Energy
Worry for Solar Projects After End of Tax Credits
NEW YORK TIMES
Diane Cardwell
But despite the technology’s success, Abengoa and other developers say they do not have plans at the moment to build more such plants in the United States. And that is largely because of uncertainty surrounding an important tax credit worth 30 percent of a project’s cost. Although the subsidy, known as the Investment Tax Credit, is to remain in place until the end of 2016, when it will drop to 10 percent, that does not give developers enough time to get through the long process of securing land, permits, financing and power-purchase agreements, executives and analysts say.
Obama, India’s Modi claim breakthrough on nuclear issues
WASHINGTON POST
Katie Zezima
President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday that the two countries have made progress toward resolving nuclear issues at the start of a three-day visit that is heavy on pageantry and symbolism. Obama said the two countries have reached a “breakthrough understanding” that would make it easier for U.S. and foreign firms to invest in Indian nuclear power plants. Indian law holds suppliers, designers and builders of plants liable in case of an accident, making companies loath to invest in the country’s nuclear plants, and the two governments have not agreed on how to track nuclear material.
After Senate climate votes, Dems see rift in GOP
POLITICO
Elana Schor
Republicans managed to neutralize a Democratic amendment on climate change in favor of a watered-down statement that left vague how much human activity was to blame for global warming. But the move proved almost too successful: 15 Republicans agreed with Democrats that humans played at least some role in the changing climate, enough to put the amendment within one vote of passing, to the dismay of the Senate majority. The nearly successful Republican language came as surprise, and was welcomed by liberal stalwart Sen. Barbara Boxer.
As Oil Prices Fall, Alaska’s New Governor Faces a Novel Goal, Frugality
NEW YORK TIMES
Kirk Johnson
Taxes paid by oil companies account for 90 percent of the state’s operating budget, and those revenues have sunk with stomach-churning suddenness and depth, echoing other oil-patch states, like Texas, but with uniquely Alaskan scale and implications. The result, historians and economists say, is beyond the experience of this state, or probably any other in modern times: more than half of the tax base — predicated on crude oil selling at around $110 a barrel — is simply gone in the whirlwind of $50 oil, as though it never existed. A spending plan of $6.1 billion for 2015, passed by the Legislature last year, will fall $3.5 billion short, or more, if oil prices keep falling. Alaska collects no state sales or income taxes to pick up the slack; a savings fund from past oil earnings will help, but it cannot fully fill the gap either.
Obama to seek wilderness designation for Alaska refuge
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama is proposing to designate the vast majority of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a wilderness area, including its potentially oil-rich coastal plain, drawing an angry response from top state elected officials who see it as a land grab by the federal government. “They’ve decided that today was the day that they were going to declare war on Alaska. Well, we are ready to engage,” said U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and chair of the Senate energy committee.
Who Will Rule the Oil Market?
NEW YORK TIMES
Daniel Yergin
American shale oil has become the decisive new factor in the world oil market in a way that could not have been imagined five years ago. It has proved to be a truly disruptive technology. But will that impact continue in a world of low prices? … Even at prices well below $100, American shale oil producers will find ways to drive down costs and output will start rising again. And the world’s new swing producer will find itself back in the swing of things.
Technology
Reactionary Regulators vs. the Internet
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Gordon Crovitz
“It just doesn’t make sense to apply hundred-year-old regulations meant for copper wires and giant switching stations to the networks of today,” said the Democratic Federal Communications Commission chairman, William Kennard, in 2000. “We now know that decisions once made by governments can be made better and faster by consumers, and we know that markets can move faster than laws.” But now President Obama and a coterie of Washington lobbyists and activists have decided they know better. The Internet might have been born free, but now must be brought under government micromanagement, just like a utility.
GOP lawmakers demand FCC make proposed Internet regs public
THE HILL
Julian Hattem
Currently, people aren’t expected to see the Federal Communications Commission’s new regulations for Internet service providers such as Comcast until the agency’s five commissioners vote on them on Feb. 26. That’s concerning for Republicans leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees, especially since the regulations are expected to exert bold authority over the Web by reclassifying Internet service to treat it like a utility.
Did Congress, the media and the FCC all misunderstand what Verizon said on net neutrality? Verizon thinks so.
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
In December, Verizon chief financial officer Fran Shammo told a group of investors that if regulators adopted aggressive open Internet rules, they wouldn’t stop the company from upgrading its network to provide faster, better service. Now Shammo says he was misunderstood. The new net neutrality rules being considered by the Federal Communications Commission represent “an extreme and risky path,” Shammo said on a conference call Thursday.
Google, Cablevision Challenge Wireless Industry’s Business Model
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ryan Knutson, Alistair Barr and Shalini Ramachandran
Google Inc. and Cablevision Systems Corp. are preparing new cellphone services that would turn the wireless industry’s business model on its head, increasing pressure on companies already dealing with an intensifying price war.
GOP prepares assault on ‘patent trolls’
THE HILL
Mario Trujillo
Congressional Republicans see legislation advancing “early this year” to address the problem of “patent trolls,” and advocates are gearing up for the fight. Republicans are bullish on their chances of passing changes to the legal system to combat so-called “patent trolls” who are accused of extracting settlements with threats of frivolous litigation. Legislative action has support from both parties and President Obama, raising the prospect that a bill could become an early bipartisan achievement of the new Congress.
Finance
Don’t treat Dodd-Frank as holy writ
USA TODAY
Frank Keating
Every law can be improved, and Dodd-Frank is no exception. Sometimes there are drafting errors. Sometimes a good idea in theory turns out to be unworkable after a closer look in the light of day. Not even regulators understand everything in Dodd-Frank. The Federal Reserve Board, which had to implement a Dodd-Frank provision on swaps, said it wouldn’t work. “You can tell that was written at 2:30 in the morning,” the Fed’s general counsel said. “So that needs to be, I think, revisited just to make sense of it.”
Weakening Dodd-Frank
USA TODAY
Editorial
It’s time for lawmakers to think more about 2008, when the world was on the brink of financial catastrophe, and less about doing big favors for the monied interests that were largely responsible for the crisis.
An Uncertain Future for Dodd-Frank
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
There have been powerful reminders in recent days that the financial system needs more regulatory vigilance, not less. But they come just as Republicans are setting their agenda in Congress, complete with vows to weaken the Dodd-Frank reform law.
Warren named to top Dem spot on Banking panel
THE HILL
Peter Schroeder
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is climbing the ranks of the Senate Banking Committee, and will now be the top Democrat on a key subcommittee. Warren will face off against Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) at the top of the panel’s Economic Policy Subcommittee, according to a Friday announcement from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), the overall committee’s ranking Democrat.
Tax-free college savings plans should be means tested
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
If politicians insist on subsidizing college savings through tax-free accounts, they should impose a means test. A model could be tax-free Roth IRAs, a popular retirement savings vehicle to which couples making no more than $181,000 per year may contribute as much as $13,000 per year (depending on age and other factors). It so happens that $181,000 is near the $180,000 cutoff below which Harvard charges students no more than 10 percent of family income. Yes, $180,000 is three and a half times the median family income, but in the realm of sky-high college costs, it’s an all-too-plausible definition of middle class.
India’s Republic Day should bring action toward trade reform
THE HILL
Patrick Kilbride and Chris Moore
Change will be challenging, as it always is. It will take work on both sides. But with so much to gain from greater economic freedom and openness and from policies and approaches that support and reward innovation, we can’t afford to miss this chance. On Republic Day, businesses in the United States congratulate India on the achievements of the past, and we look forward to concrete steps that can build and strengthen trade and investment ties in the months ahead.
Uneven Progress for 3 Chicagoans Janet Yellen Held Up as Symbols
NEW YORK TIMES
Binyamin Appelbaum
In her first speech as Federal Reserve chairwoman last March, Janet L. Yellen told the stories of three Chicago residents struggling to recover from the recession to explain why she intended for the Fed to retreat slowly from its stimulus campaign. Almost a year later, the three people highlighted by Ms. Yellen are still struggling, but their fortunes are gradually improving. All are working, though for less money than before the recession.
Politics
Chris Christie Joins Crowded GOP Fight for Donors
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Heather Haddon and Reid J. Epstein
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his supporters have formed a political-action committee ahead of a likely bid for president, adding a third well-known Republican figure to the fight for campaign funds among the party’s core donor class. The launch of the PAC, called Leadership Matters for America, is the clearest sign yet that Mr. Christie is running. It allows Mr. Christie to assemble a team of about a dozen staffers and fundraisers who could support a potential run for president, as well as to raise money that can be used to contribute to like-minded political candidates.
Two Camps Emerge Among 2016 Republican Hopefuls
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Reid J. Epstein
Signs emerged here this weekend that the 2016 Republican presidential field is dividing into two camps: candidates focused on grass-roots support, and others who will rely on big-donor funding.
How to halt next terror generation
USA TODAY
Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton
We must continue to do everything possible to thwart attacks, but preventing attacks alone is insufficient. We must also stop the forces that spawn new generations ready to take the lives of innocents. No longer can we neglect the difficult task of addressing the Islamist extremism that fuels terrorism.
The Greek Warning
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The rest of the eurozone is less vulnerable to Greek contagion than it was two or three years ago, which may make Berlin and Brussels less willing to bend to Greek demands. But if they’re too inflexible, they could create the possibility of an accidental exit if Mr. Tsipras sees little alternative. The rest of the eurozone would survive but the breakup would still be ugly. The best outcome of a renegotiation would be more debt relief in return for more pro-growth reforms, rather than antigrowth tax increases. The larger lesson for Europe is the volatility of politics without economic growth. Radical parties rise when mainstream parties lack solutions, especially when they see economic pain imposed from far-away capitals. Portugal, Italy and even France could see similar political uprisings if they don’t do more to break their unsustainable welfare-state models and adopt supply-side economic reforms.
