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Energy
Two coal ash spills, two very different penalties assessed
WATCHDOG.ORG
Rob Nikolewski
Duke Energy is in final talks of a negotiated plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to pay $102 million in fines, restitution and community service. A judge must approve the deal. But even though the TVA coal ash spill was almost 37,000 times larger than the Dan River spill, the TVA received a state fine of just $11.5 million. The fine it received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency? Zero.
White House envisions wind providing a third of US power
THE HILL
Timothy Cama
With certain government and private-sector actions, wind power could provide 35 percent of the United States’s electricity needs by 2050, a new federal report found. The Wind Vision report released Thursday by the White House and the Energy Department is an update to its 2008 report and maps out the current state of wind energy and its potential over the coming decades.
John Kerry slams climate skeptics and fossil fuels, but sidesteps Keystone
POLITICO
Alex Guillén
Secretary of State John Kerry railed against climate change skeptics on Thursday, saying that “future generations will not and should not forgive those who ignore this moment, no matter their reasoning,” though he offered no direct clues on whether he would back the Keystone XL pipeline.
United Steelworkers Union and Refineries Reach Tentative Deal
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Alison Sider
Thousands of striking union workers at U.S. refineries soon are expected to end a walkout. The United Steelworkers union and the company representing refinery operators reached a tentative agreement on salaries, safety and other issues Thursday, according to a statement from the union.
End the ethanol mandate
USA TODAY
Editorial
The solution is obvious: Just end the mandate — notwithstanding the kowtowing of politicians traipsing through Iowa.
Renewable fuels benefit consumers
USA TODAY
Bob Dineen
If we are to ever realize the promise of the RFS, we must allow it to continue. New fuels and technologies are being commercialized. Markets for higher level blends are materializing. Now is not the time to pull the rug out from under investors and consumers who share the bipartisan vision of a more economic and environmentally secure energy future.
Technology
FCC Leaves Itself Wiggle Room on Net-Neutrality Rules
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Drew Fitzgerald and Thomas Gryta
The details of the Federal Communications Commission’s new net-neutrality rules make clear the regulator is struggling with how to handle some of the hot-button issues that helped put the topic back on the agenda in the first place. The uncertainty in some of the rules, released in full for the first time Thursday, reflects in part the fast-changing nature of the Internet and the agency’s lack of experience in areas that it now has the power to oversee.
Will the FCC’s Net-Neutrality Rules Hurt Minorities?
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Kaveh Waddell
Civil rights groups that typically march in lockstep have split over new net-neutrality rules, and their discord has escalated into a sharp, at times even personal, feud.
States sink teeth into Comcast deal
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Tony Romm
For Comcast, the future of its $45 billion bid to buy Time Warner Cable hinges on more than just the federal government’s green light. The telecom giant is rushing to battle back states like California and New York, where powerful public utility commissions appear likely to flex their regulatory muscle and attach a raft of conditions to the merger requiring changes to how the company offers and prices services — demands that Comcast may find burdensome to fulfill.
Responding to Sony Hack, Senate Advances Major Cybersecurity Bill
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Dustin Volz
The Senate Intelligence Committee approved a bill Thursday seeking to increase the sharing of digital data between the government and private sector, marking the first serious move to upgrade the nation’s cyber defenses since the crippling hack on Sony Pictures late last year.
Finance
Boeing Helped Craft Own Loan Rule
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Brody Mullins
When the Export-Import Bank sought to respond to critics with tighter rules for aircraft sales, it reached out to a company with a vested interest in the outcome: Boeing Co., the biggest beneficiary of the bank’s assistance. For months in 2012, according to about 50 pages of emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the bank worked with Boeing to write rules that would satisfy critics in Congress and the domestic commercial airline industry—while leaving most sales of Boeing’s airplanes to foreign carriers unscathed.
S.E.C. Chief Defends Agency’s Handling of Bank Punishment
NEW YORK TIMES
Ben Protess
One of Wall Street’s top regulators on Thursday shot back at criticism that the nation’s biggest banks enjoy special treatment in Washington, delivering a sweeping defense of the government while also rebuking the financial industry’s “repeated and disturbing violations of law.” In a speech at Georgetown University, Mary Jo White, the chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, publicly addressed for the first time a growing debate over whether her agency allowed banks to avoid certain repercussions for their misdeeds.
Fed ‘Stress Tests’ Still Pose Puzzle to Banks
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ryan Tracy, Emily Glazer and Victoria Mcgrane
Six years after the Federal Reserve’s “stress tests” began, the biggest Wall Street banks still are straining to decipher them. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley scaled back plans to return money to shareholders by at least $11 billion in the last week after their own assumptions about future risks turned out to be rosier than predictions made by the central bank.
Elizabeth Warren hijacks Senate hearing, blasts corporate settlements
WASHINGTON TIMES
S.A. Miller
Sen. Elizabeth Warren hijacked a Senate committee hearing on recreational hunting, fishing and shooting Thursday to advance her crusade against big business, calling for new laws to expose the details of legal settlements between the government and corporations accused of wrongdoing.
GOP senator presses Fed chief on insurance rules
THE HILL
Peter Schroeder
Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) is “deeply concerned” that the Federal Reserve could inappropriately impose tough new capital standards on the insurance industry. In a letter to Fed Chair Janet Yellen, Heller urged caution as the Fed begins to establish new rules for large insurance companies. In particular, the Senate Banking Committee member said he was wary of the new federal rules on an industry that had previously been monitored exclusively by the states.
Politics
Why super PACs have moved from sideshow to center stage for presidential hopefuls
WASHINGTON POST
Matea Gold
In the last presidential contest, super PACs were an exotic add-on for most candidates. This time, they are the first priority. Already, operatives with close ties to eight likely White House contenders have launched political committees that can accept unlimited donations — before any of them has even declared their candidacy. … The goal is simple: Potential candidates want to help their super PAC allies raise as much money as possible now, before their official campaigns start. That’s because once they announce their bids, federal rules require them to keep their distance.
Hillary Clinton’s Big Test
NEW YORK TIMES
David Brooks
In normal times, she comes across as a warm, thoughtful, pragmatic and highly intelligent person. But she has been extremely quick to go into battle mode. When she is in that mode, the descriptions from people who know her are pretty much the same, crisis after crisis: hunkered down, steely, scornful and secretive. It is said that she demands extraordinary loyalty from her troops. In the 2008 campaign, she narrowed her circle of trust to a tiny and insular set of advisers. It is said that she assumes that the news media is operating in bad faith, that the press swarms are not there for information but just to tear people down. So one big question this year is: What happens when Hillary Clinton’s battle mode temperament hits politics as it’s currently practiced?
Early Onset Clinton Fatigue
WASHINGTON POST
Charles Krauthammer
You can feel it. It’s a recurrence of an old ailment. It was bound to set in, but not this soon. What you’re feeling now is Early Onset Clinton Fatigue. The CDC is recommending elaborate precautions. Forget it. The only known cure is Elizabeth Warren.
Senate Republicans’ Budget Targets Medicaid, Food Stamps
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kristina Peterson
The Senate Republican budget slated for release next week is expected to generate savings by turning more responsibility for Medicaid and food-stamp programs over to states, GOP lawmakers and aides said Thursday. While details of the document aren’t final, Republicans would propose turning funding for those programs into something similar to a block grant, said Senate Budget Committee Member Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.). That approach would call for the federal government to pay states a lump sum, instead of a percentage of the program’s costs. States would have more control over the program and would be responsible for footing the rest of the bill.
Yet another embarrassment for the Secret Service
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
But the need for deep change seems more urgent with each mortifying incident, and the argument for an outside change agent grows more persuasive. Why, for example, did the Secret Service not even divulge the latest problem until The Post came calling? That kind of self-protection does not reflect a reformed spirit. So far, thankfully, the consequences of failure have not been more serious than embarrassment . The stakes are far higher.
Why Not 50 Different Affordable Health-Care Plans?
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Lanhee Chen
Section 1332 of ObamaCare allows states to craft their own health-care reform plans while waiving many of the law’s most onerous requirements. If a state drafts its own plan, it is exempt from enforcing both the individual and employer mandates, having to furnish the law’s tax credits and cost-sharing coverage subsidies, and enforcing the law’s essential health-benefits requirement mandating that plans cover a nationally standardized suite of medical benefits.
