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Energy
SCOTUS probes agency rules on interpreting laws
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Erica Martinson
The Supreme Court on Monday probed the legal rules that allow federal agencies to interpret laws and whether the Obama administration is increasingly misusing them to push through new regulations.
EPA flooded with climate rule comments
THE HILL
Timothy Cama
The Obama administration has received more than 1.6 million comments on its proposed rule to limit carbon emissions on power plants. The massive number of comments submitted before Monday’s deadline highlights the intense interest from both environmental groups hailing the rule as an historic effort to curb climate change, and business and energy groups who argue the sweeping regulations will choke the economy.
As oil prices plunge, wide-ranging effects for consumers and the global economy
WASHINGTON POST
Steven Mufson
Tumbling oil prices are draining hundreds of billions of dollars from the coffers of oil-rich exporters and oil companies and injecting a much-needed boost for ailing economies in Europe and Japan — and for American consumers at the start of the peak shopping season. The result could be one of the biggest transfers of wealth in history, potentially reshaping everything from talks over Iran’s nuclear program to the Federal Reserve’s policies to further rejuvenate the U.S. economy.
Clinton’s noncommittal stance on environment creates political dilemma
WASHINGTON POST
Anne Gearan
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s environmental problem was on full display in back-to-back events here Monday evening. First, Clinton appeared at a private fundraiser for Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), an embattled incumbent who favors construction of the massive Keystone XL oil pipeline opposed by environmentalists. Just two hours later, Clinton appeared on a different stage to deliver a speech to the League of Conservation Voters — a mainstream environmental group that strenuously opposes Keystone. … The contrasting events illustrate the dilemma facing Clinton, who has declined to take a position on Keystone but needs support from the Democratic Party’s crucial environmental wing if she pursues a presidential bid in 2016.
Obama Puts Climate on the 2016 Ballot
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Rupert Darwall
For Republicans, this has the makings of a winning issue. In 2016 Mr. Obama will force Democrats to run, in effect, on a platform of fewer jobs, more-expensive energy and an indefinite commitment to paying billions of dollars of climate aid. Another concern: The administration’s climate plans involve a federal takeover of electricity generation, a critical segment of the economy. Kind of like the way ObamaCare took over health care. We can see how that’s working out.
Reps enlist Reagan to sell gas tax hike
THE HILL
Keith Laing
Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Tom Petri (R-Wis.) will spotlight Reagan’s support for the 1982 gas tax increase in a press conference on Wednesday, their offices announced on Monday. “Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer and Republican Congressman Tom Petri will stand together on the one year anniversary of Blumenauer’s introduction of the UPDATE Act (HR 3636), which would increase the gas tax by fifteen cents over 3 years and tie it to inflation,” the lawmakers offices said in a statement.
Why gasoline prices are down
WASHINGTON TIMES
Ed Feulner
The secret to extending the streak of lower energy prices, it turns out, is no secret at all: Let markets work.
In Diplomatic Defeat, Putin Diverts Pipeline to Turkey
NEW YORK TIMES
Andrew Roth
President Vladimir V. Putin said Monday that he would scrap Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline, a grandiose project that was once intended to establish the country’s dominance in southeastern Europe but instead fell victim to Russia’s increasingly toxic relationship with the West. It was a rare diplomatic defeat for Mr. Putin, who said Russia would redirect the pipeline to Turkey. He painted the failure to build the pipeline as a loss for Europe and blamed Brussels for its intransigence.
Technology
Study: $17B tax hike from Obama Web rules
THE HILL
Julian Hattem
President Obama’s call for the federal government to regulate broadband Internet service like a public utility would lead to a $17 billion tax hit for people in the United States, according to a new analysis. If Obama’s plan is put into place, “U.S. consumers will have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for both residential fixed and wireless broadband services,” wrote the authors of a new Progressive Policy Institute study.
Juncker Science
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The green lobby loves to talk of its devotion to science. But don’t tell that to Anne Glover, the European Commission’s Chief Scientific Adviser, who now faces the lobby’s wrath after offering some impolitic scientific advice on genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. … Ms. Glover had dared to draw on her expertise to conclude that there isn’t “a single piece of scientific evidence” to validate anti-GMO hysteria, as she told a scientific conference in Aberdeen, U.K., last year. “I am 99.99% certain from the scientific evidence that there are no health issues with food produced from GM crops.” Opposition to GMOs, she said, is “a form of madness.”
What Is a True Threat on Facebook?
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
Threats can terrify people and disrupt lives, but in a country devoted to broad speech protections, it is not too much to require the government to prove that a speaker intended to make a threat before it can put him behind bars.
Finance
NY Federal Reserve chief: We can’t catch everything on Wall Street
THE HILL
Kevin Cirilli
“Can you say that these sorts of things that have not been found by the New York Fed previously will be found in the future?” CNBC’s Steve Liesman asked Dudley in an interview on Monday. “I think that there’s always things that are going to happen that we’re not going to find. This idea that somehow the New York Fed or any supervisor is going to prevent all bad things from happening — I don’t think that’s a realistic standard,” Dudley answered. Dudley said that a “realistic standard” would be that “when bad things happen, do these institutions have sufficient capital and liquidity resources so the problem that they encounter doesn’t lead to financial stability consequences for the broader economy.”
Did Hackers Gain an Edge on Wall Street?
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Danny Yadron
Computer-security firm FireEye FEYE -0.03% has told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that a group of cyberthieves may be attempting to gain an edge on Wall Street by targeting chief financial officers, advisory firms and others involved in mergers, acquisitions and other market-moving events. In one case, the group focused on employees privy to changes in closely watched government-reimbursement rates at a publicly traded health-sector firm. In another, hackers posed as an adviser to one of two companies in a potential acquisition.
Encouraging Public Service, Through the ‘Revolving Door’
NEW YORK TIMES
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Wouldn’t it be nice if all private sector businesses offered their employees the opportunity to pursue public service work — or work at a nonprofit or educational institution — without giving up income or other benefits that they may have earned? Of course it would be.
Wall Street needs a lesson from the DMV
WASHINGTON POST
Richard Cohen
Like anyone else, I would like to see the occasional Wall Street hanging. But more important, the application — or prospect — of severe penalties via a point system would surely deter unethical behavior. Once those points start to add up, everyone in the firm would be on alert. As it is now, though, the penalties are announced on what seems like a monthly schedule, and the American people are entitled to think the old adage is wrong: Crime does pay. At these interest rates, saving doesn’t.
Politics
Democrats Paved the Way for Their Own Decline
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Charlie Cook
[W]e then saw a grand pivot to the environment and health care, with grave consequences for the party. At another time and in different fashion, both are important priorities, but the focus on these issues has effectively decimated the Democratic Party in specific areas and among specific voter blocs. The evidence is the difference in the partisan makeup of the Congress that will be sworn in next month, compared with the one from eight years ago.
The new GOP divide
POLITICO
James Hohmann
Two years ago, Bobby Jindal was pushing a state law to adapt national curriculum standards to local schools; today, not only is the Louisiana governor suing the federal government to stop Common Core — or “ObamaCore,” as many Republicans have taken to calling it — but most prospective Republican presidential candidates, except Jeb Bush, have reversed themselves. Likewise, two years ago, almost all GOP leaders were unified against gay marriage, supportive of most surveillance tactics designed to prevent terrorism attacks, opposed to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and unwilling to accept any aspects of the Affordable Care Act.
Boehner makes sales pitch to GOP
POLITICO
Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer
At a meeting in the basement of the Capitol Tuesday morning, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the GOP leadership team will face rank-and-file Republicans for the first time since President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. They will try to convince the troops to channel their anger at a mostly symbolic immigration bill, while agreeing to a separate funding package that would keep most of the government open for nine months, while funding immigration enforcement agencies for just a few months.
Lawmakers Divided over Renewing Tax Breaks
WALL STREET JOURNAL
John D. McKinnon and Siobhan Hughes
Lawmakers divided about whether to renew a raft of expiring tax breaks appear increasingly likely to extend them only through 2014, a move that would leave businesses and individuals in limbo for 2015 and beyond. Congressional aides with knowledge of the negotiations said talks continued about a broader package that could extend some provisions permanently and others through 2015. However, they said, those negotiations were proving difficult.
G.O.P. Split Over Congressional Budget Office Head
NEW YORK TIMES
Jonathan Weisman
Douglas W. Elmendorf is an obscure figure beyond a narrow radius around Capitol Hill. As the director of the Congressional Budget Office, his nuts-and-bolts job is to serve as the official scorekeeper on the price of legislation and the referee on the budgetary and economic impacts of policy, from the Affordable Care Act to an increase in the minimum wage. So it is one of the stranger surprises of the midterm election fallout that the question of whether to reappoint him to his post has become a hot topic of debate — among Republicans.
How to Score in Congress
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Without changes in their economic methods, CBO and Joint Tax will continue to stymie Republican attempts to reform government and increase economic growth. Better to take some media criticism at first than watch Congressional staff undermine the GOP agenda for the next two years.
Congress’s Budget Office Needs Better Numbers
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Avik Roy
Washington has become increasingly concerned with what Republicans will do when Mr. Elmendorf’s term expires in January. If incoming Senate Budget Committee Chairman Jeff Sessions and Senate President Pro Tempore Orrin Hatch believe their interests are best served by having a Democrat serve as CBO director, they can do no better than to reappoint Mr. Elmendorf. If they prefer a Republican, there are many credible candidates. The University of Minnesota’s Stephen Parente, for example, is the nation’s leading expert in modeling premium support-style approaches to health reform. Choosing the next director won’t mean much, however, if Congress does not change the ways the CBO does business. Many Republican priorities will be stymied by presidential vetoes. CBO reform—through instructions from the House and Senate Budget Committees—is one of the few things Congress can do on its own. It happens to be among the most important.
Portman won’t run for president in 2016
USA TODAY
Deirdre Shesgreen
Sen. Rob Portman took himself out of the 2016 presidential running on Monday, saying he will forgo a White House bid and instead run for a second term in the Senate.
