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Energy
The most common mistake that news stories make about energy
VOX
Brad Plumer
Electricity is a very important part of the world’s energy system, but it’s far from the only part. Shifting away from fossil fuels requires a lot more than replacing coal plants with wind and solar farms.
Ahead of Paris Climate Talks, U.S. Promises Up To 28% Emissions Cut by 2025
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Clare Foran
The United States announced on Tuesday that it will curb greenhouse-gas emissions up to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, a major step in the fight against climate change. America’s pledge will serve as a key guidepost for other nations—and the White House hopes its commitment will build momentum for the United Nations climate negotiations set to be held in Paris later this year.
President Obama’s emissions-cutting plan sets an example for the world
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
There is plenty of room for responsible criticism of the president’s plan. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), for example, said Tuesday that it puts too much emphasis on wind power and too little on nuclear. But Mr. Alexander properly did not counter with inaction as a viable plan. His fellow Republicans could learn something from his example.
A World Remade by Fracking
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Holman Jenkins
If not for fracking, oil would probably be $200 a barrel and gasoline $6.50 in the U.S. Western economies would likely be in free fall. The grudging U.S. recovery would be in retreat. The modest and possibly illusory green shoots seen in Europe, largely a function of cheap oil and a strong dollar, would wither. Japan would be even more of a write-off than it already is.
Gas Utilities Reduce Leaks of Methane, Study Finds
NEW YORK TIMES
John Schwartz
Utilities are making progress in reducing leaks from their natural gas distribution networks, a new study has found, but the industry and regulators can do more.
The real climate embarrassment
USA TODAY
Sen. Jim Inhofe
The greatest embarrassment in the debate of human-driven climate change is that the administration — along with congressional Democrats and radical environmentalists — has found it easier to attack the messengers than the content of their message.
Technology
U.S. to establish sanctions program to combat cyberattacks, cyberspying
WASHINGTON POST
Ellen Nakashima
President Obama on Wednesday will sign an executive order establishing the first sanctions program to allow the administration to impose penalties on individuals overseas who engage in destructive attacks or commercial espionage in cyberspace.
Tech bigwigs help launch economic policy group
POLITICO
Nick Gass
Silicon Valley bigwigs Sean Parker and Ron Conway are throwing their weight behind a new organization in Washington that will craft centrist proposals to stimulate the economy and press Congress to enact them, according to plans provided to POLITICO. The Economic Innovation Group is set to launch Tuesday after about 18 months of behind-the-scenes preparation. Principals declined to say how much money is behind it, but people involved say the inclusion of names like Parker and Conway — the first president of Facebook and a legendary startup investor, respectively — give the effort credibility.
Silicon Valley Leaders, New to Social Issues, Come Together Over Indiana Law
NEW YORK TIMES
Nick Wingfield
The technology industry’s leaders have found their collective voice on a social issue in the last week, rallying with great intensity against a new Indiana law that will allow businesses, they predict, to discriminate against gay couples. The heads of Apple, Salesforce.com, Yelp and Square have all publicly criticized the law, as have some leaders from other industries. But on many other issues of the day that ignite strong passions — from race relations to income inequality to gun control — tech leaders are much quieter.
Google Won’t Attend Sen. Mike Lee’s Fundraiser
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Brody Mullins
Google Inc. has decided not to attend a Silicon Valley fundraising event it helped plan for Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) after the lawmaker said he’s starting an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the government’s decision to close an antitrust investigation into the company two years ago. Google decided to back out of the event after officials with the company and the senator’s campaign spoke and agreed that it wasn’t the best idea due to the timing of the senator’s probe, according to people involved.
Finance
Fannie and Freddie May Need More Bailouts
WALL STREET JOURNAL
William M. Isaac
The Inspector General for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might need more government bailouts if housing markets decline. The problem: lack of capital reserves to serve as a buffer against future losses. … This problem is no accident: It is the result of a deliberate decision in 2012 by the Treasury Department to sweep Fannie’s and Freddie’s profits into the federal government’s coffer. Treasury’s “net worth sweep” is illegal and economically dangerous. It needs to end.
Fed cred on the line
THE HILL
Peter Schroeder and Vicki Needham
Chair Janet Yellen has professed unflinching confidence in the Fed’s ability to steer policy back to normal. That confidence will now be put to the test as the central bank sifts through a pile of economic data to find the right time to act. The transition carries huge economic consequences, but major political ones too, because Fed skeptics would seize on any misstep to justify tightening the leash on the bank.
Congress Wants More Answers on Possible Fed Leaks
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
U.S. lawmakers want additional answers from the Federal Reserve about published reports on the details of market-sensitive policy deliberations in 2012. Some members of Congress have indicated in recent days they are unsatisfied with a March 23 Fed memo summarizing its internal probe of the matter, which found no major breaches of communication.
Bank threat to Democrats backfires
USA TODAY
Darrell Delamaide
If Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and other big banks wanted to send a message to congressional Democrats with a “symbolic” withholding of donations, they can rest assured it was heard — but not in the way they intended. … Warren immediately seized on the report, using it in a defiant fundraising appeal for her network of supporters nationwide to make up the amount in contributions to the Senate campaign fund.
Free-Trade Democrats Face Campaign Pressure
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Alex Brown
In recent weeks, liberal groups have threatened a primary challenge to a top Democratic senator, and one of the party’s biggest labor allies has cut off campaign funds to wage a fight on trade policy. “We’re saying we’re not going to stand for this,” said the AFL-CIO’s Celeste Drake. Her organization has put a freeze on its campaign donations to put Democrats on notice to oppose trade-promotion authority—which would set parameters on a trade deal negotiated by the Obama administration but limit congressional input on the deal to an up-or-down vote.
Politics
Secret, unlimited donations could boost a Jeb Bush run
WASHINGTON POST
Ed O’Keefe and Matea Gold
Jeb Bush has given his tacit endorsement to a new group that can collect unlimited amounts of money in secret, part of a bold effort by his advisers to create a robust external political operation before he declares his expected White House bid. The nonprofit group, Right to Rise Policy Solutions, was quietly established in Arkansas in February by a friend and former Bush staffer. The group shares the name of two political committees for which Bush has been aggressively raising money — blurring the line that is supposed to separate a campaign from independent groups.
The price of Barack Obama’s Iran muddle
POLITICO
Edward-Isaac Dovere
International negotiators in Switzerland ran up against their deadline for the Iran nuclear talks — and then kept on running, insisting that there’s enough reason to believe that maybe they’ll get far enough on Wednesday, or maybe a couple of days after that. How many, they won’t say. What happens if that’s not enough, no one seems to fully know.
Obama’s ‘Quickie’ Union Favor
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
In December 2014, the NLRB passed a final rule on a partisan 3-2 vote that greatly shortens the time for a workplace union-organizing election. This fits the pattern of the Obama-era labor board, which has been as biased toward organized labor as any in decades. So in March Congress employed a useful tool known as the Congressional Review Act to pass a resolution to overturn the new regulation. Mr. Obama issued a “memorandum of disapproval”—essentially a veto—to kill the Congressional measure and preserve the NLRB rule.
Supreme Court says state Medicaid payments not open to private lawsuits
WASHINGTON POST
Robert Barnes
The Supreme Court narrowly ruled Tuesday that health-care providers cannot sue states in order to bump up Medicaid reimbursement rates they say are unlawfully low. The justices ruled 5 to 4 that neither the Constitution nor federal law authorizes doctors and other health-care providers to go to court to enforce the law’s directive that the reimbursement rates set by states be “sufficient to enlist enough providers so that care and services are available” to Medicaid recipients just as they are to the general population.
Mental health matters and consistency counts
THE HILL
Andrew Sperling
For people living with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, changing medications is never something you do lightly. Even a switch from a brand name to a generic version of the same drug can cause severe impairment issues and behavioral disruptions that require hospitalization. There are similar interchangeability concerns for other diseases and conditions. It is understandable, then, that there are deep concerns from a broad range of patient advocates about a proposal that would force sudden pharmaceutical changes on low-income Americans already struggling to maintain their health and well-being.
