InsideSources

Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics. 

Energy

BP Is Found Grossly Negligent in Deepwater Horizon Disaster
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Daniel Gilbert and Justin Scheck
BP PLC was grossly negligent in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, a federal judge ruled, handing down a decision that could cost the company as much as $18 billion in pollution fines for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Thursday’s decision could leave BP on the hook for far more than the $3.5 billion it had set aside for civil penalties under the U.S. Clean Water Act and likely would easily exceed the biggest previous fine under the statute.

Gulf of Mexico Residents Hail Ruling Against BP
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Environmentalists, recreational fishermen and people who make their living on the Gulf of Mexico are hailing a federal judge’s ruling that could mean $18 billion in additional fines for BP over the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.

Hillary Clinton is likely to be more conservative on energy policy in 2016 than she was 8 years ago
WASHINGTON POST
Philip Bump
If and when Clinton outlines her energy policies for 2016, look for them to include figures that are a bit lower than what she mentioned in 2008. Look for her to be generally OK with fracking, albeit with an assiduously knit brow. But do not expect any surprises. This is, after all, Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton talks climate change, gas and exports to friendly energy crowd
POLITICO
Darren Goode
Hillary Clinton expounded on climate change, energy exports, natural gas drilling and green energy Thursday — all while managing to play it safe. At Sen. Harry Reid’s National Clean Energy Summit, Clinton called climate change “the most consequential, urgent, sweeping collection of challenges we face as a nation and a world.” She also cited the potential benefits of producing and exporting natural gas and oil.

Whatever Happened to Global Warming?
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Matt Ridley
On Sept. 23 the United Nations will host a party for world leaders in New York to pledge urgent action against climate change. Yet leaders from China, India and Germany have already announced that they won’t attend the summit and others are likely to follow, leaving President Obama looking a bit lonely. Could it be that they no longer regard it as an urgent threat that some time later in this century the air may get a bit warmer?

Climate science in ‘Jeopardy’
WASHINGTON TIMES
Anthony J. Sadar and JoAnn Truchan
At this time, there is no question that the climate system is much too complex for hasty, arrogant assertions about long-range global conditions.

Technology

F.C.C. to Promote Choices for High-Speed Broadband
NEW YORK TIMES
Edward Wyatt
Americans lack real choices among providers of high-speed Internet service, with fewer than one in four homes having access to two or more providers of the broadband speeds that are quickly becoming “table stakes” in modern communications, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday.

Senator Demands Answers From Apple on Celebrity Photo Hacks
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Brendan Sasso
In a statement, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller said he wants the company to brief his staff on the “security protocols in place for its cloud databases.” “Apple is expected to introduce a new version of its iPhone that will enable, if not encourage, users to store more information with its cloud services, and I want to learn whether these focused, targeted attacks are symptomatic of wider, systemic vulnerabilities,” the West Virginia Democrat said.

Hackers Breach Security of HealthCare.gov
NEW YORK TIMES
Robert Pear and Nicole Perlroth
Hackers breached security at the website of the government’s health insurance marketplace, HealthCare.gov, but did not steal any personal information on consumers, Obama administration officials said Thursday. The administration informed Congress of the violation, which it described as “an intrusion on a test server” supporting the website.

Oppposition Grows in Europe to Google Antitrust Proposal
NEW YORK TIMES
James Kanter
Microsoft and the German publishing industry on Thursday stepped up pressure on the European Union’s antitrust chief to make radical adjustments to a proposed antitrust settlement with Google, or effectively leave resolution of the case to his successor.

White House names Google’s Megan Smith the next Chief Technology Officer of the United States
WASHINGTON POST
Nancy Scola
The White House announced Thursday that it has named its next Chief Technology Officer. She is Megan Smith, a Google executive with decades of experience in Silicon Valley. The Obama administration named as deputy U.S. CTO, Alexander Macgillivray, a former Twitter lawyer known as a staunch defender of the free flow of information online.

Finance

The Draghi Default
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Europe’s main economic problem is a political class that doesn’t want to address the structural impediments to growth that have nothing to do with monetary policy. Mr. Draghi is being asked to perform miracles he can’t deliver.

The Deflation Caucus
NEW YORK TIMES
Paul Krugman
On Thursday, the European Central Bank announced a series of new steps it was taking in an effort to boost Europe’s economy. There was a whiff of desperation about the announcement, which was reassuring. Europe, which is doing worse than it did in the 1930s, is clearly in the grip of a deflationary vortex, and it’s good to know that the central bank understands that. But its epiphany may have come too late. It’s far from clear that the measures now on the table will be strong enough to reverse the downward spiral.

A warning cry from the European Central Bank
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
Mr. Draghi favors structural reform, too, but his fears about the lack of progress under current policy seem to be growing. “The recovery was losing momentum,” he said Thursday, which is central-bank-speak for “we’re in big trouble.” In that sense, his latest moves may be seen less as tangible policy changes and more as a cry for help — a warning both to debtor governments and their German paymasters. The former need to reform and the latter need to rethink their fixation on budget-balancing. It’s a message that all concerned would be wise to heed, because another implication of Mr. Draghi’s latest step is that the ECB alone cannot save them.

Liquidity for Banks, This Time Defined
NEW YORK TIMES
Floyd Norris
In all too many cases, the rules in effect in 2008 allowed the bank to be the master. The Lehman Brothers definition of liquidity was rather generous. It included assets that had already been pledged to back bank loans, which would seem to contradict the very idea. Other assets would have been extremely difficult to monetize in a pinch but were counted anyway. The Securities and Exchange Commission, Lehman’s primary regulator, apparently had only a sketchy idea of what was going on. … The new rules are aimed at ensuring that the banks have enough ready liquidity to survive a crisis that lasts 30 days.

Fed Says Growth Lifts the Affluent, Leaving Behind Everyone Else
NEW YORK TIMES
Binyamin Appelbaum
Economic growth since the Great Recession has improved the fortunes of the most affluent Americans even as the incomes and wealth of most American families continue to decline, the Federal Reserve said Thursday. For the most affluent 10 percent of American families, average incomes rose by 10 percent from 2010 to 2013. For the rest of the population, average incomes were flat or falling.

Politics

Mr. McDonnell’s disgrace is also Virginia’s
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
Until today, too many politicians in Richmond had convinced themselves of the commonwealth’s alleged exceptionalism — the supposed civility and ethical uprightness of the so-called Virginia Way. Convinced of its own abiding rectitude, Virginia’s political class has refused to enact laws with teeth to hold elected officials to decent standards of conduct in carrying out the people’s business.

The need for a mighty U.S. military
WASHINGTON POST
Mitt Romney
Russia invades, China bullies, Iran spins centrifuges, the Islamic State (a terrorist threat “beyond anything that we’ve seen,” according to the defense secretary ) threatens — and Washington slashes the military. Reason stares.

Obama Is Free to Hit the Islamic State Terrorists
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Joe Lieberman
President Obama may soon expand the fight he has begun in Iraq against the Islamic State. If he chooses to strike the terrorist group in Syria, one debate in Washington will be: Does the president need congressional authorization to act? The answer is no. There is no reason for the president—once he has decided on a strategy and a plan of action—to wait for congressional debate and approval before engaging. The enemy is not waiting.

Obamacare decision shows impact of Obama’s judges
USA TODAY
Richard Wolf
A federal appeals court decided Thursday to reconsider a ruling that threatened to disrupt the nation’s health insurance expansion for millions of consumers. By doing so, it illustrated what liberals have yearned for and conservatives have feared for six years: President Obama’s judges are having an impact.

Hill leaders hoping for a quick September session — and no shutdown drama
WASHINGTON POST
Ed O’Keefe
But two issues beyond lawmakers’ control could complicate those modest hopes. First is the question of President Obama’s executive action plans on immigration. Second is whether he will seek congressional authorization to confront Islamic State, the hard-line groups dominating parts of northern Iraq and Syria. If Congress is forced to seriously debate either issue, it could kill any hope for the drama-free month that House and Senate leaders have been craving.

Senate Democrats urge President Obama to delay immigration order
POLITICO
Carrie Budoff Brown and Anna Palmer
Until now, few Democrats have been willing to break publicly with Obama over his vow to issue an executive order on immigration. Democratic incumbents in this year’s most competitive Senate races have already voiced concern, but the calls from others to hold off on acting suggests Democrats are growing even more anxious about the decision and its potential to upend the fight for control of the Senate.

The Non-Wave Election
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Charlie Cook
Now that Labor Day is behind us, the most remarkable thing about this midterm election is how little has changed since Memorial Day.

National G.O.P. Moves to Take Over Campaign of a Kansas Senator
NEW YORK TIMES
Jonathan Martin
National Republicans on Thursday moved to take control of the campaign of Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas by sending a longtime party strategist to the state to advise him, a day after his hopes for re-election and those of his party for taking control of the Senate were threatened by the attempted withdrawal of the Democrat in the race. Also on Thursday, the Kansas secretary of state, Kris Kobach, a Republican, ruled that the Democratic nominee, Chad Taylor, could not withdraw his name from the ballot.

Teachers Unions Under Fire
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Caroline Porter and Melanie Trottman
Teachers unions are fighting back against a California ruling that gutted two things they hold sacred: tenure laws and seniority provisions. But they face an uphill battle to reshape their image as opponents—and even some allies—say they are standing in the way of needed improvements in education.