Your morning briefing for the top news in energy, tech, finance, and politics.
Energy
Climate change’s instructive past
WASHINGTON POST
George Will
We know, because they often say so, that those who think catastrophic global warming is probable and perhaps imminent are exemplary empiricists. They say those who disagree with them are “climate change deniers” disrespectful of science. Actually, however, something about which everyone can agree is that of course the climate is changing — it always is. And if climate Cassandras are as conscientious as they claim to be about weighing evidence, how do they accommodate historical evidence of enormously consequential episodes of climate change not produced by human activity? Before wagering vast wealth and curtailments of liberty on correcting the climate, two recent books should be considered.
Keystone on the brink
POLITICO
Andrew Restuccia
Senators pushing a bill to force approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline scrambled Wednesday to keep the project alive — a day after the White House threatened to veto the bill. The main Republican and Democrat who support the pipeline met the past two days to plot a strategy for the bill’s passage. Lead sponsors Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) say there are three potential ways to get the pipeline through Congress, each with its own major hurdles.
The Last-Ditch Environmental Push to Defeat Keystone XL
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Clare Foran
The biggest fear among greens is that things could get out of hand if enough Democrats join with the expanded Republican majority and bring the pro-Keystone caucus close to a figure that could withstand Obama’s threatened veto. And the more lopsided a House vote is, the more difficult it becomes to keep Senate Democratic moderates and lawmakers viewed as potential fence-sitters such as Christopher Coons of Delaware, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota from supporting the Keystone bill.
For States That Don’t File Carbon-Cutting Plans, E.P.A. Will Impose ‘Model Rule’
NEW YORK TIMES
Coral Davenport
The Environmental Protection Agency will force states to comply with a federal “model rule” to cut their carbon emissions if the states do not submit customized plans under the Obama administration’s new climate change regulations, a senior official said Wednesday. Janet McCabe, the agency’s top climate change official, said that the E.P.A. was creating the model rule with the expectation that some states would refuse to submit plans.
Senator maps strategy against EPA rules
THE HILL
Timothy Cama
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, told reporters Wednesday that the Congressional Review Act (CRA) will be a primary tool for the GOP. The CRA, a key piece of Republicans’ Contract with America in the 1990s, allows an expedited route for Congress to vote to overturn regulations, including those from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Power-Grid Officials Criticize Plan for Cutting Emissions
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Rebecca Smith
A proposed federal rule to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from U.S. power plants will weaken the nation’s power grid and could even cause blackouts, say some of the officials who run the country’s electricity network. … Stephen Whitley, chief executive of the New York Independent System Operator, says the proposal threatens power plants critical to New York City because they often have to burn carbon-emitting fuel oil to generate electricity. That is because Empire State plants can have a hard time getting natural-gas deliveries during high-demand seasons like winter.
Energy Secretary: Strategic Petroleum Reserve needs ‘modernization’
FUEL FIX
Jennifer Dlouhy
Rapid changes in the location and type of oil production inside the United States require a “modernization” in the way the country stockpiles crude for emergencies, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Wednesday. More specific recommendations about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — 691 million barrels of oil stashed in underground salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas — will come when the Obama administration releases the first phase of its quadrennial energy review later this month, Moniz said during a presentation at The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. That broad multi-year analysis will focus first on energy infrastructure and is meant to provide a road map for federal energy policy, executive actions and government-sponsored research programs.
U.S. climate envoy sees tough test in Paris
POLITICO
Andrew Restuccia
Todd Stern, the State Department’s special envoy for climate change, told POLITICO that the negotiations that have taken place under a U.N. treaty for more than two decades may often be fraught, but they are the best avenue for reaching a compromise among global leaders. … “There’s a way to do this, and I think we will get there. But it’s going to be hard,” he said.
Oil Firms’ New Dilemma: Save, or Borrow More?
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Justin Scheck
Now, companies including Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC and BP PLC must decide whether to risk future earnings by cutting developments, risk upsetting investors by cutting dividends, or take on big debt in the hope that oil prices will soon recover. The big companies have indicated they won’t cut shareholder payouts in the near future, but investors and analysts say producers can weather low oil prices only for so long.
Technology
FCC’s Tom Wheeler in step with Barack Obama on net neutrality
POLITICO
Tony Romm
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler offered his strongest endorsement to date of tough net neutrality rules, aligning himself with President Barack Obama’s vision for an open Internet. Speaking here at the 2015 International CES tech trade show, Wheeler repeatedly hinted he favors reclassification of broadband as a public utility, which would subject Internet providers to some of the same rules that govern old phone companies. The approach is already drawing heavy fire from Republicans and telecom giants who warn it will lead to burdensome regulation.
Congress is about to go to war with itself over net neutrality. These are the stakes.
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
By reintroducing legislation before a Republican version emerges, Democrats could keep Republicans from attracting liberals to their side. A Republican bill would likely give the FCC clearer, explicit authority to regulate net neutrality — something that Democrats might like — but, crucially, prohibit the agency from using its strongest legal tool, known as Title II of the Communications Act.
Wireless players send Title II warning flare
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Alex Byers and Brooks Boliek
Under the agency’s 2010 net neutrality rules, wireless carriers were exempted from the rule that prevented telecommunications companies from discriminating or slowing down broadband traffic — and the industry wants to keep it that way. But FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has indicated he wants to subject the wireless industry to the new open Internet rules. And the prospect that the FCC could go as far as classifying mobile broadband as a utility — under what is known as Title II — has the industry launching a lobbying push explaining why that would be illegal.
Companies have more data than ever. That’s risky.
WASHINGTON POST
Andrea Peterson
Online services as well as a host of third party trackers follow your virtual movements, learning about your behaviors and creating intimate profiles that can be used to fine-tune advertising. But with more and more Internet connected devices entering the market, the web of commercial data collection and surveillance surrounding consumers may get even more concerning, both for individuals and for the companies that maintain that web.
Finance
Obama to Outline Proposals to Bolster a Lagging Housing Sector
NEW YORK TIMES
Jonathan Weisman
President Obama, often criticized for inattention to the housing sector, will seek to address the problem Thursday, lowering insurance rates on federally issued mortgages to first-time home buyers, minorities and struggling Americans. The move is modest, producing savings of $900 a year per home buyer. … Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who has been pushing to unwind the government’s control of the mortgage market, called it a “head-scratching decision.” The move will increase competition between government agencies — pitting the F.H.A. against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — and could put the F.H.A.’s stretched capital reserves at risk.
Taxpayer Insurance for Business, Yeah
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The Republicans now running all of Congress are already waltzing from one vindication of free markets to another. On the second day of the session, the House passed—oh . . . wait—a vast corporate welfare handout, following all of 40 minutes of debate.
Dems thwart changes to Wall Street reform law
THE HILL
Cristina Marcos
The measure — one of the first to be considered in the new Congress — was brought up under a fast-track procedure typically considered for noncontroversial legislation that requires a two-thirds majority to pass. But Democratic opposition led to its defeat, by a vote of 276-146. The package was comprised of 11 bills that were previously considered in the last Congress. It included provisions to delay for two years a portion of Dodd-Frank’s so-called Volcker Rule, which prevents banks that make loans and deposits from engaging in speculative activity.
Fed Warns on Global Growth Fears
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jon Hilsenrath and Brian Blackstone
Federal Reserve officials, worried about weak growth overseas, are endorsing new measures by foreign officials—most notably at the European Central Bank—to stimulate their economies. Fed officials rarely comment on the decisions taken by foreign central banks and have generally played down risks to domestic growth emanating from abroad. Yet minutes of the Fed’s Dec. 16-17 policy meeting included several references to the urgency U.S. officials and market participants are placing on new policy actions to counteract slow growth outside the U.S.
President Obama, Elizabeth Warren have different message on the middle class
WASHINGTON POST
Steven Mufson, Karen Tumulty and Anne Gearan
At a moment when President Obama is seeking to convince Americans that the economy is finally back on track, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) delivered a major address Wednesday in which she argued that average Americans are being left behind because Washington has failed them.
Pivotal Insider Ruling Is Put to Test
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jean Eaglesham
After Gregory Bolan quit as a research analyst for Wells Fargo & Co. in Nashville, Tenn., his former colleague, trader Joseph Ruggieri, gave him a set of keys to Mr. Ruggieri’s Manhattan apartment to help him as he interviewed for jobs in New York. This seemingly innocuous favor was cited by the Securities and Exchange Commission, when it filed civil charges last year against both men alleging insider trading. The agency said the gesture of friendship helped demonstrate that Mr. Bolan benefited from allegedly tipping Mr. Ruggieri about his upcoming market-moving reports on several stocks from April 2010 through March 2011, when they still worked together.
Sunshine for Prosecutors?
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Government prosecutions are a matter of public record. Absent a particular necessity to keep information secret, the public, not only Mr. Greenberg, has a right to see the evidence on which prosecutions are based. Judge Bryant should let more sun shine on this decade-long government assault on a private citizen.
The U.S.-led global economic order is dying
WASHINGTON POST
Henry Farrell
Jonathan Kirshner: The U.S. economy remains enormous, robust, powerful, and essential – this cannot be emphasized enough – but as a general trend, it dominates the international economy somewhat less now than it did in the past, and most plausible scenarios suggest that this general trend will continue. Also, it is now clear that the U.S. economy is not exceptionally exempt from debilitating financial crises, and many countries and other actors now view its financial model with greater wariness. Thus, although the U.S. economy will likely remain more privileged than any other, it will nevertheless look more and more like a “normal” economy – that is, one that is subject to external pressures generated by the international economy, and less able to easily force burdens of economic adjustment abroad.
Politics
Charlie Hebdo stands solidly for free expression. The West must do no less.
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
The attack in Paris comes after a year in which two U.S. journalists who traveled to Syria were beheaded by the Islamic State and theaters across the country refused to screen a movie lampooning North Korea because of the threat of violence. Such acts cannot be allowed to inspire more self-censorship — or restrict robust coverage and criticism of Islamic extremism.
Islamist Terror in Paris
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Charlie Hebdo Editor Stephane Charbonnier, who was murdered on Wednesday, understood the ideals he represented. Responding to threats and pressure over the newspaper’s decisions to publish provocative cartoons, he once said: “I prefer to die standing than live on my knees.” It is now the epitaph of a principled and courageous man.
Has Jeb Bush shown Republicans a new way to talk about same-sex marriage?
WASHINGTON POST
Philip Rucker
With a more welcoming message, Bush is trying to shift the Republican Party’s rhetoric on an issue on which the public has been evolving much faster than the GOP. A party that not long ago championed its opposition to same-sex marriage now finds itself on the defensive — even within its own ranks, where social conservatives are at odds with business leaders and young people who openly support gay rights.
House GOP plots immigration strategy
POLITICO
Seung Min Kim
House Republicans are ready to fire the opening salvo in the war over President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration. House leadership plans to move as early as next week on legislation to override Obama’s actions that could protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportations. That move is likely to be paired with spending for the Department of Homeland Security, which got only short-term funding from an agreement in December.
Small Businesses Snub Health Exchanges for Coverage
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Adam Janofsky
Some small-business owners are snubbing the new health-insurance exchanges, operating under the Small Business Health Options Program, citing limited federal tax credits and a small menu of insurance offerings in a few states, companies and health-insurance brokers said.
For First Time, F.D.A. Panel Approves Generic Copy of Costly Biologic Drug
NEW YORK TIMES
Sabrina Tavernise
An expert panel unanimously recommended on Wednesday that the Food and Drug Administration approve a cheaper copy of a special drug used in cancer therapy, paving the way for alternatives to an entire class of complex and costly drugs to enter the United States market. Most brand-name drugs eventually lose their patent protection, opening the market to lower-priced generic products. But one class of drugs, known as biologics, which includes some of the most expensive medications in the world, has been insulated from the competition of cheaper copies for years
