Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics.
Energy
Iraq and Libya biggest risks to oil supply
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Neil Hume
Demand for oil is set to accelerate next year as the global economy gains momentum and will be met by rising supplies from the US and Canada, according to the west’s energy watchdog. However, geopolitical uncertainty in several key producing regions could upset this relatively benign outlook the International Energy Agency has warned in its widely followed monthly report.
Natural Gas Pipeline Plan Creates Rift in Massachusetts
NEW YORK TIMES
Tom Zeller Jr.
The project, proposed by the pipeline giant Kinder Morgan at a cost of $2 billion to $3 billion “or more,” according to the company, is only in the earliest stages of consideration. But debate over its placement — and even its overall need — is in full swing, with anti-pipeline yard signs and heated public meetings.
Fumes From Obama’s Chemical Board
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kimberley Strassel
In the smallest stories we sometimes find the biggest themes. The small story of the past month has been dysfunction at a backwater federal agency known as the Chemical Safety Board. Yet in this tale of obstruction, bullying and lawlessness we find what is now the clear pattern of the Obama administration.
Oil lobby’s new No. 2 carries Dem creds
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Andrew Restuccia
Louis Finkel, the American Petroleum Institute’s new executive vice president for government affairs, said Thursday his status as a card-carrying Democrat will be an asset as he lobbies for the oil industry’s interests.
Coalition touts climate science ‘Bill of Rights’
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Erica Martinson
The Union of Concerned Scientists, the National Center for Science Education, Climate Parents and the Alliance for Climate Education have established a Climate Science Bill of Rights, a campaign meant to counter state-level efforts to keep climate science out of classrooms and support the national standards for science education that include climate change.
Technology
Netflix has hits, Emmys and subscribers. But can it survive its fight with cable?
WASHINGTON POST
Cecilia Kang
But there’s one major threat to its long-term survival. Netflix, which makes up nearly one-third of all Internet traffic, relies on the Internet pipes ruled by such companies as Comcast and Verizon. Stream to viewers a “House of Cards” episode whose connection fades in and out, and watch subscribers walk out the door.
Sen. Ron Wyden: Uber should be as unfettered as Facebook
WASHINGTON POST
Nancy Scola
Back in 1996, then-Reps. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Christopher Cox (R-Calif.) added 26 words to the Communications Decency Act that have, in the 18 years that followed, perhaps done more than any other law to shape how the Internet has evolved in the United States. Called Section 230, the provision said that Web sites that host users’ writings, videos, and more aren’t held liable as publishers of that content. That obscure provision is widely credited with allowing the Internet economy and online communications to flourish. Now, a new generation of Internet-powered yet offline companies is invoking the spirit of Section 230 to argue that, as mere platforms for the activities of users, they should have the same operational freedom enjoyed by first-generation Internet companies.
The Internet for All
NEW YORK TIMES
Multiple Authors
Does the industry need to be more closely regulated, or subject to more government action, to provide wider Internet access to lower-income people?
Patent Reform Shows Signs of Life in Congress
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Dustin Volz
Congress has developed a small appetite for patent reform again, just months after a major bill thought to be on its way to the president’s desk crashed and burned in the Senate.
Aereo’s Bid for Comeback Hinges on Cable License
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Keach Hagey
Aereo has suspended its service since the ruling. But rather than slink away defeated, the company is hoping to turn the court’s decision to its advantage. If it were classified as a cable company, Aereo argues, it should be able to qualify for a “compulsory license”—meaning it could pay limited royalties for the rights to broadcast content. Aereo made that case earlier this week to a lower court judge.
Finance
House Republicans Resume Efforts to Reduce Fed’s Power
NEW YORK TIMES
Binyamin Appelbaum
The Fed would be required to set monetary policy based on a published formula under legislation introduced this week by leading Republicans on the Financial Services Committee. Other bills would eliminate the Fed’s responsibility to maximize employment, or eliminate the Fed entirely.
Stanley Fischer Urges Congress to Expand Fed’s Mandate
NEW YORK TIMES
Binyamin Appelbaum
Stanley Fischer, the Federal Reserve’s new vice chairman, said on Thursday in his first public remarks that regulators had made “significant progress” in improving the resilience of the financial system.
Suspension of a Portuguese Bank’s Shares Shakes the Markets
NEW YORK TIMES
Landon Thomas Jr. and Peter Eavis
But investors received a jolt on Thursday when shares of Portugal’s second-largest bank, Banco Espírito Santo, were suspended from trading, prompting fears that the bank might need to be rescued. The move sent high-flying stocks and bonds in Portugal plummeting, forced two Spanish companies to suspend bond offerings and brought concerns over the health of Europe’s banking system. As markets from Germany to Greece wobbled, the tumult was a reminder to investors as to how quickly bad news can spread in the euro zone.
Who Wants a Depression?
NEW YORK TIMES
Paul Krugman
It turns out, however, that using monetary policy to fight depression, while in the interest of the vast majority of Americans, isn’t in the interest of a small, wealthy minority. And, as a result, monetary policy is as bound up in class and ideological conflict as tax policy. The truth is that in a society as unequal and polarized as ours has become, almost everything is political. Get used to it.
Congress backpedals on ethics: Our view
USA TODAY
Editorial
Remember those civics courses that taught “how a bill becomes a law”? Well, they need a follow-up called “how a law becomes a sham.” … The latest example is the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which explicitly bars lawmakers and staffers from spreading or trading on inside information.
House invokes historic principle: Opposing view
USA TODAY
Tom Spulack
The House’s opposition to the SEC subpoenas is based on a time-honored constitutional principle known as the “Speech or Debate Clause.” This provision says members and staff cannot be questioned about activities that are part of the core legislative process, which includes debates on the floor and committee hearings. It does not include political campaign activity and constituent services.
Politics
Break the Immigration Impasse
NEW YORK TIMES
Sheldon G. Adelson, Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates
The three of us vary in our politics and would differ also in our preferences about the details of an immigration reform bill. But we could without doubt come together to draft a bill acceptable to each of us. We hope that fact holds a lesson: You don’t have to agree on everything in order to cooperate on matters about which you are reasonably close to agreement. It’s time that this brand of thinking finds its way to Washington.
Our Friends the Germans
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Congress’s intelligence committees should do a deeper dive into the German cases and Langley’s larger failings. But Americans should also ask why even our friends now think they can expel a U.S. official and pay no price for it.
The immigration no-brainer
WASHINGTON POST
Charles Krauthammer
Comprehensive reform would not have prevented the current influx. Indeed, any reform that amnesties 11 million illegal immigrants simply reinforces the message that if you come here illegally, eventually you will be allowed to stay. It happens that I support immigration reform. I support amnesty. I have since 2006. But only after we secure the border. Which begins with completing the fencing along the Mexican frontier. … But a fence is for the long term. For the immediate crisis, the answer is equally, blindingly clear: Eliminate the Central American exception and enforce the law.
GOP’s Obama lawsuit to focus on employer mandate
POLITICO
Lauren French
House Republicans will base their lawsuit against President Barack Obama on the administration’s “unilateral” decision to delay the employer mandate provision in Obamacare, Speaker John Boehner said Thursday.
