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Energy
For GOP Presidential Candidates, a Slightly Changing Climate
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Ben Geman
The 2012 Republican presidential field was largely made up of climate skeptics. As the 2016 field shapes up, that’s still the case. Many of the would-be 2016 contenders will acknowledge that the climate is changing but publicly question the extent to which man-made greenhouse-gas emissions are responsible—if at all. There’s strong opposition in the field to President Obama’s EPA regulations on power plants, a central pillar of his second-term agenda.
Obama prepares for divisive veto
THE HILL
Laura Barron-Lopez
President Obama is just days away from issuing the biggest veto of his tenure, with Republicans poised to send him legislation that would authorize construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Obama’s veto — just the third of his presidency and the first since 2010 — is expected to come with little fanfare, with even opponents of the pipeline arguing the White House should avoid further angering Democrats and unions who want Keystone to be built.
House GOP to push energy package outline next week
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Darren Goode
House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans plan to issue an outline next week on a broad energy strategy that includes updating infrastructure and policies to reflect the booming U.S. production, House GOP and other sources familiar with the strategy said Friday.
Republicans hold fire on EPA climate rule
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Elana Schor
The House GOP plans to steer clear of a showdown over the greenhouse gas rules in a broad energy package that it will unveil this week, raising questions about whether Republicans are grasping for a workable plan to stop the carbon dioxide regulations that EPA will issue later this year.
Clean coal setback fuels industry attacks
THE HILL
Timothy Cama
The Energy Department’s decision this week to pull the plug on a major “clean coal” demonstration project [FutureGen 2.0] stands as the latest setback for a technology that only recently held promise as a key piece of the United States’ fight against climate change. Meanwhile, industry groups are seizing on the decision to scrap the years-old initiative as more evidence of the Obama administrations ”war on coal.”
Back to Yucca Mountain
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
The NRC report’s conclusions also show that Nevadans’ intense opposition to the Yucca project is unreasonable, unambiguously harmful to the country and should end. In a rational world, the NRC’s report would result in Nevadans backing down, Congress restoring funding and the Obama administration pushing Yucca along. This could fit neatly into the administration’s plan for nuclear waste, which foresees moving waste off reactor sites to interim storage facilities, then to a permanent repository when it’s ready. There’s no technical reason that the permanent repository shouldn’t be Yucca Mountain.
Technology
Report Sees Weak Security in Cars’ Wireless Systems
NEW YORK TIMES
Aaron M. Kessler
Serious gaps in security and customer privacy affect nearly every vehicle that uses wireless technology, according to a report set to be released on Monday by a senator’s office. … “Drivers have come to rely on these new technologies, but unfortunately the automakers haven’t done their part to protect us from cyberattacks or privacy invasions,” said the senator, Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, whose office published the report after obtaining detailed information from 16 automakers.
Oversight puts White House net neutrality moves under microscope
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Brooks Boliek
Chaffetz said he wants to see all communications relating to net neutrality between FCC staff and the White House, the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration from Jan. 14, 2014 to the present. He requested all relevant documents by Feb. 20, less than a week before the full commission is scheduled to vote on the controversial rules.
FCC Firms Up Legal Grounds for Net Neutrality
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jacob Gershman
Net-neutrality advocates say Mr. Wheeler’s plan, if adopted by the FCC, has a greater shot at surviving a court review. “Every time they’ve tried before, [the FCC] relied on a random scrap of authority,” said Columbia University law professor Tim Wu, a champion of net neutrality. “This time they relied on the main gun of the agency.”
This Is Your FCC on Drugs
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Holman Jenkins
One thing the Federal Communications Commission’s latest effort will not supply is a resolution of the net-neutrality debate, which will go on and on at much higher cost to all involved. Telecom lawyers will be eyeing bigger yachts. Another thing it won’t accomplish is faster broadband speeds. The share prices of the alleged broadband “monopolists” Comcast and Verizon rose this week, seemingly untroubled by the prospect of utility regulation. That should surprise no one. Regulatory uncertainty tends to freeze industry structure in place, helping the currently dominant to remain dominant.
The Great Internet Power Grab
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Gordon Crovitz
It likely will take the courts into the next presidency to litigate the enormity of this FCC power grab, but the sooner we return to the national consensus against heavy regulation, the better. The culture of American innovation and the freedom of the Internet hang in the balance.
White House Accelerates Drive to Improve Data Privacy
NEW YORK TIMES
Julie Hirschfeld Davis
The White House accelerated its efforts on Thursday to bolster data privacy laws and announced a bid to scrutinize discriminatory pricing on the Internet, pressing to exert control on the use of data in Americans’ lives.
Debate Deepens Over Response to Cyberattacks
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Damian Paletta and Dion Nissenbaum
Several large-scale cyberattacks in recent months have prompted a number of lawmakers and policy makers to call for a more forceful response, including suggestions that the U.S. engage in counterattacks that would disable or limit the culprits’ own networks. But White House officials and some technology security experts remain skeptical that such “offensive” cyberattacks would work, saying they are concerned about the difficulty in targeting specific hackers without causing widespread spillover, among other things.
Patent Holders Fear Weaker Tech Role
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Don Clark
Companies that include Intel Corp. , Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. had pressed the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to change its bylaws in ways that could reduce patent-license fees paid by makers of electronic devices. The changes were bitterly opposed by big patent holders such as chip company Qualcomm Inc., which earns billions of dollars each year in licensing patents from makers of smartphones. The U.S. Department of Justice last week gave a favorable opinion on the proposed changes, which the IEEE’s board of directors approved Sunday. But Qualcomm and other opponents contend that the revised bylaws could hurt their ability to fund innovation.
Comcast-Time Warner Cable Deal Still Up in the Air a Year Later
NEW YORK TIMES
Emily Steel and David Gelles
But in recent weeks, the air of inevitability around the deal has dissipated. With the Federal Communications Commission proposing stringent new rules to govern the Internet, analysts have grown more skeptical about the acquisition being approved. Investors began betting against the combination late last month, with shares of both companies falling sharply before recovering last week.
Finance
Regulations hit smaller US banks hardest
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Tracy Alloway
Amid a renewed push in Washington for regulatory relief for the country’s community banks, research by Marshall Lux — JPMorgan’s former chief risk officer for consumer businesses, now a senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School — has concluded that they were hit hardest by new rules.
Consumer Protection Agency Seeks Limits on Payday Lenders
NEW YORK TIMES
Jessica Silver-Greenberg
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created after the 2008 financial crisis, will soon release the first draft of federal regulations to govern a wide range of short-term loans. The rules are expected to address expensive credit backed by car titles and some installment loans that stretch longer than the traditional two-week payday loan, according to industry lawyers, consumer groups and government authorities briefed on the discussions who all spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations are private. Certain installment loans, for example, with interest rates that exceed 36 percent, the people said, will most likely be covered by the rules.
U.S. Banks Say Soaring Dollar Puts Them at Disadvantage
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Victoria McGrane, James Sterngold and Ryan Tracy
The strengthening U.S. dollar is rippling through the financial system in unexpected ways, revealing what bankers say is a hidden flaw in a Federal Reserve proposal to increase capital cushions at the nation’s largest banks. Big U.S. banks say that, under the rule proposed in December, the recent steep rise in the dollar’s value would force some U.S. firms to hold billions of dollars more in capital than foreign competitors, including weaker European banks, because of how the Fed plans to calculate a so-called surcharge levied on the eight most systemically important U.S. banks.
Now’s not the time to raise interest rates
WASHINGTON POST
Larry Summers
None of this is to say that rates should never be raised or that inflation indicators might not justify a rate increase before long. It is to say that the Fed could inject much-needed confidence in the economy today and minimize future risks by announcing and following a strategy of not raising rates until it sees the whites of inflation’s eyes.
Politics
Can the GOP Change?
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
It’s not too soon to say that the fate of the GOP majority is on the line. Precious weeks are wasting, and the combination of weak House leadership and a rump minority unwilling to compromise is playing into Democratic hands. This is no way to run a Congressional majority, and the only winners of GOP dysfunction will be Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton.
In Iowa, Republican field wide open as moderates stake their caucus claims
WASHINGTON POST
Robert Costa
Less than a year before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, it appears that every Republican contender is making a serious play to win the state, setting up what is likely to be one of the most active, competitive campaigns here in recent memory.
Another GOP circus in 2016?
POLITICO
Kyle Cheney and Katie Glueck
Welcome to 2016’s “Why not me?” primary: a low-stakes, little-covered tussle among below-the-radar Republicans who say they could be president. After seeing other presumed has-beens like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich become real factors in 2012, they see little downside in taking a shot. But for the GOP, which is already wrestling with a large group of would-be contenders, the presence of these former governors and senators and prominent officials presents an extra complication. They’re trying to avoid the circus-like atmosphere, fueled by candidates desperate for attention, that tainted many of the 2012 primary debates.
Jindal’s Education Plan: Less Washington, Less Jeb Bush
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Josh Kraushaar
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is in Washington Monday to unveil a series of education reforms as part of his 2016 presidential preparations. But his proposals call for scaling back Washington’s role in education while promoting increased parental choice for children’s schools, better measures to assess teacher performance, and more autonomy for individual schools over their own operations.
Chris Christie’s weeklong train wreck
POLITICO
Alex Isenstadt
Chris Christie intended to use this week to present himself as a serious figure ready to lead the country at home and abroad. It didn’t quite work out that way.
Coming Budget Poses Test for GOP
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Nick Timiraos and Kristina Peterson
Republicans, in full control of Congress for the first time since 2006, roundly panned President Barack Obama ’s $4 trillion budget proposal last week for going heavy on tax increases and light on efforts to trim the deficit. But while Republicans’ top budget-writers have committed to eliminating the annual federal budget deficit over 10 years, doing so is expected to require deep cuts in entitlement programs, particularly if tax increases are off the table.
Let’s Not Mention Inequality
NEW YORK TIMES
Ramesh Ponnuru
But there are better ways for Republicans to signal that their goal is broad-based prosperity. They could, for example, make the case that their policies would combat poverty, expand opportunity and increase middle-class wages — and that Mr. Obama has done a poor job on all these fronts. It would be a debatable case, of course. But it would be more plausible than the case that Republican policies would reduce inequality. My guess is that Republican politicians almost all care more about raising the middle-class standard of living than about reducing inequality. Since voters do, too, maybe that’s what those politicians should talk about.
The twisted priorities of a graying nation
WASHINGTON POST
Robert J. Samuelson
It is an extreme irony of the Obama presidency that a proud liberal — someone who believes in government’s constructive role — is presiding over the harshest squeeze on government since World War II. What’s happening is simple: Spending on the elderly and health care is slowly overwhelming the rest of the federal government. Spending on other vital activities (from defense to financial regulation) is being sacrificed to cover the growing costs of a graying nation.
