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Energy

The Keystone catechism
WASHINGTON POST
George Will
The more Obama has talked about Keystone, the less economic understanding he has demonstrated. On Nov. 14, he said Keystone is merely about “providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else. That doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices.” By Dec. 19, someone with remarkable patience had explained to him that there is a world market price for oil, so he said, correctly, that Keystone would have a “nominal” impact on oil prices but then went on to disparage job creation by Keystone. He said it would create “a couple thousand” jobs (the State Department study says approximately 42,100 “direct, indirect, and induced”) and said, unintelligibly, “Those are temporary jobs until the construction actually happens.” Well. Obama revealed his economic sophistication years ago when he said that ATMs and airport ticket kiosks cost jobs. He does not understand that, outside of government, which is all that he knows or respects, all jobs are “temporary.”

 

Boom To Bust? Obama Targets America’s ‘Fracking’ Revolution
DAILY CALLER
Michael Bastasch
The White House’s plan looks to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas operations 40 to 45 percent by 2025. President Barack Obama has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to issue new methane rules for new oil and gas operations. Obama also proposed regulating existing oil and gas operations, but only if they reside in countries that fail ozone standards. “EPA’s proposed methane regulation is redundant, costly, and unnecessary,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the free-market Institute for Energy Research. “Energy producers are already reducing methane emissions because methane is a valuable commodity. It would be like issuing regulations forcing ice cream makers to spill less ice cream.”

 

President Obama’s Gas-Drilling Dance
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Ben Geman
President Obama is doing a two-step when it comes to fossil fuels. Obama and White House officials clear their throats by praising the oil and gas boom, and even taking a measure of credit for it, before moving on to the specific topic at hand. … But applause for expanded oil and gas drilling is an awkward fit with the president’s desire to leave a green legacy and battle climate change.

 

Abolish the Gas Tax
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Almost three-quarters of highway spending is already supplied by state and local governments, and if the federal role is reduced, they can decide either to increase their own gas taxes; fund roads some other way, such as tolls or public-private partnerships; or use tax dollars for other priorities like schools. States can build cheaper in any case, since the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rules and Buy America procurement provisions that accompany federal funding don’t apply. Democrats always want to raise the gas tax. When prices are high, that’s the best time to encourage drivers to buy an electric car or take the bus. When prices are low, they can skim some of the proceeds for other spending. The mystery is why Republicans would go along.

 

New Research May Solve Puzzle in Sea Level’s Rise
NEW YORK TIMES
Justin Gillis
A team of researchers reported Wednesday that the ocean did not rise quite as much as previously believed in the 20th century. They proposed a seemingly tiny adjustment that could make a big difference in scientific understanding of the looming problem of sea-level rise.

 

Solar industry posts sharp job growth
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Alex Guillén
The U.S. solar industry added more than 31,000 jobs in 2014, a growth rate of 21.8 percent that shows employment in the solar industry is expanding at 20 times the pace of the overall economy, according an annual survey from the nonprofit Solar Foundation.

 

 

Technology

Barack Obama broadband moves stoke tension with GOP
POLITICO
Alex Byers and Brooks Boliek
Obama’s speech Wednesday — backing efforts to spur city-run broadband networks as an alternative to private-sector providers like Comcast and Verizon — incensed Republicans who see it as just another attempt to over-regulate the industry with a Washington power-grab. “Each day we see more policies coming out of this White House that attempt to wield greater power and control for the federal government,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) said in a statement, describing the president’s stances as a “new federal takeover of state laws governing broadband and the Internet.”

 

GOP to draft bill on Internet rules
THE HILL
Mario Trujillo
Republicans plan to unveil a proposal in the coming days that would make it unnecessary for the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify broadband Internet as a public utility.  They say they will “pursue a public process” to write and pass legislation that would prevent Internet service providers from blocking or slowing service to any website, while also outlawing companies from negotiating deals for faster service.

 

Patent reform advocates are launching a ‘super-coalition’ to whack patent trolls
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
On Thursday, advocates for congressional action will debut a massive lobbying coalition drawing together some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, such as Google, Facebook and Adobe — but also relative newcomers to the patent debate, including Macy’s, JCPenney and the National Association of Realtors. Others in the coalition, known as United for Patent Reform, will include the restaurant lobby, the hotel industry and telecom companies such as Verizon. Altogether, the group will begin with 20 founding members.

 

U.K.’s Cameron to Lobby Obama on Encryption
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Danny Yadron and Devlin Barrett
British Prime Minister David Cameron plans to lobby President Barack Obama this week to more publicly criticize U.S. technology companies, such as Facebook Inc., that offer encrypted communications that can’t be unscrambled even with a court order, two people familiar with the matter said.

 

Supreme Court Sides With Company in Cell-Tower Dispute
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jess Bravin
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said municipalities that reject a cellphone tower must quickly provide the wireless service provider with reasons for the denial, giving the company enough time to decide whether to challenge the decision in court.

 

 

Finance

Republican assault on Dodd-Frank act intensifies
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Barney Jopson
Under attack in the House on Wednesday was part of the so-called Volcker rule, a provision of the reforms that limits bank risk taking. Lawmakers voted 271-154 to delay from 2017 to 2019 a ban on banks holding securitised debt that has been packaged into collateralised loan obligations, with 29 Democrats supporting the postponement along with Republicans.

 

A Strategy in the Fight Over Dodd-Frank: Go Big
NEW YORK TIMES
Jesse Eisinger
The banks have fought their war against financial reform on four fronts. They have pushed for delays, lobbied allies in Congress to repeal aspects of Dodd-Frank, worked over regulators to make the rules as loose as possible and threatened legal challenges and filed lawsuits. The battle has been overwhelming, with a scrappy band of pro-reform rebels outnumbered and overpowered by the empire’s resources.

 

JPMorgan Chase Chief Says ‘Banks Are Under Assault’
NEW YORK TIMES
Nathaniel Popper
“Banks are under assault,” Mr. Dimon said in the call with reporters. “In the old days, you dealt with one regulator when you had an issue. Now it’s five or six. You should all ask the question about how American that is, how fair that is.”

 

Wall Street and colleges are cutting some sketchy deals. Here’s what the government’s doing about it
WASHINGTON POST
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel
Colleges are in the business of educating students, not brokering deals with Wall Street. Yet hundreds of schools are striking agreements with banks to promote debit and prepaid cards on campus in exchange for millions of dollars. Now the government’s consumer watchdog is creating guidelines for universities to use in negotiating those contracts to prevent financial firms from peddling products with high fees and abusive terms to unsuspecting students.

 

 

Politics

Obama’s ‘lone wolf’ focus misguided as terrorist threat expands, critics say
WASHINGTON TIMES
Dave Boyer
President Obama has assured Americans for years that the core of al Qaeda is “decimated,” but the group’s claimed role in last week’s massacres in France, the spread of splinter terrorist groups throughout the Middle East and rise of the Islamic State underscore how the terrorist threat is expanding as the administration tries to prevent such commando-style attacks in the U.S.

 

Obamacare’s little secret
POLITICO
Jennifer Haberkorn
Elizabeth MacDonough holds no elected office. Few people outside of Capitol Hill even know her name. And forget about knowing her political leanings or loyalties. But she may very well be the most powerful person in Washington in determining how far Republicans can go in trying to repeal Obamacare. As the Senate parliamentarian, MacDonough will make the decisions on which pieces of the law qualify to be repealed using a complicated budget procedure called reconciliation. Her decisions would allow Senate Republicans to vote to kill major provisions of the health care law under a simple 51-vote majority without giving Democrats a chance to filibuster.

 

GOP frets over immigration 2016 backlash
THE HILL
Cameron Joseph
“Republicans already have a brand problem with Hispanics. This will only exacerbate the issue,” said Mark McKinnon, a GOP strategist who served as senior adviser on the presidential campaigns of President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). These worries were confirmed when House Republicans passed a Department of Homeland Security funding bill on Wednesday that strips funding for President Obama’s programs to allow illegal immigrants to temporarily stay in the country.  That bill passed despite howls from swing-district Republicans who unsuccessfully fought an amendment to end the program letting immigrants who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children to stay in the country.

 

The moral imperative of No Child Left Behind
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
Some districts may test too often or teach too much to the test. There is room to fix problems and, as we said, improve the law. But any member of Congress should be embarrassed to even contemplate returning to an era when the absence of annual measurement allowed failure to be swept under the rug. Educational opportunity is, as Mr. Duncan said Monday, “a civil right, a moral imperative.” The country needs to ensure that no one is being denied that right.

 

Obama to propose paid sick leave for American workers
USA TODAY
Gregory Korte
President Obama will call on Congress to require companies to give workers up to seven days of paid sick leave a year, a senior adviser said Wednesday. Obama will also take executive action to give at least six weeks of paid leave to federal employees after the birth or adoption of a child, Senior White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett said. And Obama wants Congress to spend $2.2 billion to help states and cities develop paid family leave programs.

 

Marco Rubio might be the odd man out in 2016
WASHINGTON POST
Nia-Malika Henderson
Weeks, not months. That’s the time frame Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has set for deciding whether he will run for president in 2016. Rubio is scheduled to huddle with supporters in Miami Beach on Jan. 23 and 24, days that should be circled in red ink on everyone’s political calendar. (Surely, the big bosses will want me to stake out that meeting in sunny Florida?) Rubio has been insisting that former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s plans to enter the race have no bearing on what he will do. Maybe not. But it probably should.

 

Rand Paul looks to steal 2016 spotlight
POLITICO
Manu Raju
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is back in insurgent mode, lobbing bombs at his potential Republican presidential rivals and looking to take back a political spotlight that Bush and Romney have been hogging lately. Paul is also heading to New Hampshire and Nevada this week, hoping to strike a fire with voters who want a new voice to carry the GOP’s message to the White House.

 

Handicapping the 2016 GOP Primaries
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Karl Rove
In a large field, a candidate’s proficiency in bashing President Obama or Hillary Clinton will have surprisingly limited value. Anyone who spends an inordinate amount of energy assaulting other Republican contenders may damage himself. Fierce, especially personal, attacks will create a low ceiling for the assailant while benefiting candidates who stay out of the fracas. The finalists are likely to be unifiers who win a dominant share of one element of the party and substantial support among others, much as last year’s crop of successful Republican Senate candidates did in their primaries.

 

Four top Secret Service executives told to leave their posts in agency shake-up
WASHINGTON POST
Carol D. Leonnig
The Secret Service is forcing out four of its most senior officials while two others are retiring — the biggest management shake-up at the troubled agency since its director resigned in October after a string of security lapses.