Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics.
Energy
The Problem With Energy Efficiency
NEW YORK TIMES
Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus
The growing evidence that low-cost efficiency often leads to faster energy growth was recently considered by both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency. They concluded that energy savings associated with new, more energy efficient technologies were likely to result in significant “rebounds,” or increases, in energy consumption. This means that very significant percentages of energy savings will be lost to increased energy consumption.
As Energy Boom Ends, a Political Identity Crisis in Alaska
NEW YORK TIMES
Kirk Johnson
Economic anxiety amid a dwindling oil and gas industry is raising difficult questions about the future. It is also shaping a Senate race in which a Democrat is seeking re-election in a state long dominated by Republicans.
In Texas, a Fight Over Fracking
NEW YORK TIMES
Clifford Krauss
Many Texans have long held the oil and gas industry as dear to their hearts as a prairie range full of feeding cattle. Now suddenly that love is being tested here in a local election, where a grass-roots campaign against gas producers has pushed the industry into a corner. The battle is over a proposed city ban on hydraulic fracturing — the technique of blasting shale rock with water, sand and chemicals to dislodge oil and gas, often called fracking — in a referendum on Nov. 4. No city in Texas has ever come close to passing such a measure.
Fuel Economy Gains Poised to Slow
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Joseph B. White
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday estimated fuel efficiency of 2014 vehicles would rise just one-tenth of a mile per gallon from 2013, a sharp slowdown from the half mile a gallon increase the agency calculated between 2012 and 2013. The EPA said cars and light trucks produced in 2013 averaged 24.1 mpg, a record since the government began keeping tally in 1975.
The Environmentalist’s Catch-22
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Michael Silver
The connection between green technology and mining can make the U.S. a world leader in clean energy. Trying to regulate mining out of existence is not only shortsighted but irresponsible. To save our planet we must find ways to use the resources it grants us to do so, and environmentalists can help ensure that we become responsible stewards of green-technology elements.
Keystone be darned: Canada finds oil route around Obama
BLOOMBERG
Rebecca Penty, Hugo Miller, Andrew Mayeda and Edward Greenspon
How about an all-Canadian route to liberate that oil sands crude from Alberta’s isolation and America’s fickleness? Canada’s own environmental and aboriginal politics are holding up a shorter and cheaper pipeline to the Pacific that would supply a shipping portal to oil-thirsty Asia. Instead, go east, all the way to the Atlantic. Thus was born Energy East, an improbable pipeline that its backers say has a high probability of being built.
Technology
64 Days to a Tax Increase
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Taxes on Internet access services could top $14 billion a year if Congress allows the Internet Tax Freedom Act to expire at midnight on Dec. 11. That’s according to a new study from economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin’s American Action Forum.
Tech’s NSA pleas reverberate out West — not in D.C.
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Tony Romm
Top tech executives joined one of their leading congressional allies in the Bay Area on Wednesday to highlight how unchecked NSA surveillance has wreaked havoc on their industry — but their now-familiar message still shows little sign of resonating back in Washington.
America can’t lead the world in innovation if the FAA keeps dragging its feet on drone rules
WASHINGTON POST
Larry Downes
This time, it’s not the FCC (smartphone apps), the FTC (the Internet of Things), the FDA (genetic testing), the Department of Transportation (driverless cars), the Federal Reserve (bitcoin), state and local utility commissions (the sharing economy) or the SEC (crowdfunding). This time it’s the Federal Aviation Administration, which has been struggling since 2012 to develop rules for safely integrating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), aka drones, into U.S. airspace.
Patent lawsuits are down. Does the Supreme Court deserve credit?
VOX
Timothy B. Lee
In 2013, as in previous years, there was a lull in new lawsuits in the summer months, followed by a dramatic uptick in patent litigation in the fall. But this year has been different. There were 416 patent lawsuits filed in July, the month after the Supreme Court decided Alice. Then the number dropped to 399 in August and 329 in September.
AT&T pays $105 million for ‘cramming’ phone charges
USA TODAY
Mike Snider
AT&T will pay $105 million to federal and state authorities to settle charges that the carrier placed unauthorized charges for third-party services on customers’ mobile phone bills, the Federal Trade Commission has announced.
Finance
Fed fears market misreading of guidance
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Robin Harding
The US Federal Reserve is keen to revamp its forward guidance about future interest rates but terrified of a market misunderstanding, according to the minutes of its September meeting.
Obama Had Security Fears on JPMorgan Data Breach
NEW YORK TIMES
Michael Corkery, Jessica Silver-Greenberg and David E. Sanger
But in the JPMorgan case, according to administration officials familiar with the briefings, who would not speak on the record about intelligence matters, no one could tell the president what he most wanted to know: What was the motive of the attack? “The question kept coming back, ‘Is this plain old theft, or is Putin retaliating?’ ” one senior official said, referring to the American-led sanctions on Russia. “And the answer was: ‘We don’t know for sure.’ ”
Hackers May Have Targeted at Least 13 Firms
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Emily Glazer, Danny Yadron and Daniel Huang
Investigators believe that the hackers who broke into J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. targeted at least 12 other financial-services companies, including Fidelity Investments, people familiar with the matter said, suggesting the cyberattack spree on Wall Street was broader than previously thought. Investigators also believe that the hackers successfully took data from at least one organization other than J.P. Morgan, the person said. Other institutions saw traffic from Internet addresses linked to the intruders but blocked their efforts or lost no data, the person said.
Tough Talk on Dodd-Frank Rules Misses Relevant Points
NEW YORK TIMES
Jesse Eisinger
On July 28, a staff member for Representative Scott Garrett, Republican of New Jersey, sent an email to a top staff member for Debbie Matz, the chairwoman of the National Credit Union Administration. … “There is a significant alarm from committee members about F.S.O.C. moving forward with additional designations,” the staff member wrote. And then the hammer, though it came wrapped in a bit of Beltwayese: “Please leave several dates open on Chairman Matz’s calendar during the congressional session dates in September. This will be in case the committee decides to have an oversight hearing with Chairman Matz (only) on any potential new designations and her specific justification/rationale for such a designation.”
More Big Venture-Backed Companies Shun IPOs, For Now
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Yuliya Chernova
The market for initial public offerings is booming, and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. made the largest-ever stock-market debut last month amid much fanfare. But other highly valued private companies are deciding that rushing to go public isn’t worth the trouble. As of the beginning of the week, there were at least 49 U.S. venture-capital-backed companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more—the highest number on record—according to data from Dow Jones VentureSource. That tops the previous peak of 28 companies at the end of last year.
A push for pension reform, thanks to the courts
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
Yet in the long run the decision should benefit Stockton and other towns. In addition to the Detroit ruling, Judge Klein’s decision strengthens the precedential weight behind the proposition that public-employee pensions are not sacrosanct in municipal bankruptcy. With that proposition embedded in the law, both politicians and the unions that negotiate with them face stronger incentives to strike sustainable pension deals in the first place — rather than shift all the risk to future retirees, as they have too often done in the past.
Believe It or Not, Corporate Tax Reform Is Doable in 2015
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Gene Sperling
There is no question that corporate tax reform in 2015 would be a heavy lift. But it might be a little less onerous if there were more focus on the amount of common ground that President Obama and Rep. Camp have started to unearth.
Politics
Aides knew of possible White House link to Cartagena, Colombia, prostitution scandal
WASHINGTON POST
Carol D. Leonnig and David Nakamura
As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved. But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member — yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged.
How Not to Run a War Coalition
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
President Obama likes to list “our friends and partners” who have signed up for his military campaign in Iraq and Syria. If only he knew how to lead such a wartime coalition. This week’s handling of the crisis on the Syrian-Turkish border is a case study in mismanagement.
Facing Longer Odds, Democrats Shift Funds
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Michael R. Crittenden
House Democrats are pulling ad money from 11 congressional races where hopes of victory are dimming, including several in Michigan, California and New York, and shifting it to a half-dozen contests where party leaders want to protect vulnerable incumbents or see solid odds of winning, including contests in Minnesota and Illinois.
SD shakes up Senate map
THE HILL
Alexandra Jaffe
Thanks to what local Republicans are privately criticizing as a lackluster, play-it-safe campaign, former Gov. Mike Rounds (R) has emerged as surprisingly weak in the three-way race in a deep-red state. Now, after a series of polls showing the GOP nominee stalled, national Democrats are finally putting $1 million in the race trying to move the tide further. Even though Democrats are saddled with a weak nominee of their own, Republicans will likely have to parry the new influx of cash with spending and staff of their own.
Gay marriages temporarily blocked in Idaho
USA TODAY
Richard Wolf
The Supreme Court temporarily blocked gay marriages in Idaho and Nevada Wednesday after a last-minute appeal by Idaho state officials. Hours later, the stay was lifted for Nevada — and then requested by opponents there.
Other countries aren’t doing enough to stop Ebola
WASHINGTON POST
Sec. John Kerry
Many countries are already contributing, but the scale of needs is dramatic. The United States has contributed $113 million to the United Nations response. Smaller countries have stepped up to the plate – some quite remarkably. Some smaller countries are contributing way above their per capita population. But the fact is more countries can and must step up to make their contributions felt…
