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Energy
Keystone Debate: Senate Votes on Dueling Climate Change Amendments
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Amy Harder
As part of its ongoing debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, senators voted Wednesday on three nonbinding amendments addressing the scientific consensus of climate change. The Senate rejected the most contentious amendment sponsored by Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii), which stated climate change is real and that human activity significantly contributes to it, something most scientists around the world agree is occurring.
Republican hints at Keystone backup plan
THE HILL
Ben Kamisar
House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) struck a positive tone about the pipeline fight in a radio interview, suggesting the GOP could have other ways to secure a veto-proof majority for the pipeline. “He may veto this thing and we may not have the votes to overturn it, but he is going to see it on a transportation infrastructure bill and we’re going to give it to him with 400 votes,” Sessions said on the Dallas-Fort Worth-area “Mark Davis Radio Show.”
Should We Allow Further Drilling on Public Land?
FUEL FIX
Brigham McCown
While some argue for drilling on federal lands, others argue against any growth in production at all as a part of an off-oil agenda. As well intentioned as some may be, the fact remains the U.S., and world economy will remain dependent upon fossil fuels for at least another generation. As evident by lowered energy costs, production can indeed affect the price at the pump, and that directly empowers our quality of life. Enhancing domestic and foreign policy through rational energy policies is something the vast majority of Americans expect. Let us hope Washington can decide on a commonsense approach to properly balance this important issue.
Refiners Top Off Their Storage Tanks
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Alison Sider
As oil prices have tumbled during the past few months, U.S. refiners have been sucking up as much of the abnormally inexpensive crude as they can, turning it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. Prices at the pump have plunged to almost $2 a gallon, the lowest nationwide average in more than five years. Even though U.S. drivers are filling their tanks more often, they can’t keep pace with surging gasoline supplies. So a lot of the fuel that refiners are producing is sitting in storage tanks.
Technology
Tech giants get deeper into D.C. influence game
POLITICO
Tony Romm
Apple, Amazon and Facebook shelled out record amounts to influence Washington, Google posted one of its biggest lobbying years ever and a slew of new tech companies dipped their toes into politics for the first time in 2014 — a sign of the industry’s deepening effort to shape policymaking in D.C. The sharp uptick in spending reflects the tech sector’s evolution from an industry that once shunned Washington into a powerful interest that’s willing to lobby extensively to advance the debates that matter most to companies’ bottom lines — from clamping down on patent lawsuits to restricting National Security Agency surveillance to obtaining more high-skilled immigration visas and green cards.
GOP: Democrats get ‘70 percent’ of wishlist in net neutrality bill
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Alex Byers and Kate Tummarello
Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) warned that Democrats should back the bill — which gives Democrats “70 percent” of what they want — in the face of almost certain litigation if the FCC reclassifies broadband. “I do believe this will be challenged in court,” and “I think there’s a pretty good chance that the FCC won’t win,” he said. If that happens, “this exercise [at the FCC] will be all for nothing.”
Congressional Democrats are itching for a fight over net neutrality
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
The top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Bill Nelson (Fla.), said he disagreed with calls for net neutrality legislation ahead of the FCC’s proposal. “I do not share that concern,” Nelson said. “It is more important to get this issue right than it is to get it done right now.” Nelson said he’s particularly worried about provisions in the GOP bill that would ban the FCC from ever regulating Internet providers like phone service providers.
Broadband Industry Backs GOP’s Proposed Net-Neutrality Bill
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Gautham Nagesh
Testifying before a House subcommittee on Wednesday, National Cable & Telecommunications Association President Michael Powell said the legislation could “finally put an end to the controversy over the FCC’s attempts to establish a regulatory framework that protects and preserves an open Internet.” … Mr. Powell argued that the classification of broadband under Title II poses a number of risks to broadband providers, even if the FCC chooses to exempt them from the bulk of Title II regulations through a legal process known as forbearance. He said under Title II the FCC would have the authority to regulate prices, require approval before providers can offer new products and services, and force cable and phone companies to lease capacity on their lines to competing Internet service providers.
FCC urged to pause on Internet rules
THE HILL
Mario Trujillo
The Federal Communications Commission would be smart to pause its work on open Internet rules now that Congress has actively joined the fight, GOP commissioner Michael O’Rielly said in a speech Wednesday.
Cory Booker’s introducing a bill to help cities build their own, public Internet services
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
Sen. Cory Booker is leaping into the political fight over whether to let cities build and operate their own Internet service. On Thursday, the New Jersey Democrat will introduce a bill that would help local towns set up public alternatives to big Internet providers such as Comcast or Verizon. It would amend the nation’s signature telecom law — the Communications Act — to make it illegal for states to prohibit municipal broadband through new regulations or state legislation.
Google to Sell Wireless Service in Deals With Sprint, T-Mobile
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ryan Knutson and Alistair Barr
Google Inc. is preparing to sell wireless service directly to consumers after striking deals with Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc., a move likely to prod the wireless industry to cut prices and improve speeds, according to people familiar with the matter.
Finance
Hensarling lays out his plans
THE HILL
Kevin Cirilli
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) on Wednesday said he’ll seek to to amend financial rules and push for oversight of Washington’s regulators. … The business community will cheer portions of his eight-page plan that reiterate his commitment toward pushing for more oversight of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), as well as the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.
Davos 2015: Banks call for free rein to fight cyber crime
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Executives at some of the world’s largest banks are pressing government officials to pursue cyber criminals more aggressively or let the industry off the leash to fight them directly.
Obama Seeks to Woo Fellow Democrats on Trade Deals
WALL STREET JOURNAL
William Mauldin and Siobhan Hughes
President Barack Obama ’s push for a new round of trade deals looks set to hinge on a small swing contingent of House Democratic lawmakers, testing the president’s ability to woo wary members of his own party. To do that, the White House has deployed cabinet secretaries and set up a war room to promote fast-track trade legislation on Capitol Hill. Mr. Obama asked for legislation to ease passage of trade deals in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, portraying such a move as good for jobs and a counter to China’s influence in the Pacific.
Supreme Court Weighs Fair-Housing Lawsuits
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jess Bravin
The Supreme Court divided into ideological camps Wednesday as it considered whether fair-housing lawsuits can proceed against practices that allegedly promote racial segregation even without proof of intentional discrimination. Several conservative justices at an oral argument sharply questioned the legal theory underlying such lawsuits, known as “disparate impact” cases, which have helped enforce Fair Housing Act provisions aimed at ending housing discrimination.
Supreme Court housing decision could put our financial well-being at risk
WASHINGTON POST
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
The promise of our country is our commitment to build opportunities — not just for some of our families, but for all of our families. We’ve seen what happens when the narrow, short-term interests of the financial industry take precedence over this basic commitment. We can only hope the Supreme Court has learned that lesson, too.
Goldman Investments Are Testing Volcker Rule
NEW YORK TIMES
Nathaniel Popper
Goldman Sachs has been on a shopping spree with its own money, snapping up apartments in Spain, a mall in Utah and a European ink company, all of which the bank hopes eventually to sell for a profit. These are the sorts of investments that many, including some of the bank’s regulators, had assumed would be prohibited by one of the signature elements of the 2010 financial overhaul legislation, the Volcker Rule.
S.&.P. to Pay Nearly $80 Million to Settle Fraud Cases
NEW YORK TIMES
Ben Protess and Matthew Goldstein
Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency blamed for helping inflate the subprime mortgage bubble, has settled accusations that it orchestrated a similar fraud years after the bubble burst. S.&P. has agreed to settle an array of government investigations stemming from 2011, paying nearly $80 million and admitting some misdeeds, federal and state authorities announced on Wednesday. As part of the deals, reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the state attorneys general in New York and Massachusetts, S.&P. also agreed to take a one-year “timeout” from rating certain commercial mortgage investments at the heart of the case, an embarrassing blow to the rating agency.
Mario Draghi prepares to unveil easing proposals
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Claire Jones
The European Central Bank is on Thursday set to follow the lead of the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England and embark on quantitative easing. The momentous decision on sovereign bond buying in the eurozone is expected at 1.30pm GMT. Here is what to look out for when Mario Draghi, ECB president, unveils the programme.
Politics
Talk of Wealth Gap Prods the G.O.P. to Refocus
NEW YORK TIMES
Jonathan Weisman and Ashley Parker
With the economy finally on more solid ground, even leading Republicans, on Capitol Hill and on the nascent 2016 presidential campaign front, are tempering complaints about overall economic growth and refocusing on the more intractable problem of income inequality.
Debt Hawks to Launch Campaign in Iowa and N.H.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Janet Hook
Two nonprofit antideficit groups — Fix the Debt and the Concord Coalition — Thursday will announce a new project to step up grassroots pressure in Iowa and New Hampshire for presidential candidates to address long-term debt issues. The project will be called “First Budget,” because its goal is to get each candidate to commit to including a plan to reduce the debt in their first budget as president.
Romney and Jeb Bush to Meet in Utah
NEW YORK TIMES
Jonathan Martin
Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney are scheduled to meet privately this week in Utah, raising the possibility that the two former governors will find a way to avoid competing presidential campaigns that would split the Republican establishment next year, two prominent party members said Wednesday night. … The original idea was for Mr. Bush, who announced his presidential ambitions in December, to show his respect for Mr. Romney, the Republican Party’s 2012 nominee. The meeting stayed on both men’s calendars even as Mr. Romney took steps to test the presidential waters, moves that could make the meeting awkward.
Republicans seek to one-up Obama on foreign affairs
WASHINGTON POST
Greg Jaffe and Paul Kane
Republicans on Wednesday delivered a swift and bold response to President Obama’s exuberant State of the Union address by taking direct aim at the administration’s foreign policy authority. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) invited Israel’s prime minister to address Congress next month on the danger posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Give diplomacy with Iran a chance
WASHINGTON POST
Laurent Fabius, Philip Hammond, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Federica Mogherini
Let us be clear: If Iran violates its commitments or proves unwilling to agree to a comprehensive, verifiable understanding that meets the international community’s bottom line, we will have no choice but to further increase pressure on it. For the first time, however, we may have a real chance to resolve one of the world’s long-standing security threats — and the chance to do it peacefully. We can’t let that chance pass us by or do anything to derail our progress. We have a historic opportunity that might not come again. With the eyes of the world upon us, we must demonstrate our commitment to diplomacy to try to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue within the deadline we have set. That is the surest path to reaching a comprehensive, lasting solution that will make the world and the region safer.
GOP stumbles over abortion bill
POLITICO
Jake Sherman
Republican leadership late Wednesday evening had to completely drop its plans to pass a bill that bans abortions after 20 weeks, and is reverting to old legislation that prohibits taxpayer funding of abortions. The evening switch comes after a revolt from a large swath of female members of Congress, who were concerned about language that said rape victims would not be able to get abortions unless they reported the incident to authorities.
Obama’s Bad Economic Ideas
NEW YORK TIMES
Glenn Hubbard
President Obama’s economic proposals in Tuesday’s State of the Union address were a disappointment. His ideas — free community college, an enhanced tax credit for child care and higher taxes on high-income earners and large financial institutions — failed to go beyond mere talking points. With no chance of engaging the Republicans, they will surely die without a hearing. But the president’s proposals do invite a case for a comprehensive tax and entitlement reform, one based not on redistribution but on growth, work and opportunity.
The harm incurred by a mushrooming welfare state
WASHINGTON POST
George Will
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a lifelong New Deal liberal and accomplished social scientist, warned that “the issue of welfare is not what it costs those who provide it but what it costs those who receive it.” As a growing portion of the population succumbs to the entitlement state’s ever-expanding menu of temptations, the costs, Eberstadt concludes, include a transformation of the nation’s “political culture, sensibilities, and tradition,” the weakening of America’s distinctive “conceptions of self-reliance, personal responsibility, and self-advancement,” and perhaps a “rending of the national fabric.” As a result, “America today does not look exceptional at all.”
Now He’s After Middle-Class Savers
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
President Obama is pitching his new tax plan as a way to help the middle class at the expense of the rich. But middle-class savers are bound to notice if he achieves two of the White House’s stated goals—to “roll back” tax benefits of 529 college savings plans and “repeal tax incentives going forward” for Coverdell Education Savings Accounts.
Domino’s to Obama Admin: Calorie Rule is ‘Unworkable’
WASHINGTON FREE BEACON
Elizabeth Harrington
The final Obamacare regulation forcing restaurant chains to display calorie information is causing headaches for companies who say it is “impossible to comply” with the new rule. Domino’s Pizza, one of the regulation’s most outspoken critics, said the rule from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is vaguely written and carries the possibility of jail time.
Argentine Phone Calls Detail Efforts to Shield Iran
NEW YORK TIMES
Jonathan Gilbert and Simon Romero
Intercepted conversations between representatives of the Iranian and Argentine governments point to a long pattern of secret negotiations to reach a deal in which Argentina would receive oil in exchange for shielding Iranian officials from charges that they orchestrated the bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994. The transcripts were made public by an Argentine judge on Tuesday night, as part of a 289-page criminal complaint written by Alberto Nisman, the special prosecutor investigating the attack. Mr. Nisman was found dead in his luxury apartment on Sunday, the night before he was to present his findings to Congress.
