise, down payments and ease the credit rules at banks. When sensible people protest this insanity, critics call us fear mongers. That, too, is what the housing lobby said on the eve of the previous housing crisis.

When the SEC’s ‘Fair Disclosure’ Rules Backfire
WALL STREET JOURNAL
John Levin
Temporarily suspending Reg FD is desirable in certain circumstances. The suspension could be triggered by a sudden downward spike in a company’s stock price, a management decision to officially wave FD until the next quarterly guidance, or even a movement in the whole market at the initiation of the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a Wall Street watchdog overseen by the SEC. Information blackouts and restrictions on free speech are not healthy for the functioning of free markets—not on Wall Street, not anywhere.

States of Taxation
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Tax climate isn’t the only determinant of state prosperity. Regulation also matters, as do human capital and natural resources like Wyoming’s oil and gas. But the latter are more likely to reach their potential in states with low tax rates.

Urgency of federal deficit remains
USA TODAY
Erskine Bowles
The good news that the budget deficit declined to $486 billion in fiscal year 2014 has prompted a declaration in some circles that the deficit is no longer a concern, and we should now turn our focus to making investments in economic growth. This either/or analysis is shortsighted and the source of many of our nation’s current problems created by both parties. America is and will continue to be constrained from pursuing dynamic economic growth opportunities and from making smart investments in the future until we put our budget on a fiscally sustainable course.

E.C.B. Stress Tests Seen as Bolstering Confidence in Banks
NEW YORK TIMES
Peter Eavis
The results on Sunday of tests that aim to determine if Europe’s banks can survive a crisis came roughly half a decade after the United States forced its banks to undergo similarly thorough tests. Earlier European banking tests had been less comprehensive and failed to identify major problems. This examination was also seen as a test of the credibility of the European Central Bank, led by Mario Draghi. The results appeared to be rigorous enough, finding that 13 banks failed the test and that the region’s lenders needed $31 billion to bolster their financial footing. Poring over the numbers, banking specialists said that Europe’s regulators had done a relatively competent job. While no large banks failed, the tests did not appear to be a whitewash either, they said. As a result, the tests may have instilled some confidence in financial giants that dominate Europe’s economy, which could then help jump-start the lending that is needed to reduce the region’s chronically high unemployment.

What Could the Fed Do to Address Inequality?
NEW YORK TIMES
Room for Debate
The Federal Reserve is expected to announce the end of its latest bond-buying campaign on Wednesday, citing stronger job growth. Critics say the campaign has widened the gap between rich and poor, and even the Fed’s chairwoman, Janet Yellen, has raised concerns about rising inequality. Fed officials say creating jobs is the best way that the central bank can help to reduce inequality. So is there anything the Fed can do to address Yellen’s worries, or should questions of socioeconomic equality be left to the political process?

Hillary Clinton’s Comment About Corporations and Job Creation Raises Wall St.’s Eyebrows
NEW YORK TIMES
Andrew Ross Sorkin
“Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs,” Mrs. Clinton said on Friday in Boston. … So Mrs. Clinton’s harsh words about the business world had tongues wagging, especially among some of her supporters who seemed nervous that someone perceived as a friend might be moving away from them.

The Debate Over Wall St. Enforcement
NEW YORK TIMES
Peter J. Henning
Regulators’ threats to crack down on bad practices is a recurrent theme. But as we get further away from the financial crisis, Wall Street firms and their lawyers appear to be more willing to challenge how the government treats them. As one side threatens to crack down harder and the other side complains about too much enforcement, the question is whether there will ever be an equilibrium where both sides are satisfied. The answer is most likely “no” because there is never enough, and always too much, enforcement.

Avoiding the Global Slowdown Blues
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Michael J. Boskin
It has been five years since the end of the Great Recession, yet President Obama and members of his administration still speak of it as if it were yesterday and play down the anemic recovery. Despite nearly a trillion in fiscal “stimulus,” record deficits, and the Federal Reserve’s near-zero interest rates and unprecedented asset purchases, America’s economic recovery hasn’t had three consecutive quarters of 3% growth, let alone the 4%-5% average following other deep recessions.

Politics

Three Key Questions Will Determine What Direction Election Winds Are Blowing
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Charlie Cook
1. Can Democrats save one or even two of the six Senate seats in states that Romney won by 14 points or more? … 2. Can Republicans hold on to Georgia, Kansas, and Kentucky? … 3. Of the four Democratic-held seats up this year that could each easily tilt this situation in favor of either party, how will the chips fall?

Minimum wage gives Democrats a rare edge over GOP
POLITICO
Timothy Noah
Even as Democrats lurch toward a potentially disastrous midterm election, support for raising the federal minimum wage is resonating with voters. In fact, it may be the only issue on which Democrats are winning: A Pew Research Center poll earlier this year found 90 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans favored raising the federal minimum to $10.10 from its current $7.25, as proposed by President Barack Obama.

A Rare Sight: Republicans Poised for Gains in New England
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Michael R. Crittenden and Janet Hook
The region’s GOP Senate contingent—now at two—would grow if former Sen. Scott Brown defeats Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, giving the party one of the six seats it would need to reclaim a majority in the chamber. Not a single Republican represents a New England state in the House, contributing to the region’s reputation as a bastion of liberalism. But this year, independent analysts say, Republicans have a shot at picking up as many as six seats in Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

What Can Washington Get Done in Obama’s Last Two Years?
POLITICO
But after four years of gridlock and confirmation fights, most Americans don’t appear to be getting their hopes up—congressional approval, as of earlier this month, was at a meager 14 percent. Which raises the question: Can Washington realistically get anything done before the next president is inaugurated? We asked a range of thinkers—from Congress and beyond, from both sides of the aisle and smack-dab in the middle of it—to tell us which bipartisan ideas really could make it into law before the Obama era ends.

Running against Obama’s postponed November surprises
WASHINGTON TIMES
Editorial
Before Americans vote next week they deserve to know what President Obama has in store for them. The administration’s near-term plans on health care, the environment, immigration, nominees for high office and other issues are shrouded in mystery. It doesn’t take much of a crystal ball to guess what lies just ahead, but the people should hear it from the source. Mr. Obama isn’t talking. He says his policies are on the ballot, and he knows that the less the voters know, the better for Democratic candidates.