Please help InsideSources continue to grow. Ask your friends and colleagues to signup for InsideAlerts.
Energy
The Campus Climate Crusade
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Kimberley A. Strassel
Conservative thought on campus these days is rare, though for some it’s still not rare enough. Witness the growing campaign by politicians, unions and environmentalists to intimidate into silence any academic or program that might challenge liberal ideology.
Energy efficiency bill passes Senate in early morning
THE HILL
Jordain Carney
Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) squeaked in a vote early Friday morning on their energy efficiency bill after the Senate ended an hours-long marathon on the budget. The Energy Efficiency Improvement Act was passed by voice vote, with the two senators the only two on the floor after 4 a.m. Friday. The legislation focuses on improving energy efficiency in buildings, while also exempting thermal storage water heaters from upcoming energy standards.
Energy Department study: Shale won’t last, Arctic drilling needed now
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The U.S. should immediately begin a push to exploit its enormous trove of oil in the Arctic waters off of Alaska, or risk a renewed reliance on imported oil in the future, an Energy Department advisory council says in a study to be released Friday.
Some Energy Companies Find the Going Tough
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Matt Jarzemsky
The ranks of financially stressed companies have swelled to a 4½-year high as the sharp drop in oil prices batters energy companies. The number of companies with the worst below-investment-grade debt ratings rose to 184 in February, the highest count since November 2010, and remained at that level in March, according to Moody’s Investors Service. That is a 16% increase over March 2014.
A Private Solution to Energy Efficiency
REALCLEARENERGY
Jared Meyer and Alex Verkhivker
As the academic literature on behavioral economics continues to grow, energy efficiency’s future is poised to engage consumers’ competitive spirits. People naturally desire to lower their utility bills and if companies can nudge people towards energy savings, that might just clear the path to more-sustainable energy use.
Obama’s chemical agency chief resigns under pressure
THE HILL
Timothy Cama
The embattled chairman of the Chemical Safety Board resigned late Thursday after President Obama asked him to step down, a White House official said. Obama sought Rafael Moure-Eraso’s resignation after intense pressure from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress following numerous allegations that he broke the law and was an ineffective, dysfunctional and hostile leader.
Technology
CBC head wants Congress to take lead on Web rules
THE HILL
Mario Trujillo
Unlike most Democrats, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus wants a legislative fix on net neutrality. Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) said the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) rule-making process has been “politically driven” by special interests and Congress needs to get involved. He did not, however, give support to any specific plan.
How to end a fight over who should regulate Internet providers
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
Federal officials are discussing an end to the Federal Trade Commission’s legal prohibition on regulating Internet providers and telecom companies — a move that could give Washington wider authority to police perceived abuses and consumer harms in an increasingly important part of the economy.
Finance
Payday Loan Rules Proposed by Consumer Protection Agency
NEW YORK TIMES
Michael D. Shear and Jessica Silver-Greenberg
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency created at President Obama’s urging in the aftermath of the financial crisis, took its most aggressive step yet on behalf of consumers on Thursday, proposing regulations to rein in short-term payday loans that often have interest rates of 400 percent or more. The rules would cover a wide section of the $46 billion payday loan market that serves the working poor, many of whom have no savings and little access to traditional bank loans. The regulations would not ban high-interest, short-term loans, which are often used to cover basic expenses, but would require lenders to make sure that borrowers have the means to repay them.
Obama looks to defend CFPB from Republican attacks
THE HILL
Jordan Fabian
President Obama on Thursday will criticize Republicans for offering a budget plan he says will drain funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The president threatened to veto any legislation that would “unravel” the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, which created the consumer watchdog.
As Dollar Heats Up Overseas, U.S. Manufacturers Feel a Chill
NEW YORK TIMES
Nelson D. Schwartz
The dollar’s sharp rise in recent months has left Robert Stevenson and Eastman Machine, his family’s 127-year-old Buffalo company, feeling the heat on both sides of the Atlantic. Confronted with a steep drop in the value of the euro against the dollar, customers in Europe warn that they can no longer afford to buy Eastman’s American-made cutting equipment without deep discounts. Buyers in America, meanwhile, are demanding lower prices from Mr. Stevenson, too, as European-based rivals take advantage of the suddenly stronger dollar, which allows them to reduce prices on the machines they export to the United States without squeezing profits.
White House Stays Course on Homeownership Push
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Joe Light
As the Obama administration enters the home stretch of its second term, it isn’t shrinking from criticism of its push to expand mortgage access and homeownership for hundreds of thousands of Americans. The Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday tapped senior adviser Edward Golding to head the Federal Housing Administration, an agency with direct control over borrowing costs for hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped homeowners.
Politics
The GOP racing form: First edition
WASHINGTON POST
Charles Krauthammer
With Ted Cruz announcing and Rand Paul and Marco Rubio soon to follow, it’s time to start handicapping the horses and making enemies. No point in wasting time on the Democratic field. There is none. The only thing that can stop Hillary Clinton is an act of God, and He seems otherwise occupied. As does Elizabeth Warren, the only Democrat who could conceivably defeat her.
The Field Is Flat
NEW YORK TIMES
David Brooks
But there’s a growing body of evidence to suggest that, in fact, Democrats do not enter this election with an advantage. There are a series of trends that may cancel out the Democratic gains with immigrants, singles and the like.
House Approves Bill on Changes to Medicare
NEW YORK TIMES
Jennifer Steinhauer and Robert Pear
The House overwhelmingly approved sweeping changes to the Medicare program on Thursday in the most significant bipartisan policy legislation to pass through that chamber since Republicans regained a majority in 2011. The measure, which would establish a new formula for paying doctors, increase premiums for some Medicare beneficiaries and extend a popular health insurance program for children, has already been endorsed by President Obama and awaits a vote in the Senate.
2016 brawl breaks out on Senate floor
POLITICO
Manu Raju
Four GOP senators are trying to gain the upper hand on the commander-in-chief test — Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham — and their competition was on vivid display as the Senate took up a Rubio plan to pump tens of billions of dollars more into the Pentagon budget. Paul blasted the idea because the new spending wasn’t offset by other cuts. And caught in the middle was Cruz, who’s pitching himself as a fiscal conservative who can appeal to the hawkish and libertarian wings of the GOP but ultimately sided with Rubio and Graham.
Republican-controlled Senate approves budget plan
USA TODAY
Susan Davis
The Republican-controlled Senate voted 52-46 along party lines early Friday morning to advance the first Republican budget in nearly a decade. The ten-year fiscal blueprint achieves balance in ten years with deep spending cuts and no new taxes. It also calls for full repeal of President Obama’s health care law and increased Medicare savings.
Where George W. Bush was right
WASHINGTON POST
Fareed Zakaria
There was a U.S. president who understood the danger of blind support for Arab dictators, no matter that they were admirably secular in their outlook or willing to jail jihadists or to stay at peace with Israel. He said, “Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe.” His secretary of state was clearer about the connection, explaining that in the Arab world, “there were virtually no legitimate channels for political expression in the region. But this did not mean that there was no political activity. There was — in madrassas and radical mosques. It is no wonder that the best-organized political forces were extremist groups. And it was there, in the shadows, that al-Qaeda found the troubled souls to prey on and exploit as its foot soldiers in its millenarian war against the ‘far enemy.’ ” That was George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice.
Obama’s Mideast Vacuum
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
When the world’s only superpower retreats willy-nilly, bad things happen. Much like Jimmy Carter in 1979 after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Mr. Obama needs to reassess his failing foreign policy before the mayhem spreads even further.
