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Energy
Coal set for SCOTUS showdown
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Erica Martinson
Next week’s oral arguments will give states and industry groups a last-ditch chance to try to derail a mercury rule for power plants that critics consider a bulwark of Obama’s “War on Coal,” just weeks before the rule is scheduled to take effect.
Democrats’ dispute turns toxic over chemical safety
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Darren Goode
The intra-party dispute over a toxic chemicals bill intensified on Tuesday, with Senate Democrats trading barbs over whether the effort to update the 40-year-old law would undercut states’ ability to police dangerous substances.
Over public opposition, EPA to extend Clean Water Act to ponds, ditches
WASHINGTON TIMES
S.A. Miller
The Environmental Protection Agency took public opposition to plans to extend its regulatory reach to ditches and ponds “extremely seriously” but will forge ahead anyway, a top agency official told Congress on Wednesday.
Report: Oil and gas on public lands a ‘blind spot’ in climate fight
FUELFIX
Jennifer Dlouhy
Oil, gas and coal development on America’s public lands could undermine the Obama administration’s ambitious plans for combating climate change, including new curbs on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, according to a report set to be issued Thursday. The analysis by the Center for American Progress and The Wilderness Society, shared exclusively with FuelFix ahead of its release, pinpoints rising methane emissions from oil and gas wells on public lands and waters as a significant share of the heat-trapping gases tied to all energy development nationwide.
Technology
Key Democrat Open to Replacing FCC’s Net Neutrality Decision
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Brendan Sasso
“I remain open to true bipartisan congressional action, provided that such action fully protects consumers, does not undercut the FCC’s role, and leaves the agency with flexible, forward-looking authority to respond to changes in the dynamic broadband marketplace,” Sen. Bill Nelson, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, said at a hearing Wednesday. The Florida Democrat decried the “rhetoric” surrounding the net neutrality debate, and argued that Congress, and not just the FCC, should weigh in on the issue.
Republican: Net Neutrality Will ‘Jeopardize the Open Internet’
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Brendan Sasso
Senate Republicans continued to lash out at the Federal Communications Commission’s new net-neutrality regulations during an oversight hearing Wednesday. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune told the five FCC commissioners that their new rules “will only increase political, regulatory, and legal uncertainty, which will ultimately hurt average Internet users.”
Feds acknowledge power to act on Web rates
THE HILL
Julian Hattem
Federal regulators on Wednesday acknowledged that new net neutrality regulations could allow the government to interfere with how much companies charge for Internet service. The admission from Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will come as a vindication to critics of the new Internet rules, who have long warned that the agency’s powers will give it unprecedented control over the Web.
FCC to Address Small-Business Discounts in Spectrum Auction
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ryan Knutson
The nation’s top telecommunications regulator said Wednesday he aims to change the rules for auctions of wireless licenses to prevent big companies from taking advantage of discounts intended for small businesses.
Google’s Self-Driving Cars Hit Regulatory Traffic
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Alistair Barr
Google was a key backer of a 2012 California law that required state officials to devise rules for so-called autonomous vehicles by Jan. 1. More than two months after that deadline, a draft has yet to appear, meaning the regulations are unlikely to take effect until the end of this year. The delay highlights a growing awareness among backers of driverless cars: the technology is outpacing the law.
Finance
The Patience of Janet
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Talk about a mixed message. The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee on Wednesday finally dropped the word “patient” from its outlook for raising interest rates, but Chair Janet Yellen then used her press conference to replace it with an abundance of caution and hedging. Markets concluded that even if the Fed does raise the fed funds rate off near-zero in June, it won’t continue to do so rapidly or regularly, and so investors staged another easy-money stock rally.
Elizabeth Warren Strikes Back Against New GOP Efforts to Weaken Dodd-Frank
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Eric Garcia
Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts who served as an assistant in setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before she ran for Senate, said the House GOP budget could compromise the agency’s independence. “The consumer agency has put in place strong rules to protect consumers from tricks and traps in financial products,” Warren said in a statement to National Journal Tuesday night. “The big banks don’t like that—and that’s the number one reason the CFPB should remain free of political influence.”
Warren has Fed chief’s ear
THE HILL
Megan R. Wilson and Peter Schroeder
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is upping her outreach to Capitol Hill, and one lawmaker is attracting the largest amount of her attention: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). A review of Yellen’s meeting records, obtained by The Hill, shows the Fed chief has had more than twice as many meetings and phone calls with the big bank critic as any other lawmaker.
Top Wall Street Lawyer Slams Regulatory Environment
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Justin Baer
One of Wall Street’s top lawyers says strains between banks and regulators have never been greater. After the record mortgage-related fines paid by banks over the last two years, “the regulatory environment today is the most tension-filled, confrontational and skeptical of any time in my professional career,” Sullivan & Cromwell Senior Chairman H. Rodgin Cohen said Wednesday at a banking legal conference in Phoenix.
Shareholder capitalism on trial
WASHINGTON POST
Robert Samuelson
The problem isn’t shareholder capitalism. It’s the hangover from the financial crisis and Great Recession. Consumers are spending less and saving more to protect themselves against future economic shocks; this cautiousness then makes businesses more defensive, curtailing major investment projects. The two feed on each other. It’s a vicious circle that has been hard to break.
The Engine That Pulled Us Out of Recession
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Sec. Penny Pritzker and Jim Mcnerney
The U.S. economy ended 2014 on the uptick, and exports added to the momentum. But America now must continue to lead by putting in place high-standard trade agreements, alongside continued investment in the most innovative businesses and productive workers in the world. It is up to the government and private business to seize that opportunity.
Politics
Obama May Find It Impossible to Mend Frayed Ties to Netanyahu
NEW YORK TIMES
Helene Cooper and Michael D. Shear
President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had a poisonous relationship long before Mr. Netanyahu swept to victory on Tuesday night in elections watched minute-by-minute at the White House. But now that Mr. Netanyahu has won after aggressively campaigning against a Palestinian state and Mr. Obama’s potential nuclear deal with Iran, the question is whether the president and prime minister can ever repair their relationship — and whether Mr. Obama will even try.
Republicans Put Entitlements on the Table
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Janet Hook and Kristina Peterson
House and Senate Republicans have resurrected efforts to curb spending for Medicare and other safety-net programs, releasing budgets this week that bring government entitlements back to the center of political conversation.
Quiet Win for Boehner? Bending the Entitlement Curve
ROLL CALL
Matt Fuller
Speaker John A. Boehner is quietly putting the finishing touches on a legacy item that generations of high school civics teachers insist is the third rail of politics: “entitlement reform.” It’s no accident most Americans haven’t heard much about a potential deal eliminating SGR and making changes to Medicare. A long-term bill is still in question, and final details are still being hammered out. But every day without an uprising on SGR is a day closer to a deal. It looks increasingly likely lawmakers will agree to ditch the yearly fixes to the payment formula for Medicare doctors and pay for it — at least some of it — by making changes to private Medigap plans and by forcing wealthier seniors to pay more.
The New Price of Running for President
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Karl Rove
While juggling questions of a candidate’s performance, message and organization, every Republican presidential strategist also spends lots of time thinking about money. First comes this question: How many dollars must a candidate have to be competitive in the opening round of 2016 contests?
Hillary Clinton starts running — against the Republican Congress
WASHINGTON POST
Anne Gearan and Robert Costa
Hillary Rodham Clinton is already running her presidential campaign — against the Republican Congress. And the GOP is only happy to oblige. The prospective 2016 Democratic candidate is seeking to use the priorities and record of congressional Republicans as a foil, highlighting early GOP stumbles and attempting to change the subject after weeks of rough media coverage of her private e-mail system and of foreign donations to her family’s foundation.
How to Fight the Next Epidemic
NEW YORK TIMES
Bill Gates
The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has killed more than 10,000 people. If anything good can come from this continuing tragedy, it is that Ebola can awaken the world to a sobering fact: We are simply not prepared to deal with a global epidemic.
