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Energy
Biofuels Groups Clash on Seeking Revamped Fuel Standards
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Amy Harder
The Advanced Biofuels Association, a Washington-based trade group representing about 30 companies developing biofuels from non-corn products, on Wednesday began a campaign asking Congress to revamp renewable-fuel-standard policies. “The renewable fuel standard—the very tool that was created to foster our industry—has become one of the greatest obstacles to continued development of the advanced and cellulosic biofuel industry, due to inconsistent and poor implementation,” Michael McAdams, the group’s president, said at a conference in Washington.
Climate change ‘denier’ scientist funding investigation countered by ‘warmist’ probe
WASHINGTON TIMES
Valerie Richardson
A Democrat-led congressional investigation into the funding sources of “denier” scientists has triggered another scientific law — to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction — from the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Rep. Raul M. Grijalva’s investigation into the funding sources of seven professors has triggered a round of Freedom of Information Act requests by two free market think tanks in an effort to learn more about the financial backings of climate professors aligned with the “consensus” or “warmist” school of thought.
Obama’s EPA and the death of federalism
WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Mike Duncan
The Environmental Protection Agency, an entity well known for expanding its scope of power to advance an activist climate agenda, is proposing a top-down “Federal Implementation Plan” on states it determines are not sufficiently implementing the Obama administration’s so-called Clean Power Plan. This approach ignores the principles of federalism which became a critical tenet of the crafting and ultimate ratification of the Constitution and the framework by our Republic.
Dangerous Trains, Aging Rails
NEW YORK TIMES
Marcus Stern
These explosions have generally been attributed to the design of the rail cars — they’re notoriously puncture-prone — and the volatility of the oil; it tends to blow up. Less attention has been paid to questions surrounding the safety and regulation of the nation’s aging network of 140,000 miles of freight rails, which carry their explosive cargo through urban corridors, sensitive ecological zones and populous suburbs.
Chris Christie’s Oil Windfall
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Liberals claim to be outraged that Chris Christie settled a decade-long environmental lawsuit against Exxon Mobil for what they say is pennies on the dollar. The real scandal is that the Governor has exploited a dubious prosecution to backfill the New Jersey budget.
Technology
GOP fault lines form in Web fight
THE HILL
Mario Trujillo
Some House Republicans are refusing to fully endorse a compromise on net neutrality floated earlier this year by their party’s committee chairmen. While not ruling out future support for the draft bill, many in the party are pushing a hard-line approach to undo the Federal Communications Commission’s newly approved rules straight away.
Net Neutrality’s Babes in Toyland
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Daniel Henninger
Got a new Web idea? Run it by your Washington reps. Which will include the regulatory enablers of the Obama White House. They didn’t invent the Internet. But now they run it.
Conservatives increase pressure on congressional Republicans to block patent reform
WASHINGTON TIMES
Conservatives are stepping up their opposition to a Republican-backed patent-reform bill in Congress that they warn will trample on American inventors’ rights in the name of stopping frivolous lawsuits. Two dozen prominent conservative political groups, led by the influential American Conservative Union, the Club for Growth and the Eagle Forum, sent a letter Wednesday to House Speaker John A. Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Democratic leadership seeking to block floor votes on the so-called Innovation Act.
FCC Aims to Subsidize Internet Service for the Poor
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Brendan Sasso
The Federal Communications Commission plans to soon begin working on a proposal to subsidize Internet service for low-income consumers by expanding its Lifeline program, which is mocked by conservatives as the “Obamaphone” program.
Finance
Market turmoil threatens Obama’s economic success
THE HILL
Peter Schroeder
The U.S. economy is finally chugging along, but a resurgent recovery is bringing its own set of challenges that could complicate the president’s record on an issue that has dominated his time in office. A set of looming matters, both within and far outside of Washington’s control, will play a huge role in financial markets and the broader economy in the coming months. How those events play out could go a long way in scoring President Obama’s overall economic record, just as Americans are finally beginning to feel a recovery take hold.
Wall St. banks launch massive buybacks, boost dividends
USA TODAY
Kaja Whitehouse
The heart of the U.S. financial system got a seal of approval from the Federal Reserve Wednesday, prompting major U.S. banks to unleash a flood of dividend increases and more than $23 billion in stock buybacks on their shareholders. In the second phase of the Fed’s so-called stress tests, 29 out of 31 top lenders got the thumbs up to spend their cash on shareholders.
A Crusader Against the Common View of the Financial Crisis
NEW YORK TIMES
William D. Cohan
Peter J. Wallison, the 73-year-old conservative Republican, former White House counsel under President Ronald Reagan and current fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is determined to change the understanding of the cause of the 2008 financial crisis. It’s an uphill battle. He thinks that big banks have been receiving far too much of the blame and that government housing policies, dating back 25 years, not nearly enough of it. Worse, Mr. Wallison says, the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law, which emerged in the wake of the crisis to re-regulate Wall Street, is not only “oppressive” but it has also thwarted economic growth by curbing the willingness of banks, both large and small, to make the loans that are crucial to keeping American businesses vibrant.
A bank with Congress in its pocket
WASHINGTON POST
George Will
The [Ex-Im] bank’s costs are, however, more than financial. The bank takes a toll on the quality and equity of American life and politics by helping to make legitimate and routine the practice, which extends far beyond the bank, of allocating wealth to the politically well-connected. The inability of Republicans to end the bank by inaction illustrates the inertia of big government when buttressed by the clients it creates.
Politics
Democrats Are Bullish on Retaking the Senate
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Karl Rove
After sustaining crushing losses in 2014, Democrats are projecting confidence about recapturing the Senate in 2016. Unlike midterms, according to the party’s Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman, Justin Barasky, a presidential election “can only help Democrats.” Count me skeptical.
Democrats See No Choice but Hillary Clinton in 2016
NEW YORK TIMES
Nicholas Confessore, Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman
They shrug off questions about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s email habits. They roll with the attacks on her family’s foundation, the big checks from foreign governments, the torpid response of her not-yet-campaign. They have little choice: As Mrs. Clinton prepares to begin her second presidential campaign amid a froth of criticism and outrage, Democrats are not just Ready for Hillary — as supporters named one pro-Clinton “super PAC” — they are desperate for her.
Hillary Clinton has little to fear from Martin O’Malley
WASHINGTON POST
Dana Milbank
This is why Clinton has little to worry about, no matter how badly she flubs her response to the kerfuffle over her private e-mail server and foreign contributions to her family’s foundation. She just doesn’t have a credible challenger. O’Malley actually is a serious player with a solid record — and he might well make a good president — but he’s campaigning as if he’s running to be Clinton’s EPA administrator or her OMB director. He may be the Bruce Babbitt of 2016: He appeals to liberal intellectuals, but this wonk is not about to fire up the party base.
Some top Democrats are alarmed about Clinton’s readiness for a campaign
WASHINGTON POST
Philip Rucker and Paul Kane
But in interviews Wednesday with The Washington Post, current and former Democratic officeholders and operatives from across the country raised serious questions about her and her political team’s strength and readiness for a 2016 presidential campaign. “She’s tried to put the day of reckoning off, but it’s come now, and I don’t think she can stand another couple of weeks of this without her structure in place,” said Jim Hodges, a former governor of South Carolina.
Foreign policy alters contours of GOP race
POLITICO
Alex Isenstadt and Jonathan Topaz
The tight focus on the projection of strength abroad, the nation’s strategy for addressing the rise of Islamic militants, on Iran, Israel, Russia, Syria and China, has forced the campaigns to rethink nearly every aspect of their approach, including messaging, tactics and strategy. Events such as Conservative Political Action Conference — a rite of passage for presidential contenders that in previous years has been monopolized by social and fiscal matters — have been dominated by speeches and sessions devoted to international affairs. Foreign affairs advisers are suddenly prized commodities on the presidential hiring circuit, being fought over like never before.
Iran letter blowback startles GOP
POLITICO
Burgess Everett
Some Republican senators admitted Wednesday they were caught off guard by the backlash to a letter warning Iranian leaders against a nuclear agreement with President Barack Obama. And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Republicans — many of whom blessed the missive during a brisk signing session at a Senate lunch a week ago, as senators prepared to flee a Washington snowstorm — should have given it closer consideration. “It was kind of a very rapid process. Everybody was looking forward to getting out of town because of the snowstorm,” McCain said. “I think we probably should have had more discussion about it, given the blowback that there is.”
GOP is warned: ‘$5.5 trillion to get us to balance in 10 years’
POLITICO
David Rogers
“It will be about $5.5 trillion to get us to balance in 10 years,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told the panel. “Just to put that in perspective that’s eight times the size of the [2012] fiscal cliff deal and it’s 65 times the size of the [2013] Ryan Murray deal which you recall we didn’t stick to for very long.”
