Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics.
Energy
Environmental Groups Back Some Candidates Who Resist Goals
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Amy Harder and Beth Reinhard
Environmental groups are spending a record amount of money for a midterm election, with the goal of keeping the Senate out of Republican hands. But in the process, they are backing Democrats who oppose some of the environmentalists’ top goals, including stopping the Keystone XL pipeline and curbing fracking for oil and natural gas.
Dems keep quiet about cheap gas on election eve
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Elana Schor
Democrats would have to walk a fine line by touting the drop in pump prices without referencing the unpopular president. And some Democrats could jeopardize their green credentials by cheering the cheaper and more abundant fossil fuel.
Why Republicans Keep Telling Everyone They’re Not Scientists
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Coral Davenport
“I’m not a scientist,” or a close variation, has become the go-to talking point for Republicans questioned about climate change in the 2014 campaigns. In the past, many Republican candidates questioned or denied the science of climate change, but polls show that a majority of Americans accept it — and support government policies to mitigate it — making the Republican position increasingly challenging ahead of the 2016 presidential elections. “It’s got to be the dumbest answer I’ve ever heard,” said Michael McKenna, a Republican energy lobbyist who has advised House Republicans and conservative political advocacy groups on energy and climate change messaging. “Using that logic would disqualify politicians from voting on anything. Most politicians aren’t scientists, but they vote on science policy. They have opinions on Ebola, but they’re not epidemiologists. They shape highway and infrastructure laws, but they’re not engineers.”
How Plunging Oil Scrambles Geopolitics
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Brenda Shaffer
In evaluating the potential impact of the drop in the oil price on Russia, Iran and other oil-dependent states, the key thing to remember is that an economic downturn doesn’t necessarily temper foreign-policy behavior. In some cases it has the opposite effect. As with economic sanctions, austerity doesn’t always stir people’s resentment against their own governments either. It can galvanize them against foreign enemies alleged, and perceived, to be the cause of their economic misery.
Who sets gas prices? Look to London, not US, report says
FUEL FIX
Jennifer A. Dlouhy
The government’s top energy analysts waded into the debate on exporting crude Thursday, releasing a study asserting that the cost of gasoline in the United States is closely tied to the price of international crudes, not domestic oil. Although the report steers clear of making any recommendations about the nation’s longstanding ban on selling most U.S. oil overseas, its finding buttresses the arguments of export advocates that lifting the trade restrictions could translate into lower gasoline prices.
Ukraine, Russia Reach Deal on Natural-Gas Dispute
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Vanessa Mock and Laurence Norman
Ukraine and Russia resolved their natural-gas feud on Thursday in a hard-fought deal that averts the threat of gas shortages in Europe this winter. The deal was sealed after months of intense negotiations brokered by the European Union, which relies on Russia for more than a third of its gas imports, half of which is piped through Ukraine.
Technology
FCC ‘Net Neutrality’ Plan Calls for More Power Over Broadband
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Gautham Nagesh
The plan now under consideration would separate broadband into two distinct services: a retail one, in which consumers would pay broadband providers for Internet access; and a back-end one, in which broadband providers serve as the conduit for websites to distribute content. The FCC would then classify the back-end service as a common carrier, giving the agency the ability to police any deals between content companies and broadband providers.
American Net Leadership Is a Timely Foreign Policy Challenge
BROOKINGS INSTITUTE
Stuart N. Brotman
Conversely, if heavy-handed regulatory tools typically used to regulate telephone networks are enshrined by the ITU as applying to the Internet, governments will likely develop ways to apply them inappropriately across a range of areas that comprise the complex Internet ecosystem—networks, applications/content and devices. Such new restrictions, in turn, may create a domino effect, so that each nation only focuses on its own self-interest rather than on the larger global good at stake.
Verizon warns FCC could violate law
THE HILL
Julian Hattem
Reclassifying broadband Internet so that the FCC could regulate it like traditional phone service would be a “radical and risky” move “with significant harmful consequences,” Verizon executive Michael Glover told the agency in a letter on Wednesday accompanying a 20-page legal analysis of the action. Any attempt to reclassify broadband service, even “hybrid” approaches that have been proposed, “would face significant legal challenge and would be unlikely to withstand appeal,” Verizon asserted in its white paper.
Cook’s declaration that he’s gay is part of his ’empathetic’ Apple mission
USA TODAY
Marco della Cava and Elizabeth Weise
The ripple effect of Cook’s essay in Bloomberg Businessweek magazine Thursday was immediate, generating tweets from the likes of Virgin Group founder Richard Branson (“Inspirational words”) and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (“Inspired by @tim_cook”).
Blocking Ads on Cellphones
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
The Federal Communications Commission in Washington is writing rules to prevent telecommunications companies from blocking or interfering with Internet content. The commission should make sure that its rules prohibit wireless phone companies from blocking ads to extract an extra toll on data passing over their networks.
Our Machine Masters
NEW YORK TIMES
David Brooks
I’m happy Pandora can help me find what I like. I’m a little nervous if it so pervasively shapes my listening that it ends up determining what I like. I think we all want to master these machines, not have them master us.
Hungary will shelve plans for internet tax for now, PM says
REUTERS
Marton Dunai
Hungary will shelve plans to introduce a tax on internet data traffic that has generated big protests over the past week, and will revisit regulating and taxing money made online next year, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday.
Finance
An Economy on the Verge
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The American economy is a remarkable engine, growing and creating new wealth despite the burdens that government imposes. Imagine what might happen if the political class put growth and rising incomes at the top of its agenda? That admittedly naive thought is triggered by Thursday’s report that growth in the third quarter clocked in at the healthy annual rate of 3.5% in the Commerce Department’s preliminary report. That was better than most economists expected, and it continues the rebound from the first quarter’s header of minus-2.1%.
How ‘Dodd-Frank’ is becoming the new ‘Obamacare’
WASHINGTON POST
Philip Bump
If you don’t know what the Dodd-Frank Act is, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told an audience last weekend, “it’s Obamacare for banks.” Ryan, outgoing chairman of the House Budget Committee, was echoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who’s been using that expression since at least April (and he used it again Wednesday night). Expect to hear the expression more, particularly once a new, probably-Republican-led Senate takes over on Capitol Hill in January.
Regional Banks Push Back Against Swaps ‘Push-Out’ Rule
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Victoria McGrane
Regional banks are quietly joining the fight against one of the most hated Dodd-Frank provisions on Wall Street. The target is the so-called swaps push-out provision, which requires banks to spin off certain derivatives trading activities into units that don’t enjoy access to the government safety net.
Fed’s Williams Says Central Banks May Have Less Room to Ease In Downturns
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Michael S. Derby
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams said on Friday that central banks’ largely successful pursuit of low inflation could mean they more frequently run into periods where monetary policy hits levels of interest rates that can’t be cut further. At issue is what central banker’s call the zero lower bound, or the point at which the central bank’s short-term interest rate has been cut to near zero. The Fed has been mired at this level since the end of 2008 and is broadly expected to remain there until the middle of next year.
Hillary Rodham Warren
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The Wall Streeters who think Mr. Obama is an aberration and that electing Hillary Clinton will return the country to the 1990s should think again. If we know anything about the Clintons, it is that they will do whatever it takes to win. So don’t rule out a Vice President or Treasury Secretary Warren.
Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street problem
WASHINGTON POST
Harold Meyerson
So as Roosevelt said no to 23, Democrats should insist that their candidates say no to 200 (the street number of Goldman Sachs’ headquarters), no to 270 (JPMorgan Chase) and so on. Wall Street bankers have their place, but it’s not at Treasury.
Politics
The Top 10 Liberal Superstitions
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kate Bachelder
A hallmark of progressive politics is the ability to hold fervent beliefs, in defiance of evidence, that explain how the world works—and why liberal solutions must be adopted. Such political superstitions take on a new prominence during campaign seasons as Democratic candidates trot out applause lines to rally their progressive base and as the electorate considers their voting records. Here’s a Top 10 list of liberal superstitions on prominent display during the midterm election campaign.
The Prospect of a Republican Senate
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
Republicans would also be certain to block Mr. Obama’s choices for judgeships — all but guaranteeing a judicial crisis unless the president agreed to conservative choices — as well as his executive appointments, starting with a new attorney general. It’s hard to imagine a Congress less productive than this one, but obstructionism could actually get worse if a new majority took hold.
Election Day looking like a referendum on competence
WASHINGTON POST
Charles Krauthammer
More likely, however, is that the ground-game differential is minor, in which case the current disenchantment — with disorder and diminishment — simply overwhelms the governing Democrats. The stage is set for a major Republican victory. If they cannot pull it off under conditions so politically favorable, perhaps they might consider looking for another line of work.
Unions shun national Democrats, shift campaign cash to state, local races
WASHINGTON TIMES
Kellan Howell
Big labor is using its checkbook this election to express its frustrations with gridlock in Washington and President Obama’s inability to pass important labor legislation. Most of the politically free-spending unions have shifted their money in 2014 away from direct support of Democratic candidates at the federal level and toward state and local races or voter-mobilization efforts, according to the latest political action committee reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Democrats Lose Their Grip on Voters With Keys to the House
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kristina Peterson and Dante Chinni
Democrats have long been losing their hold on districts such as this one, largely white and rural, where incomes lag the national average and college graduates are relatively sparse. This year, Republicans may take more. Seven of the 39 House races rated most competitive by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report are in districts with large numbers of white, working-class voters; six of those districts are held by Democrats. In addition, one other such Democratic district is seen as likely to flip Republican.
Obama Casts Long Shadow on Iowa Senate Race
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Carol E. Lee
President Barack Obama hasn’t set foot since 2012 in the state that launched his presidential career, but his presence still weighs heavily on Iowa’s unexpectedly close Senate race. Joni Ernst, the Republican candidate for the open seat, frequently invokes the president as though he were running alongside her opponent, Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley.
Rand Paul: ‘The Republican Party brand sucks’
WASHINGTON TIMES
David Sherfinski
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky likened the Republican party to Domino’s Pizza this week during a swing through Detroit, declaring that the GOP brand “sucks” as he tries to make it more palatable to minority groups.
Snail mail is even slower now with Postal Service changes, report says
WASHINGTON POST
Josh Hicks
First-class mail has been taking longer to reach its destination since the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service relaxed its delivery standards in an attempt to cut costs two years ago, according to a federal study.
