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Energy
Return the Keystone XL issue to reality
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
We don’t blame Republicans for wondering why the pipeline’s approval is still in limbo, particularly now that a Nebraska court has thrown out a challenge to its routing, which had been the most recent pretext for Obama administration stalling. But the issue isn’t worth wasting more legislative time or inflaming partisan tensions at the start of a new Congress. If Republicans nevertheless proceed, Mr. Obama would be wise to sign the bill and get Keystone off of the national agenda or strike a deal with Republicans in exchange for a concession of environmental significance.
Could Keystone Be America’s Last Pipeline?
POLITICO
Elana Schor
Clearly what’s already over is the era of easy pipelines. Left-wing activist and author Naomi Klein has christened the growing grassroots campaign Blockadia, and the executive vice president at Keystone sponsor TransCanada, Alex Pourbaix, warns it’s part of “an extraordinarily radical agenda” that sends emissaries into pipeline-affected areas to “lie and exaggerate.”
For the Love of Carbon
NEW YORK TIMES
Paul Krugman
So what should be done about Keystone XL? If you believe that it would be environmentally damaging — which I do — then you should be against it, and you should ignore the claims about job creation. The numbers being thrown around are tiny compared with the country’s overall work force. And in any case, the jobs argument for the pipeline is basically a sick joke coming from people who have done all they can to destroy American jobs — and are now employing the very arguments they used to ridicule government job programs to justify a big giveaway to their friends in the fossil fuel industry.
Saudi prince: $100-a-barrel oil ‘never’ again
USA TODAY
Maria Bartiromo
Saudi billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal told me we will not see $100-a-barrel oil again. The plunge in oil prices has been one of the biggest stories of the year. And while cheap gasoline is good for consumers, the negative impact of a 50% decline in oil has been wide and deep, especially for major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. Even oil-producing Texas has felt a hit. The astute investor and prince of the Saudi royal family spoke to me exclusively last week as prices spiraled below $50 a barrel. He also predicted the move would dampen what has been one of the big U.S. growth stories: the shale revolution.
As Oil Prices Fall, Banks Serving the Energy Industry Brace for a Jolt
NEW YORK TIMES
Michael Corkery and Peter Eavis
Banks have been lending hand over fist to companies in the nation’s energy industry, underwriting bonds, advising on mergers, even financing the building of homes for oil workers. All of this has provided a boon to banks that have been struggling to find more companies and consumers wanting to borrow. Yet with the price of crude oil falling below levels sufficient for some energy companies to service their huge debts, strains are being felt and defaults are likely. While it may take some time for the crunch in the oil industry to translate into losses, one thing already seems clear: The energy banking boom is over.
Raise the Gas Tax to Fix America’s Roads
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
The Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that Congress would have to raise fuel taxes by between 10 cents and 15 cents a gallon to meet all of the obligations of the Highway Trust Fund. If lawmakers went with a 15-cent hike, that would add just $3 to the cost of a 20-gallon fill-up once the increase was fully phased in. To put that into context, Americans are saving nearly $30 on average for every 20 gallons of gas they buy thanks to the drop in oil prices. That is a small price to pay for better roads, bridges and transit systems.
Senators call for federal gas tax hike
USA TODAY
Mary Troyan
While some top Republicans remain adamant a tax hike is not the answer, there are signs that the idea, including one from Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, is at least getting a fresh look. … Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said this week a gas tax increase could not be ruled out. Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, agreed.
Technology
Obama to Call for Laws Covering Data Hacking and Student Privacy
NEW YORK TIMES
Michael D. Shear and Natasha Singer
President Obama on Monday will call for federal legislation intended to force American companies to be more forthcoming when credit card data and other consumer information are lost in an online breach like the kind that hit Sony, Target and Home Depot last year, White House officials said Sunday. The Personal Data Notification and Protection Act would demand a single, national standard requiring companies to inform their customers within 30 days of discovering their data has been hacked. In a speech scheduled for Monday at the Federal Trade Commission, Mr. Obama is expected to say that the current patchwork of state laws does not protect Americans and is a burden for companies that do business across the country.
Barack Obama to seek limits on student data mining
POLITICO
Stephanie Simon
President Barack Obama on Monday is expected to call for tough legislation to protect student privacy, adding his voice to a sizzling debate about the best way to bring the benefits of technology into the classroom without exposing students to commercial data mining. Obama is expected to urge Congress to impose a bevy of restrictions on companies that operate websites, apps and cloud-computing services aimed at the K-12 market, according to sources briefed on the announcement.
Web providers make late pitch to delay net neutrality rules
THE HILL
Julian Hattem
Internet service providers are demanding that the head of the Federal Communications Commission delay controversial net neutrality rules to examine their impact on small companies. Three trade groups asked Chairman Tom Wheeler on Friday not to circulate the new rules among his four fellow commissioners until the commission holds a hearing to examine how the rules would affect small companies.
Tech Firms Again Look to High Court in Software Case
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Brent Kendall
Last year the Supreme Court pared back patent protections for software. Now Google ’s Inc. and other companies want the court to limit how software makers can use copyrights to assert exclusive rights over programs. Google is asking the high court to intervene in a copyright-infringement case brought by Oracle Corp. over copyrights for the popular Java programming platform that software developers use to create applications for computers and other devices.
House Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Ban Internet Taxes Forever
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Dustin Volz
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers are reviving legislation that would permanently extend a ban on taxing Internet access, signaling that efforts to pass a separate bill to widen online sales taxes may continue to face resistance in the lower chamber. The quick reintroduction Friday of the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act likely serves as stagework for a bigger fight in Congress over whether to expand the sales tax on purchases made at online retailers like Amazon and eBay. While the Senate has shown support for an online sales tax bill, it has failed to gain traction in the House, where many lawmakers are reticent to endorse any new taxes.
Robots are sneaking up on Congress (along with four other tech trends)
WASHINGTON POST
Amy Webb
It’s now or never. Technology — and the various ways we use and exploit it — is inextricably tied to governing and being governed. So congressional leaders and their staff members must embrace not just what’s on the horizon but everyday technology found in the private sector. The longer members of Congress wait to adapt to and adopt new technologies, the harder it will be for them to catch up.
Finance
Churches step in with alternative to high-interest, small-dollar lending industry
WASHINGTON POST
Rebecca Robbins
The program is called the Jubilee Assistance Fund. In 7 1/2 years, it has helped parishioners of the United Methodist Church secure 14 loans – from $500 to $8,800 – according to Carol Mathis, chief executive of the credit union. Similar initiatives run by faith-based organizations across the country are shifting the way churches approach charity. These programs offer parishioners an alternative to commercial lending agencies, which often charge triple-digit annualized interest rates. Unlike commercial lenders or even other nonprofit alternatives, these church-backed programs offer near-zero interest rates – a model, proponents say, that helps struggling borrowers get back on their feet.
Kicking Dodd-Frank in the Teeth
NEW YORK TIMES
Gretchen Morgenson
The 114th Congress has been at work for less than a week, but a goal for many of its members is already evident: a further rollback of regulations put in place to keep markets and Main Street safe from reckless Wall Street practices.
Let’s leave Wall Street’s risky practices in the past
WASHINGTON POST
Sec. Jacob Lew
Opponents who are fighting to repeal these reforms, or impede implementation, make no secret that they are gearing up for a multifront assault to weaken effective oversight of Wall Street and protections for Main Street. Their focus — which includes weakening the newly created and already effective consumer watchdog agency, eroding transparency in the derivatives markets and underfunding the regulators in charge of enforcement and oversight — amounts to an agenda that would take us back to the dangerous conditions that existed before the financial crisis.
The Fed Cash Machine
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The Obama Administration has been a stalwart supporter of the Federal Reserve’s bond purchases, and one underreported reason appeared in a Fed press release on Friday: The central bank has become a huge money-maker for the Treasury. The Fed disclosed in preliminary unaudited results that its Reserve Banks turned over no less than $98.7 billion to the Treasury in 2014. Most of that is interest income from the Fed’s purchase of bonds under its various quantitative easing programs that have expanded its balance sheet to $4.5 trillion or so in assets.
Politics
Bush and Romney: Ready to rumble?
POLITICO
Maggie Haberman, Tarini Parti and Ben White
Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush have long been cordial toward each other, even if they aren’t exactly besties. Both are former governors, aligned with the business-friendly establishment side of the Republican Party. Now, with Romney’s announcement this week that he is exploring a third run for the White House, the two men are on a potential collision course. It’s a fight neither may be eager to have, but which some donors are framing as a referendum on the past versus the future, even if both men have been well-known political figures for years.
Both parties agree: Economic mobility will be a defining theme of 2016 campaign
WASHINGTON POST
Philip Rucker and Dan Balz
Presidential hopefuls in both parties agree on at least one thing: Economic mobility, and the feeling of many Americans that they are being shut out from the nation’s prosperity, will be a defining theme of the 2016 campaign. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush last week became the latest Republican to signal a readiness to engage Democrats on what historically has been their turf, putting issues of middle-class wage stagnation, poverty and shared prosperity at the forefront of their political messages.
Democrats, in a stark shift in messaging, to make big tax-break pitch for middle class
WASHINGTON POST
Lori Montgomery and Paul Kane
The centerpiece of the proposal, set to be unveiled Monday by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), is a “paycheck bonus credit” that would shave $2,000 a year off the tax bills of couples earning less than $200,000. Other provisions would nearly triple the tax credit for child care and reward people who save at least $500 a year. The windfall — about $1.2 trillion over a decade — would come directly from the pockets of Wall Street “high rollers” through a new fee on financial transactions, and from the top 1 percent of earners, who would lose billions of dollars in lucrative tax breaks.
Seven Southern States Plan Their Own Super Tuesday for 2016 Race
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Beth Reinhard
A potential Southern Super Tuesday with as many seven states voting near the start of the presidential primary calendar could become a pivotal moment in the 2016 GOP nomination battle. Georgia’s secretary of state is leading an effort to hold a regional primary on March 1 next year that could include Texas and Florida, the nation’s second- and third-most-populous states. Non-Southern states also could hold elections that day.
G.O.P. Governors Face Test in Shift on Ideological Agendas
NEW YORK TIMES
Campbell Robertson and Trip Gabriel
But rather than reprising the Tea Party insurrection of 2010, Republican governors taking their oaths this month have expressed more muted, less ideological priorities. … Yet that pragmatism is likely to be tested in the 24 states where Republicans also control the legislature and where bills are expected that would further restrict abortion, roll back the Common Core education standards and ensure that the president’s health care law does not gain a foothold in any more states. Many conservative lawmakers in these states see a turn toward moderation by Republican leaders as being at odds with the public mood, particularly after such a decisive electoral sweep.
New Rules to Limit Tactics on Hospitals’ Fee Collections
NEW YORK TIMES
Robert Pear
The Obama administration has adopted sweeping new rules to discourage nonprofit hospitals from using aggressive tactics to collect payments from low-income patients. Under the rules, nonprofit hospitals must now offer discounts, free care or other financial assistance to certain needy patients. Additionally, hospitals must try to determine whether a patient is eligible for assistance before they refer a case to a debt collector, send negative information to a credit agency, place a lien on a patient’s home, file a lawsuit or seek a court order to seize a patient’s earnings.
President Obama’s community college proposal doesn’t make the grade
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
If the president wants to help those who earn just too much to qualify for Pell Grants, he could consider means testing community college tuition assistance some other way. The White House, however, hasn’t gamed out how means testing would affect the proposal, in part, apparently, for philosophical reasons. “The president believes that it is time to make college education the norm, and that about 100 years ago this country decided that high school would be the norm and that now is the time to make sure that all Americans, regardless of age, have access to higher education,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Friday. That’s a fine goal. But in an era of constrained resources, there are better ways of improving access to higher education than establishing a new middle-class entitlement.
The ObamaCollege Plan
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
And now the Administration is proposing to give inferior community colleges another competitive advantage with this new entitlement that bribes students with “free” tuition. So: Punish private schools, subsidize often inferior public schools, snatch regulatory control from states, and add tens of billions in new taxpayer obligations: The ObamaCollege plan is everything we’ve come to expect from this White House.
Lawmakers Raise Doubts on Prosecuting Petraeus
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Colleen McCain Nelson
Lawmakers from both parties raised doubts on Sunday over whether the Justice Department should file charges against former Gen. David Petraeus for mishandling classified information.
