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Energy
Speculation heats up about a Nebraska court ruling on Keystone
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Elana Schor
The Nebraska Supreme Court could rule as soon as Friday on a legal challenge to Keystone XL’s proposed route through the state, potentially putting the issue back in the hands of President Barack Obama.
Poll: Half of Republicans back limits on carbon
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dina Cappiello
Six in 10 Americans, including half of all Republicans, said they support regulation of carbon dioxide pollution, although they weren’t asked how. Nearly half of Republicans said the U.S. should lead the global fight to curb climate change, even if it means taking action when other countries do not. And majorities across party lines said environmental protections “improve economic growth and provide new jobs” in the long run, a popular Obama administration talking point.
Falling oil prices raise new concerns for states
ASSOCIATED PRESS
With oil prices now around a five-year low, budget officials in about a half-dozen states already have begun paring back projections for a continued gusher of revenues. Spending cuts have started in some places, and more could be necessary if oil prices stay at lower levels.
Capitalize on crude oil price
USA TODAY
Editorial
Today’s low prices provide several better strategic options: Raise the federal gasoline tax. … Lift the ban on oil exports. … Stick it to rogue nations.
Protect America’s energy revolution
USA TODAY
Chris Faulkner
Without massive government support in the form of tax credits, tax breaks and research funding, few alternative energy firms could survive. Indeed, U.S. taxpayers spent $7.3 billion on tax subsidies for renewable energy in 2013. Congress should open the Treasury’s checkbook to send the oil sheiks and tin-pot dictators of OPEC packing.
Economists to Obama: Lift oil export ban
THE HILL
Laura Barron-Lopez
As a House panel met to weigh the impacts of lifting a 40-year old ban on crude oil Thursday, economists called on President Obama to repeal it. … Economists from the American Council for Capital Formation renewed calls for Obama to lift the ban as production in the U.S. has grown to unprecedented levels, but are also open to congressional action.
Moderate Dems call for longer deadlines in EPA climate rule
THE HILL
Timothy Cama
Six moderate Democratic senators are asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give states more time to comply with its climate rule for power plants. Citing reports from the North American Electrical Reliability Corporation, states, businesses and others, the senators said the proposed deadlines in the rule could threaten electric reliability.
Strange Climate Event: Warmth Toward U.S.
NEW YORK TIMES
Coral Davenport
At the global climate change negotiations now wrapping up in Peru, American negotiators are being met with something wildly unfamiliar: cheers, applause, thanks and praise.
Technology
Chicago and New York Officials Look to Build Uber-Like Apps for Taxis
NEW YORK TIMES
Mike Isaac
Regulators in Chicago have approved a plan to create one or more applications that would allow users to hail taxis from any operators in the city, using a smartphone. In New York, a City Council member proposed a similar app on Monday that would let residents “e-hail” any of the 20,000 cabs that circulate in the city on a daily basis.
FCC chief hopes to move ‘quickly’ on net neutrality
THE HILL
Mario Trujillo
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday said he hopes to move “quickly” on new neutrality rules but declined to offer a specific timetable. “I think I said that I want to do it quickly, I want to do it right, and I want to do it sustainably,” he told reporters after the commission’s open meeting.
Let’s get real — We aren’t talking about net neutrality
THE HILL
Robert Atkinson
But one problem stands out among the rest — we aren’t actually arguing about net neutrality. Instead of fiddling with a variety of jurisdictional hooks, none of which are quite right for the job, the FCC should take a step back and allow this problem to be solved the right way — through legislation.
F.C.C. Increases Money for E-Rate Program for Internet in Schools and Libraries
NEW YORK TIMES
Edward Wyatt
The E-Rate program, part of the Universal Service Fund, will grow by $1.5 billion, to a spending cap of $3.9 billion, the first change in the base spending cap since it was set in 1997. F.C.C. officials said consumers would pay less than $2 a year in additional fees per phone line, or less than $6 extra per household, on average; the average household now pays about $36 a year for multiple phone lines.
Finance
Elizabeth Warren: The GOP’s New Favorite Foil
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Sarah Mimms
The swiftness with which Republicans blamed Warren signals that they see her as both a threat and an easy target. And as Warren’s star rises within the Democratic Party, it’s a tactic that promises to see much more airtime.
Let’s Pretend Dodd-Frank Works
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
For those who seek to prevent future taxpayer bailouts, the issue is not about the terms of a manufacturer’s swap contract or which bank subsidiary is allowed to hold which type of exposure. The issue is whether guardrails can be created to prevent central bankers, regulators and politicians from creating a credit mania and then rescuing the biggest losers when the boom turns to bust.
How Wall St. got its way
POLITICO
Dave Clarke, Kate Davidson And Jon Prior
The opposition was as much about the policy in question as it was about preventing Wall Street from establishing a legislative blueprint for chipping away at Dodd-Frank one provision at a time. … Nonetheless, the banks prevailed, showing that when it comes to rolling back Dodd-Frank, the financial-services industry is willing to play the long game. The House passed the bill on Thursday and the Senate is expected to clear it this week.
Jamie Dimon himself called to urge support for the derivatives rule in the spending bill
WASHINGTON POST
Steven Mufson and Tom Hamburger
But perhaps even more outrageous to Democrats was that the language in the bill appeared to come directly from the pens of lobbyists at the nation’s biggest banks, aides said. The provision was so important to the profits at those companies that J.P.Morgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon himself telephoned individual lawmakers to urge them to vote for it, according to a person familiar with the effort. The White House, in pleading with Democrats to support the bill, explained that it got something in return: It said that it averted other amendments that would have undercut Dodd-Frank, protected the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from Republican attacks, and won double digit increases in funds for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “The president is pleased,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
Blankfein Pushes Back Against Rancor Directed at Wall Street
NEW YORK TIMES
Nathaniel Popper
Lloyd C. Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, sought on Thursday to challenge Washington’s prevailing antagonism toward Wall Street. Speaking at the DealBook Conference in Manhattan, Mr. Blankfein said Wall Street had come to occupy an unwelcome position in Washington similar to where the military was during the Vietnam War protests.
Mutual Fund Industry May Face New Rules
NEW YORK TIMES
Peter Eavis
The stampede into investments that can be difficult to exit has regulators increasingly concerned. On Thursday, Mary Jo White, the chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, told a conference organized by The New York Times/DealBook that the agency was undertaking a comprehensive review of the mutual fund sector. One of the review’s major objectives is to assess whether some mutual funds are loading up on investments that would take too long to unwind.
Fannie, Freddie to Begin Payments to Affordable Housing Funds
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Joe Light
The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ordered the mortgage companies to begin giving potentially hundreds of millions of dollars a year to a pair of affordable-housing funds, pleasing low-income-housing advocates but sparking anger among groups that say they are worried about the risk to taxpayers. The two funds, one administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and one by the Treasury Department, enable states and other bodies to get money to build low-income rental housing or to rehabilitate existing housing.
Obama’s Fannie Mae Payday
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Neither Fannie nor Freddie are building capital because all of their profits are now going to Treasury. Presto, says Mr. Watt, the capital provisions are no barrier to financing the trust funds. So Democrats get another source of political largesse without Congress having to pass another spending bill.
Politics
House passes $1.1 trillion spending bill after week of drama
POLITICO
Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and Edward-Isaac Dovere
In a big win for House Republicans and President Barack Obama, the House passed a $1 trillion-plus funding bill Thursday night that will keep the government open into next year. The final vote, which came after a high drama day of behind the scenes arm twisting and vote counting, was 219 to 206. The Senate passed a two-day funding bill following the House vote, avoiding a government shutdown starting at midnight Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), however, warned that the “cromnibus,” as the massive spending package has come to be called on Capitol Hill, may not pass the Senate until Monday.
Poll: This year was bad. Next year? Maybe worse
USA TODAY
Susan Page
An end-of-the-year USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll finds an overwhelming 71% of those surveyed are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country today. Just 49% predict 2015 will be better — the first time since 1990 that optimism for the year ahead has dipped below 50%. Those attitudes have fueled developments as disparate as the rise of the Tea Party movement and coast-to-coast protests over the police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., says Matthew Dowd, a strategist for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign. “There’s a general sense of anger and frustration that nothing seems to change,” he says. “They don’t trust that anybody has their back.”
Obama’s immigration policy leaves companies exposed
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Barney Jopson
Businesses that employ low-skilled immigrants are worried that President Barack Obama’s immigration policy will expose them to new legal risks by encouraging employees to confess that they are working on false documents.
Pence ally to head Club for Growth
POLITICO
James Hohmann
The Club for Growth’s announcement Thursday that Chris Chocola is being replaced as president after six consequential years comes at a crucial juncture for the conservative group. David McIntosh — like Chocola, a former Republican congressman from Indiana — will take charge on Jan. 1. A chairman of the Republican Study Committee in the 1990s, McIntosh is said to have close ties to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who is considering a run for the White House in 2016.
C.I.A. Director Defends Use of Interrogation Tactics, Avoiding Issue of Torture
NEW YORK TIMES
Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo
John O. Brennan, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, on Thursday strongly defended C.I.A. officers who carried out brutal interrogation tactics against Qaeda suspects, describing agency interrogators as “patriots” and admonishing only those who went “outside the bounds” of Justice Department rules.
Congress must enable the president to stop the Islamic State
WASHINGTON POST
Sen. Marco Rubio
These are the issues we should be debating, not when the war will end or what types of force can be used to win it. It’s time for members of Congress to ensure that the president has the flexibility and authority he needs to keep America safe, not to further tie his hands. The ultimate success of this battle and the safety and security of Americans are at stake.
The Vanishing Male Worker: How America Fell Behind
NEW YORK TIMES
Binyamin Appelbaum
Working, in America, is in decline. The share of prime-age men — those 25 to 54 years old — who are not working has more than tripled since the late 1960s, to 16 percent. More recently, since the turn of the century, the share of women without paying jobs has been rising, too. The United States, which had one of the highest employment rates among developed nations as recently as 2000, has fallen toward the bottom of the list.
