Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics.
Energy
The climate pact swindle
WASHINGTON POST
Charles Krauthammer
The only way forward on greenhouse gases is global reduction by global agreement. A pact with China would be a good start. Unfortunately, the Obama-Xi agreement is nothing of the sort. It is a fraud of Gruberian (as in Jonathan) proportions. Its main plank commits China to begin cutting carbon emissions 16 years from now. On the other hand, the United States, having already cut more carbon emissions than any nation on earth since 2005, must now double its current rate of carbon cutting to meet a new, more restrictive goal by 2025. In return for which, China will keep increasing its carbon emissions year after year throughout that period — and for five years beyond.
Landrieu’s frantic bid to save Keystone
THE HILL
Alexander Bolton and Laura Barron-Lopez
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) told reporters on Monday night that she had the 60 votes she needed to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. But secretly, she knew she was one short.
In Step to Lower Carbon Emissions, China Will Place a Limit on Coal Use in 2020
NEW YORK TIMES
Edward Wong
China plans to set a cap on coal consumption in 2020, an important step for the country in trying to achieve a recently announced goal of having carbon dioxide emissions peak by around 2030. The State Council, China’s cabinet, released details of an energy strategy late Wednesday that includes capping coal consumption at 4.2 billion tons in 2020 and having coal be no more than 62 percent of the primary energy mix by that year.
Climate change warnings on gas pumps coming to Berkeley, California
WASHINGTON TIMES
Jessica Chasmar
A mock-up of the proposed labels, written by the San Francisco city attorney’s office, says, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that a typical passenger vehicle burning one gallon of fuel produces on average almost 20 pounds of tailpipe carbon dioxide, which the EPA has determined is the primary greenhouse gas that is contributing to recent climate change,” the San Francisco Gate reported.
Technology
Obama’s immigration order gives tech community some – but not all – of what it wants
WASHINGTON POST
Nancy Scola
The high-tech industry will have at least two things to be happy about in President Obama’s speech outlining executive actions he’ll take on immigration. The president plans to grant the tech industry some, but not nearly all, of what it has been after in the immigration debate. The first is aimed at increasing the opportunity for foreign students and recent graduates from U.S. schools to work in high-tech jobs in the United States. And the second is aimed at making it easier for foreign-born entrepreneurs to set up shop in the United States.
Tech sector underwhelmed by Obama
THE HILL
Julian Hattem
“While we appreciate the president’s efforts to address the problems in our employment based system, and look forward to further details, it is disappointing that neither he nor Congress have been able to seize the opportunity to accelerate economic growth by fixing our broken immigration system,” Dean Garfield, the head of the Information Technology Industry Council, said in a statements after Obama announced his reforms.
Obama’s Net-Neutrality Plan Could Mean New Internet Fees
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Brendan Sasso
“The net result is that every single American broadband customer will have to pay a new tax or taxes to access the Internet,” Ajit Pai, a Republican FCC commissioner, warned in a speech last week. “That translates into less broadband adoption, especially among the millions of families that still struggle to make ends meet in this lackluster economy.”
FCC leaves net neutrality off the schedule
THE HILL
Mario Trujillo
Net neutrality rules will be left off the schedule at the Federal Communications Commission’s final public meeting of the year, according to a tentative agenda released Thursday. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler had wanted to finalize rules by the end of the year. But FCC officials had previously confirmed it would be pushed back following President Obama’s recommendations on the issue.
Durbin: Online sales tax ‘up to the House’
THE HILL
Bernie Becker
A senior Senate Democrat said Thursday that the House would determine whether online sales tax legislation would proceed this year, all but ensuring that the measure wouldn’t become law in 2014. “At this point, it’s up to the House,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, a backer of the Marketplace Fairness Act, told reporters.
NSA Director Warns of ‘Dramatic’ Cyberattack in Next Decade
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Siobhan Gorman
The director of the National Security Agency issued a warning Thursday about cyberthreats emerging from other countries against networks running critical U.S. infrastructure systems. Adm. Michael Rogers said he expects a major cyberattack against the U.S. in the next decade. “It’s only a matter of the ‘when,’ not the ‘if,’ that we are going to see something dramatic,” he said.
Senate passes STELAR satellite TV bill
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Alex Byers
The Senate passed the STELA Reauthorization Act, or STELAR, a bill to extend the expiring Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act. The law allows satellite TV firms to offer broadcast signals from outside markets in parts of the country that don’t have a full slate of over-the-air programming. The House passed the same bill by voice vote Wednesday after months of debate over whether to attach video reform ornaments to the measure.
Finance
Fed Launches Review of Practices for Supervising Big Banks
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ryan Tracy
The Federal Reserve launched a sweeping review of how it supervises big banks amid growing criticism that its process for policing Wall Street isn’t effective and stifles internal dissent. The Fed said the review is focused on whether senior staff are given enough information when making decisions affecting the largest financial firms, including “whether channels exist for decision makers to be aware of divergent views.” A team of Fed staff in Washington will look into the matter, as will, separately, the Fed’s inspector general.
Goldman in Testy Exchange at Senate Panel Over Its Role in Commodities Market
NEW YORK TIMES
Nathaniel Popper
Goldman Sachs executives spent Thursday locked in a testy public face-off with members of Congress, fighting suggestions that the bank had taken too large a role in the commodities market. In a hearing in Washington, Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, hammered away at Goldman’s ownership of aluminum warehouses in Detroit, coal mines in Colombia and a uranium trading company in London, which he said put the firm in position to influence the prices of commonly used commodities. The hearings also touched on the large commodities businesses run by JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley, but executives from both banks emphasized that they were generally planning to wind down their ownership of assets like power plants and oil tankers. Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, has said it is not planning to exit the business.
Argentina’s Case Has No Victors, Many Losers
NEW YORK TIMES
Floyd Norris
Five months later, Argentina has not paid any money to the hedge funds. The judge has succeeded in blocking it from paying any money to holders of other bonds, but that just increases the number of losers.
How the ‘Reserve’ Dollar Harms America
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Lewis E. Lehrman and John D. Mueller
Ending the dollar’s reserve-currency role will limit deficit financing, increase net national savings and release resources to U.S. companies and their employees in order to remain competitive with the rest of the world.
Politics
I, Barack
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
President Obama ’s decision to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants by his own decree is a sorry day for America’s republic. We say that even though we agree with the cause of immigration reform. But process matters to self-government—sometimes it is the only barrier to tyranny—and Mr. Obama’s policy by executive order is tearing at the fabric of national consent.
Obama’s wrong way to do the right thing
USA TODAY
Editorial
Nevertheless, unilateral action undercuts the principle that the law should have meaning, and it makes the ultimate goal of congressional action a more distant prospect. It will reduce some of the pressure for comprehensive reform coming from backers. And it will prompt critics to dig in their heels further.
On immigration, the GOP should make the next move
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
We realize it will not be the GOP’s first impulse. But by fixing the nation’s broken immigration system on their own terms, Republicans could negate the president’s fiat, which, after all, is provisional and partial; assert their prerogative as elected lawmakers; repair their standing with Hispanic voters; and demonstrate an ability to be constructive. If Republicans want revenge, in other words, they have a ready way to take it. It’s called legislation.
Obama’s huge new immigration plan, explained
VOX
Dara Lind
President Obama will protect about 4.3 million unauthorized immigrants, including 4 million parents of legal residents, from deportation via a new “deferred action” program. The White House believes that nearly 5 million unauthorized workers will be protected in total, thanks to other reforms. He is also taking steps to facilitate legal migration to the United States, especially of skilled workers. Executive action fulfills a promise originally made in March, and twice delayed.
Republicans confront own worst enemy on immigration
WASHINGTON POST
Robert Costa
Despite expanded powers and some new titles, soon-to-be Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) remain sharply limited in their ability to persuade their most conservative members. The duo has been thrust back into the same cycle of intraparty warfare that has largely defined the GOP during the Obama years and that has hurt the party’s brand among the broader electorate.
Hispanic Voters Are Important for Republicans, but Not Indispensable
NEW YORK TIMES
Nate Cohn
Yet a close look at demographic data and recent election results suggest that the Republicans do not necessarily need significant gains among Hispanic voters to win the presidency. Yes, the next Republican presidential candidate will be making a big gamble if he or she doesn’t make meaningful gains among Hispanic voters, especially in Florida. But the Hispanic vote cannot single-handedly determine the presidency, as one could be forgiven for believing based on post-2012 election commentary.
Jeb Bush speaks up for Common Core
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Chloe Sorvino
If Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, makes a presidential bid in 2016, the Common Core education standards he has championed could rise to the top of the debate. Mr Bush, son and brother of former Republican presidents, told his educational think-tank’s annual conference on Thursday that Common Core was a way to end a “civil rights crisis”.
Teachers’ Challenge of Political Spending by Unions Appears Headed for Supreme Court
DAILY SIGNAL
Kevin Mooney
Christian school teachers who object to being forced to help finance the political agendas of unions yesterday moved a step closer to having their case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued an order that allows the teachers to petition the Supreme Court to consider their argument that California’s “agency shop” law is unconstitutional because it requires them to pay for political activity they do not support.
Democrats Press White House on CIA Interrogation Program Report
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kristina Peterson and Michael R. Crittenden
Democratic senators pressed the White House Thursday over negotiations on the release of a report criticizing the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation program. After meeting with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough on Capitol Hill, Democrats appeared frustrated by the administration’s hesitations over declassifying the Senate panel’s report with limited redactions.
Iran deal by Monday? Don’t bet on it
POLITICO
Michael Crowley
The overwhelming consensus among roughly a dozen sources from the U.S., Europe and the Middle East is that the nuclear talks will be extended next week into early 2015.
