Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics.
Energy
Greens find little success in GOP outreach
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Darren Goode
Green groups are slowly and steadily ramping up their outreach to attract Republicans — but the dearth of federal endorsements shows they haven’t found much success yet.
EPA details climate rule issues, seeks more input
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Erica Martinson
In a 60-page “notice of data availability” that supplements the proposed rule issue in June, the agency identified issues that had come up in meetings with states, utilities and greens who have weighed in on the plan. In particular, the agency is focusing on issues related to boosting natural gas-fired power, how to best credit states that develop renewable power, and the 2012 “baseline” from which states must cut carbon emissions.
Why the Drop in Oil Prices Caught So Many by Surprise
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Nicole Friedman
What did they miss? The risk of discord within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the possibility that violence in some oil-producing nations wouldn’t interfere with oil production.
Mexico’s State-Owned Oil Giant, Pemex, Is in Uncharted Waters
NEW YORK TIMES
Elisabeth Malkin
Pemex is counting on a future in deepwater production. But after eight years of exploratory drilling, it is still years away from producing the first barrel of oil in deep waters. Before it can, Pemex must shed its past as a lumbering state monopoly and remake itself as a streamlined company ready to compete or ally with the world’s biggest firms.
Europe’s Ambitious Climate Goal
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
The European Union continues to lead by example on the issue of climate change. Last week, the union’s 28 members agreed to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent, compared with 1990 levels, by 2030.
Technology
Meet the Tech Donors Who Are Dominating the Midterms
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Emma Roller and Stephanie Stamm
Overall, the list shows that the tech donor class remains largely Democratic. Nearly half of the $23.6 million donated by the tech industry during the midterms has benefited Democrats. It’s difficult to say exactly how partisan the industry is, however, since $4.2 million is not classified by party.
Tech to see if Khanna investment pays off
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Tony Romm
Silicon Valley’s biggest names are starting to face the reality of their latest investment in politics: Even if they succeed in getting Ro Khanna elected to Congress, they aren’t guaranteed to win more in Washington.
Thiel: When It Comes to Tech, U.S. Government Is in the ‘Middle Ages’
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Greg Bensinger
According to Mr. Thiel, fewer than 35 of 535 members of Congress have backgrounds in science or technology. “It’s very hard to get reasonable science, reasonable technology policy,” he said. “The rest don’t understand that windmills don’t work when the wind isn’t blowing or that solar panels don’t work at night–they’re sort of in the Middle Ages.”
FTC: AT&T slowed speeds of unlimited-data smartphone users
USA TODAY
Mike Snider
AT&T slowed the data speeds of millions of smartphone customers with unlimited data plans, in some cases by nearly 90%, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The agency filed a complaint Tuesday in federal court charging that the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier failed to adequately tell its unlimited-data customers that the company reduces or “throttles” data speeds if they use too much data in a given billing cycle.
FCC Chairman looks to spur online video future
USA TODAY
Mike Snider
The FCC chairman on Tuesday formally asked the rest of the commission to consider new “technology-neutral” rules to update the agency’s definition of what amounts to a pay TV service or a “multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD).” “Today the FCC takes the first step to open access to cable programs as well as local television,” he wrote. “The result should be to give consumers more alternatives from which to choose so they can buy the programs they want.”
Hungary’s crazy-expensive Internet is driving people to throw their computers into the street
WASHINGTON POST
Nancy Scola
We’ve seen protests over the price of bread and protests over the price of milk, but we might want to prepare ourselves for something new: protests over the price of a gigabyte, like we’re seeing in Hungary, where thousands have marched through downtown Budapest to protest a proposed tax on Internet use and have even taken to throwing old computers at government buildings.
Google’s playing a multibillion-dollar game of chicken with traditional ISPs
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
Who stands to win in this contest is actually less important than who stands to lose — and it’s not Google, according to Blair Levin, a former FCC official who authored the nation’s guidebook on broadband. That’s because while broadband is an increasingly important part of AT&T’s business, for Google, Fiber is simply a side project compared with search and advertising. … By controlling the vehicle remotely, Page has gotten the jump on Stephenson without putting himself at risk. But by announcing that it’s looking at 100 new cities, Levin said, AT&T has already shown it’s on the counterattack. Whether Google announces it’s expanding to three new communities or 30, AT&T will be able to upstage that figure by announcing a higher one.
Finance
Fed’s grand experiment draws to a close
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Michael Mackenzie
A grand experiment in US monetary policy is coming to an end. When the Federal Reserve releases the statement from its October meeting on Wednesday afternoon, the moment is almost certain to mark the end of the liquidity and stimulus programme known as quantitative easing.
Fast Traders Are Getting Data From SEC Seconds Early
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ryan Tracy and Scott Patterson
Hedge funds and other rapid-fire investors can get access to market-moving documents ahead of other users of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s system for distributing company filings, giving them a potential edge on the rest of the market. Two separate groups of academic researchers have documented a lag time between the moment paying subscribers, including trading firms, newswires and others, receive the filings via a direct feed from an SEC contractor and when the documents are publicly available on the agency’s website.
Insider-Trading Probe Focuses on Medicare Agency
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Brody Mullins, Susan Pulliam and Christopher Weaver
The day Medicare officials began discussing whether to set new coverage limits on a costly new prostate-cancer treatment, the official in charge emailed three colleagues to put a “close hold” on the process. That meant: Keep quiet until an announcement later that month. Yet by the end of that same day, June 7, 2010, shares of the company that made the treatment, Dendreon Corp., had plunged 10%. Before long, federal investigators took notice.
More Renters, Less Risk for Wall St.
NEW YORK TIMES
Eduardo Porter
Is it time to temper the American dream of homeownership? If you want to curb the power of Wall Street and reduce the risk that the financial system will bring the rest of the economy tumbling down again, there may be no other choice. Consider what happened last week, when regulators pretty much threw in the towel on new rules requiring mortgage bankers to keep on their books a minimum share of all but the safest loans.
Politics
The Senate Referendum
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
As the election nears, many voters are asking if a Republican Senate would make a difference. The Beltway media line is that it wouldn’t, which ignores that Mr. Reid’s tactics are an historic aberration. How could the Senate possibly be any worse? Mr. Obama would retain his veto against legislation passed by a Republican House and Senate, but at least the legislators would have to vote and be accountable. At least Congress would again resemble a democracy.
More tea party conservatives expected to win House seats, challenge Boehner
WASHINGTON POST
Ed O’Keefe
A new band of combative conservatives is likely to win House seats next week, posing a fresh challenge for Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and his leadership team as they seek to govern an expanded GOP majority next year.
Conservatives ready to give leaders hell
POLITICO
Lauren French and Anna Palmer
Conservatives in Congress are drawing up their wish list for a Republican Senate, including “pure” bills, like a full repeal of Obamacare, border security and approval of the Keystone XL pipeline — unlikely to win over many Democrats and sure to torment GOP leaders looking to prove they can govern. Interviews with more than a dozen conservative lawmakers and senior aides found a consensus among the right wing of the Republican Party: If Republicans take the Senate, they want to push an agenda they believe was hamstrung by the Democratic-controlled chamber, even if their bills end up getting vetoed by President Barack Obama.
Business PAC Dollars Move to GOP Senate Candidates in Key Races
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Rebecca Ballhaus, Amy Harder and Brody Mullins
In a significant shift, business groups gave more money to Republican candidates than to Democrats in seven of the most competitive Senate races in recent months, in some cases taking the unusual step of betting against sitting senators. Political-action committees created by businesses had given 61% of their donations in those races to Democrats this election cycle through June. That reversed in the closing months of the campaign, with only 42% going to Democrats and 58% to Republicans in the July-to-September quarter, a Wall Street Journal analysis of Federal Election Commission filings shows. The change in money flow from business PACs is partly a signal of the groups’ policy preferences and partly a sign of expectations of who is likeliest to win.
America’s political pendulum swings to the right
WASHINGTON POST
Kathleen Parker
It is nearly axiomatic that Democrats have become the Republicans they despise, using social concerns as wedge issues. Whereas Republicans used to summon voters with the prospect of, say, homosexuals wanting to marry each other and settle down with mortgages and other marital miseries, they’re now relatively relaxed with a recent Supreme Court move making such marriages possible in many states. It’s Democrats who now want to talk about these awful wedge issues as bait for Republicans who seem finally to have found their big(ger) brains. As predictably as the pendulum’s swing, victors usually become the people and practices they once loathed. How quickly the grass-roots movement becomes the bureaucracy; how soon the oppressed become the oppressors.
To frighten voters, the GOP conjures up a wide-open border
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
Desperate to conjure up arguments against immigration reform, much of the GOP has long been blind to the buildup and militarization along the border — even though it has been achieved by bipartisan authorizations of cash by Congress. After all, the standard rationale for opposing legal status for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants is to insist that the Southwest border first be “secured.” In fact, the border has never been, and never will be, sealed, or even “secured” to the satisfaction of Republicans who use it as an excuse for doing nothing to fix the nation’s broken immigration system.
Hispanics on a GOP Senate: Sure, why not?
WASHINGTON POST
Nia-Malika Henderson
This number jumped out at me from the new Washington Post/ABC News poll: It showed that, among Latinos, 50 percent say it doesn’t matter who wins the Senate come November. And among those who do think it will matter, twice as many say it would be a good thing (30 percent) if the GOP took over as say it would be a bad thing (15 percent). This is a demographic, we will remind you, that voted 71-27 for President Obama just two years ago.
Obamacare sends health premiums skyrocketing by as much as 78 percent
WASHINGTON TIMES
Valerie Richardson
The Affordable Care Act was supposed to make health care more affordable, but a newly released study of insurance policies before and after Obamacare shows that average premiums have skyrocketed, for some groups by as much as 78 percent.
For Marijuana, a Second Wave of Votes to Legalize
NEW YORK TIMES
Kirk Johnson
Two years after voters in Colorado and Washington State broke the ice as the first states to legalize sales of recreational marijuana to adults, residents of Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., will vote next week on ballot measures patterned on those of the two pioneers. People on both sides of the issue say these initiatives could determine whether there will be a national tide of legalization.
Obama Soaks the Rich, Drowns the Middle Class
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jon Kyl and Stephen Moore
Mr. Obama’s investment tax hike was designed to soak the rich. But it is the middle class who have taken a bath. Republicans should be telling American wage-earners that the best way to increase their take-home pay is to repeal Mr. Obama’s tax hikes and chop the corporate tax rate to the international average, so more and better jobs are created on these shores, not abroad.
Lobbyists, Bearing Gifts, Pursue Attorneys General
NEW YORK TIMES
Eric Lipton
Attorneys general are now the object of aggressive pursuit by lobbyists and lawyers who use campaign contributions, personal appeals at lavish corporate-sponsored conferences and other means to push them to drop investigations, change policies, negotiate favorable settlements or pressure federal regulators, an investigation by The New York Times has found.
