Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics.
Energy
Keystone circus descending on Nebraska high court
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Andrew Restuccia
Nebraska’s Supreme Court will hear arguments Friday in a case whose legal minutiae are dry but the political impact could be vast — essentially determining how soon the endlessly delayed decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline will get to President Barack Obama’s desk. Possibilities range from sometime this year to deep into 2015.
Pressing the climate hoax
WASHINGTON TIMES
Editorial
When the hysterics — and the opportunists determined not to let hysteria go to waste — meet in New York to discuss a global pact on carbon dioxide, we’ll see who stands up to the Obama administration and the U.N. panel and their fashionable hoax.
Tom Steyer considering taking on Democratic candidates
WASHINGTON POST
Reid Wilson
In an interview with the Sacramento Bee’s editorial board, Steyer said he plans to spend $1 million on legislative contests in California, where Democrats hold an almost insurmountable majority. Steyer said some of his targets might be Democratic incumbents.
Still Time for a Conservation Legacy
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
Fortunately, Mr. Obama has one other weapon with which to build a conservation legacy before he leaves office, and lately he has begun to use it. This is a wonderful statute known as the Antiquities Act, signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 to give presidents what amounts to emergency powers to protect important landscapes by designating them national monuments. Mr. Roosevelt used the law to protect the Grand Canyon, and 16 presidents have used it since for similar purposes.
Coal Miners See Signs of Recovery as Prices Stabilize
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Rhiannon Hoyle and Biman Mukherji
Coal-mining executives say a string of pit shutdowns should finally kick-start the market by curbing supply, while demand from buyers such as China and India appears to be picking up. The optimism is a reversal from past months when companies warned of a sustained market surplus, although they are stopping short of predicting a sharp rebound and see any recovery as gradual.
Permian Basin in Texas to Drive Down Oil Prices
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Russell Gold
The oil flowing from the Permian is so plentiful that it is threatening prices. A barrel of oil in Midland, Texas, the Permian’s trading hub, cost $78.97 in mid-August. In Cushing, Okla., the national storage and transportation center for oil, the same crude fetched $96.48—$17.51 more.
Technology
NSA Phone-Data Collection Program Set for Legal Challenge
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Joe Palazzolo
The legality of the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone records will be tested this week before a panel of federal judges, the first appeals court to address the controversial program amid efforts by Congress to rein it in. The hearing scheduled for Tuesday at the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York stems from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and its New York affiliate.
How the Government Lowered Your Phone Bill
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Brendan Sasso
Federal regulators are feeling pretty good about their decision to scare Sprint away from trying to buy T-Mobile. The two companies never actually applied to merge, but in early August, they abandoned their long-running talks due to obvious resistance from the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. Top officials at both regulators made it clear they believed that reducing the number of nationwide cellular carriers from four to three would stifle competition and mean higher prices for customers. Soon after giving up on the deal, both companies started to slash prices in attempts to steal away each other’s customers.
Tech looks abroad to keep drones in the air
POLITICO
Tony Romm and Kevin Robillard
Strict federal rules still prohibit tech giants, movie studios and other commercial operators from flying their unmanned aerial vehicles. Even before those crafts can be tested stateside, experimenters must labor to win the Federal Aviation Administration’s blessings. Those government hurdles have some drone advocates worried the United States might lose out on new investments and jobs. And the signs of overseas flight already are surfacing: Google on Thursday said it is testing its new drone effort in Australia, which is known for its relaxed rules. Meanwhile, commercial drone endeavors continue to pop up around the world, from Japan to India.
A former FCC chair is now advising Obama on intelligence
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
Just months after he left the Obama administration, former Federal Communications Commission chair Julius Genachowski is heading back into it. This time, Genachowski will be taking up a post on President Obama’s intelligence advisory board, a small panel that provides counsel on America’s spy agencies.
Comcast Targeted by Entertainment Giants
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Shalini Ramachandran, Keach Hagey and Amol Sharma
Entertainment companies are using the regulatory review of Comcast Corp.’s proposed takeover of Time Warner Cable Inc. to press their concerns about “most favored nation” clauses, a common industry practice that guarantees big pay-television distributors the best prices and terms.
Silicon Valley Cafeterias Whet Appetite of IRS
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Mark Maremont
The IRS, arguing that these freebies are a taxable fringe benefit, has given new attention to the issue in recent months during routine audits of some companies, tax lawyers said. When employers haven’t been withholding taxes related to the meals, the IRS increasingly has sought back taxes that can amount to 30% of the meals’ fair-market value, the lawyers said.
Finance
Eric Cantor to Join Wall Street Investment Bank
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Dana Cimilluca and Patrick O’Connor
Eric Cantor plans to join boutique investment bank Moelis & Co., as the recently defeated House majority leader embarks on a new career on Wall Street. Mr. Cantor, 51 years old, will be a vice chairman and board member at the firm, effective this week, he and Moelis founder Ken Moelis said in a joint interview on Monday. … Mr. Moelis said he is hiring Mr. Cantor for his “judgment and experience” and ability to open doors—and not just for help navigating regulatory and political waters in Washington. Still, expertise in such matters is likely to be valuable given how heavily they can weigh on the minds of corporate executives contemplating deals.
Banks say funding rules will make key equities trades more expensive
FINANCIAL TIMES
Sam Fleming
Industry lobbyists have warned the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision that proposed funding rules could make it five times more expensive for banks to facilitate short selling, in which investors bet that share prices will fall.
Heady U.S. IPO Market Rolls Into Autumn
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Matt Jarzemsky
The anticipated flood would cap off the busiest period for new U.S. share listings in decades. Companies this year have raised $46.4 billion, the most in the first eight months of any year since 2000, according to data provider Dealogic.
Can the New York Stock Exchange Be Saved?
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bradley Hope
The day after Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman and chief executive of Atlanta’s Intercontinental Exchange Inc., took control of the New York Stock Exchange, he sent trusted lieutenant Thomas Farley to size up the 222-year-old icon of capitalism. … Within minutes, Mr. Farley made a decision: gut the place.
Public Pension Funds Stay Mum on Corporate Expats
NEW YORK TIMES
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Many of the nation’s largest public pension funds — managing trillions of dollars on behalf of police and fire departments, teachers and others — have major stakes in American companies that are seeking to renounce their corporate citizenship in order to lower their tax bill. While politicians have criticized these types of deals — President Obama has called them “wrong” and he is examining ways to end the practice — public pension funds don’t appear to be using their influence as major shareholders to encourage corporations to stay put.
From Deadbeat to Despot
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
…[I]t isn’t funny that Mrs. Kirchner invoked an anti-terrorism statute to go after Donnelley. The 2011 law offers a vague definition of terrorism to mean any action “with the aim of terrorizing the population” and was used earlier this year to bring charges against a newspaper editor. The Argentine government has since dialed back the charges against Donnelley from terrorism to “fraudulent bankruptcy,” with the head of Argentina’s tax authority calling for the arrest of Donnelley’s Argentina-based executives. The charges carry prison sentences of up to six years.
Politics
GOP Eyes Agenda for Senate
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kristina Peterson
Republican senators say the emerging plans aim to show voters that the party can successfully govern—enacting GOP policy while avoiding a sharply confrontational tone that some Republicans fear could endanger the party’s electoral prospects in 2016. Some of the top goals include approving the Keystone XL pipeline, passing accelerated rules for overseas trade agreements, speeding up federal reviews of natural-gas exports and repealing the 2010 health law’s medical-device tax.
Republican Senate candidates struggling to open leads despite Obama unpopularity
WASHINGTON TIMES
Seth McLaughlin
Republicans are poised to pick up seats in the Senate as congressional campaigns head into the home stretch, but Democrats are strongly defending a half-dozen states that will determine whether the GOP wrests control of the chamber or settles for another session of a divided Congress.
Halfway House: GOP falling short in midterms
POLITICO
Alex Isenstadt
Tepid fundraising, underperforming candidates and a lousy party brand are threatening to deprive House Republicans of the sweeping 2014 gains that some top party officials have been predicting this year.
Wealthy political donors seize on new latitude to give to unlimited candidates
WASHINGTON POST
Matea Gold
[Andrew] Sabin and other wealthy political contributors have more access than ever to candidates since the ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. More than 300 donors have seized the opportunity, writing checks at such a furious pace that they have exceeded the old limit of $123,200 for this election cycle, according to campaign finance data provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research organization.
The wave has failed to materialize
WASHINGTON POST
Eugene Robinson
All in all, you still have to give the edge to the GOP. But it is a surprisingly narrow and tenuous advantage in a year when some analysts were predicting a wave election in favor of Republicans.
Fast-Food Workers Seeking $15 Wage Are Planning Civil Disobedience
NEW YORK TIMES
Steven Greenhouse
The next round of strikes by fast-food workers demanding higher wages is scheduled for Thursday, and this time labor organizers plan to increase the pressure by staging widespread civil disobedience and having thousands of home-care workers join the protests.
Workers are at the mercy of markets
WASHINGTON POST
Robert J. Samuelson
What’s ultimately at stake is the Great Recession’s lasting effect on labor markets. Are they in the process of reverting to their modern role, promoting steadier employment and higher living standards? Or has there been a major break from the past, ushering in a harsher, more arbitrary system whose outlines are still faint? On this Labor Day, the verdict is unclear.
Food-Stamp Use Starting to Fall
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Neil Shah
There were 46.2 million Americans on food stamps in May, the latest data available, down 1.6 million from a record 47.8 million in December 2012. Some 14.8% of the U.S. population is on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, down from 15.3% last August, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show.
The miseducation of Bobby Jindal
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s efforts to withdraw his state from the Common Core State Standards were successfully rebuffed by members of his own administration. His attempted end-run to the courts was smacked down by a state judge who said the Republican governor’s actions were harmful to parents, teachers and students. That should have been the end of the matter, particularly with school starting, but sadly Mr. Jindal seems more intent on burnishing his conservative credentials for a presidential run than in serving the interests of students.
