Your daily briefing for all the top news in Energy, Technology, Finance, and Politics.
Energy
EPA puts climate target on airlines
THE HILL
Timothy Cama
The Obama administration has launched a new front in its fight against greenhouse gas emissions, choosing as its next target the $200 billion per year commercial aviation industry. Airplanes emit about 2 percent of the country’s carbon dioxide, and would be the fourth pollution source to be subject to greenhouse gas regulations, after vehicles, major buildings and power plants. Republicans, already opposed to most of Obama’s environmental policies, criticized the decision to study aviation emissions as another example of regulatory overreach.
Ending oil export ban drawing more talk on Capitol Hill
FUEL FIX
Jennifer A. Dlouhy
The head of a Republican energy task force predicts the U.S. House of Representatives will advance legislation next year to relax a decades-old ban on exporting most U.S. crude. Without changes, said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, energy companies will continue exploiting exceptions in the current ban to sell U.S. crude overseas — and that oil will flow without the benefit of an across-the-board transparent process.
Nebraska high court hears Keystone case
THE HILL
Laura Barron-Lopez
Proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline urged the Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday to reject a challenge from landowners fighting the project’s route through the state. Deputy Attorney General Katherine Spohn argued on behalf of Nebraska’s Gov. Dave Heineman (R) and other state officials, claiming that the landowners have no standing to challenge a law that gives the governor authority to approve the pipeline’s route.
Republicans Say Gas Prices Are Rising. They’re Not.
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Clare Foran and Jason Plautz
Gas prices are falling. U.S. drivers paid an average of $3.43 for a gallon of gas Friday, the lowest they’ve been at this time of year since 2010. A month ago, on Aug. 4, drivers paid $3.49 a gallon. … Brushing those facts aside, the House Natural Resources Committee’s website reads: “House Republicans are committed to addressing America’s rising gasoline prices […] and stopping the Obama administration’s policies that are driving up prices at the pump.”
America’s Coal-Fired Divide
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Ronald Brownstein
While the West Coast states forge a green alternative for powering the future, red states cling to fossil fuels.
New Mexico nuclear waste site may be hobbled for years
REUTERS
It may be years before an underground nuclear waste dump in New Mexico shuttered by a radiation leak is fully operational, and costs for decontamination and other activities to restore the facility are not yet clear, Energy Department officials said.
Technology
Tech’s frustration with Congress boils over
THE HILL
Julian Hattem
But for all the work some members of Congress do to take industry’s money and run, many of the sector’s highest priorities have been left on the table. That’s leading to growing frustration around the San Francisco Bay Area and causing some industry advocates to eye a more aggressive posture for dealing with Washington.
The Internet Power Vacuum Worsens
WALL STREET JOURNAL
L. Gordon Crovitz
The Obama administration plan to give up U.S. protection of the open Internet won’t take effect for a year, but authoritarian governments are already moving to grab control. President Obama is learning it’s as dangerous for America to create a vacuum of power in the digital world as in the real one.
Two Cities With Blazing Internet Speed Search for a Killer App
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Conor Dougherty
It has been a little more than three years since the Kansas Cities — both Kansas and Missouri — won a national competition to be the first places to get Google Fiber, a fiber-optic network that includes cable television and Internet running at one gigabit a second. That is about 100 times as fast as the average connection in the United States (on which it would take about two-and-a-half minutes to download 612 kitten photos). But be careful what you wish for. After a few million in waived permit fees and granting Google free access to public land, the area is finding out that Google Fiber is so fast, it’s hard to know what to do with it.
Senators Take Aim at Rising Cable Bills
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Brendan Sasso
The Satellite Television Access and Viewer Rights Act from Sens. Jay Rockefeller and John Thune contains several provisions aimed at reducing the leverage of the broadcast stations in negotiations with cable providers. TV broadcasters are expected to rake in $4.3 billion in fees from cable companies this year, and the total could reach $7.6 billion by 2019, according to an analysis by SNL Kagan. Broadcast stations are free over-the-air to anyone with an antenna, but cable companies have to pay to carry the stations.
Net neutrality opponents are taking a page out of their rivals’ grassroots playbook
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
A market-minded think tank is making a play for Americans who object to heavier regulation of Internet service providers. The push began this week with a Web site, Don’t Break the Net, that urges the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission not to subject Internet providers to heavier regulation.
California’s smart on phone ‘kill switch’
USA TODAY
Editorial
As California goes, so goes the nation? Smartphone owners should certainly hope so, now that Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a measure to help cut the rampant theft of iPhones, Samsung Galaxy S5’s and other pricey devices.
Finance
SEC Preps Mutual Fund Rules
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Andrew Ackerman
The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing new rules to boost oversight of mutual funds, hedge funds and other firms as part of an effort to gain insight into whether the $50 trillion asset-management industry poses risks to the financial system, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The Fed Is Looking Like a Sovereign Wealth Fund
WALL STREET JOURNAL
David Malpass
The concept of a sovereign-wealth fund inside the Fed sounds farfetched, but the Fed’s megaportfolio already looks like one in many respects. It is one of the world’s largest and most leveraged bond portfolios, taking massive interest-rate risks. Just to maintain the Fed’s assets as bonds mature will require the Fed to make at least $1 trillion in bond buying decisions over the next five years. The longer the Fed holds its portfolio, the greater the danger that political forces will nudge its investments away from Treasury securities. The Fed already owns bonds created by Fannie and Freddie Mac, helping them take market share in the mortgage market from the private sector. There have been many proposals in recent years to set up infrastructure banks, for example. Perhaps the Environmental Protection Agency could set up an environment fund that issues bonds for the Fed to buy as a creative way to finance the fight against global warming.
MetLife’s Too-Big-to-Fail Fight
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The systemic designation process is opaque. The council sent a document to MetLife explaining its decision but the government won’t make its reasons public, unless it proceeds to a final designation. And even then recent history suggests taxpayers shouldn’t expect a thorough analysis. No doubt MetLife is now poring over the council’s explanation. If the federal analysis is light on facts, MetLife’s goal should be to force regulators to show the math justifying their claim that U.S. markets can’t withstand the insurer’s failure. We don’t think it exists, and neither do most state insurance regulators who, unlike the stability council, study this issue full time.
Export-Import Bank an easy call
USA TODAY
David Petraeus and Michael O’Hanlon
Put it all together, and Congress should see that the case for doing right by American business and the American people by re-authorizing the Export-Import Bank is overwhelmingly strong. Lawmakers have lots of tough calls to make this fall as they face issues from immigration and border security to numerous foreign policy crises and looming sequestration. The Ex-Im Bank is not one of those tough calls; Congress should go for the easy win and renew the bank’s charter.
Biggest tax inverters ‘have $21bn offshore’
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Barney Jopson
Three US companies seeking to use controversial takeovers to cut their US tax bills hold at least $21bn in “trapped” offshore cash that the deals could unlock. According to data compiled by Moody’s for the Financial Times, the biggest offshore cash piles held by companies pursuing so-called “tax inversions” belong to Medtronic, a medical devices group; AbbVie, a drugmaker; and Applied Materials, a technology group.
Schumer Anti-Inversion Tax Plan Could Reach Back to 1994
BLOOMBERG
Richard Rubin
The proposal by Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 leader in the Senate’s Democratic majority, would reduce the amount of deductible interest for inverted companies to 25 percent of U.S. taxable income from 50 percent, according to a draft obtained by Bloomberg News.
Supply issues could hamper the U.S. economy
WASHINGTON POST
Larry Summers
To achieve growth of even 2 percent a year over the next decade, active support for demand will be necessary but not sufficient. In the United States, as in Europe and Japan, structural reform — to both increase the productivity of workers and capital and to increase the number of people able and willing to work productively — is essential. Infrastructure investment, immigration reform, policies to promote family-friendly workplaces, development of energy resources and improvements to the business tax system will become ever more important.
A Fairer Shot for Student Debtors
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
This year, the federal government will pay companies that collect student loan payments about $600 million. Too often, those collectors fail to help millions of borrowers manage their accounts. Worse, some actually drive them deeper into debt.
Politics
Political Shift Stalls Efforts to Overhaul Immigration
NEW YORK TIMES
Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Ashley ParkerBy the time Senator Angus King called the White House to warn President Obama against taking executive action to overhaul the immigration system, officials were well aware they had a problem on their hands. What had once looked like a clear political imperative for both parties — action to grant legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants — had morphed instead into what appeared to be a risky move that could cost Democrats their majority in the November midterm congressional elections.
Congress’s plan to get nothing done
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
Polls show that voters are deeply dissatisfied with Congress, and they have every reason to be. But they also are ultimately responsible. It is up to them to elect lawmakers who prefer to shake hands and pass legislation rather than waste time in the sort of cynical positioning Washington will see over the next several weeks.
Ugly summer hounds Congress
POLITICO
Burgess Everett
Few in Washington expect Congress to do more than crow about the cascading crises before rushing home for a few more weeks of campaigning before the critical midterm elections. Still, the list of problems will force Congress to answer difficult questions during a stretch when lawmakers hoped to lay low.
Congress Is Back. Its Mission? Keep Government Open.
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Michael Catalini and Billy House
The time remaining before November’s crucial midterm elections is short, and so is Congress’s To Do list. The House and Senate return Monday for a brief work period, with an agenda that includes a number of messaging bills, a critical measure to fund the government, and potentially a bill to extend the Export-Import Bank before leaving town again for the campaign trail. Congress comes back to work amid a series of foreign crises grabbing headlines, but aside from rhetorical flourishes designed to suggest strength, House and Senate leaders have not signaled they’ll send any substantive foreign policy legislation to the president.
Destroying ISIS May Take Years, U.S. Officials Say
NEW YORK TIMES
Eric Schmitt, Michael R. Gordon and Helene Cooper
The Obama administration is preparing to carry out a campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that may take three years to complete, requiring a sustained effort that could last until after President Obama has left office, according to senior administration officials.
Confront ISIS now
USA TODAY
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
I understand that many Americans don’t want to become mired in another war. The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have claimed thousands of American lives and cost more than $1 trillion. But Americans need to understand ISIS’ degree of viciousness as well as what will happen in the absence of U.S. leadership and action. If the United States fails to unite and lead the world against ISIS’ horrific goals, we could suffer the consequences for decades to come.
Veteran Democrat Faces Hurdles to Re-election
NEW YORK TIMES
Katharine Q. Seelye and Jess Bidgood
Representative John F. Tierney, an embattled nine-term Democrat, knows about tough races. … Now, Mr. Tierney, 62, is bracing for another fight for his political life. Roll Call last year listed him as one of the 10 most vulnerable House incumbents, and in an update last month said he “remains vulnerable — in his primary, but more so in his general election.”
Size of Republican majority remains a question in race for the House
WASHINGTON POST
Sean Sullivan and Aaron Blake
So, here is the 10,000-foot view of where things stand in the House: Republicans, as they do in the Senate, have many more good pickup opportunities than Democrats. (The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan political handicapping service, has 13 Democratic seats rated as toss-ups, versus three GOP-held seats.)
Why Democrats Packed the Court
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Exactly as President Obama and Senate Democrats planned, the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has moved to suppress a major challenge to ObamaCare. The gambit is no less remarkable for its nakedness.
