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Energy
McConnell Urges States to Help Thwart Obama’s ‘War on Coal’
NEW YORK TIMES
Coral Davenport
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has begun an aggressive campaign to block President Obama’s climate change agenda in statehouses and courtrooms across the country, arenas far beyond Mr. McConnell’s official reach and authority. The campaign of Mr. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is aimed at stopping a set of Environmental Protection Agency regulations requiring states to reduce carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Obama Orders Cuts in Federal Greenhouse Gas Emissions
NEW YORK TIMES
Julie Hirschfeld Davis
President Obama signed an executive order on Thursday to set new goals for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of federal agencies, his latest use of his executive authority to address the root causes of climate change and press private companies and foreign governments to follow suit. Mr. Obama’s directive orders federal agencies over the next decade to cut their emissions by an average of 40 percent compared with their levels when he won office in 2008, and to increase their use of electricity from renewable sources by 30 percent.
Feds to impose hydraulic fracturing mandates
FUEL FIX
Jennifer Dlouhy
The Interior Department rule reflects years of work by regulators seeking to balance environmental interests and economic imperatives in setting baseline standards for the way wells are constructed and stimulated for oil and gas production. But the final version, set to be unveiled Friday by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, according to stakeholders familiar with the timeline, is unlikely to appease environmentalists who have argued for strong protections or oil industry leaders who insist well-tailored state rules are better than one-size-fits-all federal mandates.
Senate GOP lays out case for oil exports
THE HILL
Timothy Cama
Senate Republicans on Thursday laid out a series of arguments that they said justify lifting the 40-year-old ban on exporting crude oil. At a hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Republicans said lifting the ban would decrease gasoline and diesel prices in the United States, add 1 percent to the gross domestic product, create a million jobs and improve the country’s standing internationally.
Technology
Streaming TV Services Seek to Sidestep Web Congestion
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Shalini Ramachandran and Keach Hagey
HBO, Showtime, and Sony Corp. are jumping into online television. But instead of putting their Web traffic on the public Internet’s main thoroughfare, they want to be in a separate lane that would ensure their content gets special treatment. … Such arrangements would tap into a gray area of the debate over “net neutrality,” the principle that all traffic on the Internet should be treated equally.
GOP has knives out for net neutrality
POLITICO
Tony Romm
“We’re simply trying to figure out the facts,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), the leader of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in an interview. After grilling Wheeler at a hearing this week, Chaffetz said he “left feeling as if the White House was more manipulative of this process than ever,” adding his panel isn’t finished asking the FCC to turn over records.
GOP sees opening for FCC transparency push
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Alex Byers and Kate Tummarello
Lawmakers are beginning to rally behind a proposal that would dramatically alter the FCC’s deliberation process, requiring the agency to publish new regulations before the five-person commission votes on them.
The GOP’s Net-Neutrality Response Is Still in Beta
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Kaveh Waddell
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise said that responding to the FCC decision is a priority. “We are bringing forward legislation that would reshape what the FCC could do in relation to these kind of regulations,” Scalise said at the Free State Foundation event. But he acknowledged that there isn’t a unified plan. “There’s not a consensus on how to handle it,” he said. “Right now, it’s still in the early stages before we know exactly what kind of legislative reaction we want to have.”
Republicans can’t overturn the FCC’s new net neutrality rules without this Democrat. And he’s not playing along.
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
But a spokesman for Nelson warned Wednesday that the FCC needs to be able to respond to future changes in technology. That Nelson is drawing lines in the sand doesn’t bode well for the Republican proposal. And Nelson isn’t the only Democrat who’s balking. “We don’t have a meeting of the minds on the basics of the legislation,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told National Journal. “I think we ought to be direct with each other about what’s realistic.”
Cyber chief: Efforts to deter attacks against the U.S. are not working
WASHINGTON POST
Ellen Nakashima
“We’re at a tipping point,” said Adm. Michael S. Rogers, who also directs the National Security Agency, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We need to think about: How do we increase our capacity on the offensive side to get to that point of deterrence?”
Inside the U.S. Antitrust Probe of Google
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Brody Mullins, Rolfe Winkler and Brent Kendall
Officials at the Federal Trade Commission concluded in 2012 that Google Inc. used anticompetitive tactics and abused its monopoly power in ways that harmed Internet users and rivals, a far harsher analysis of Google’s business than was previously known.
Amazon gets one step closer to drone delivery
THE HILL
Julian Hattem
Amazon on Thursday got regulatory approval to experiment with drones that it hopes will one day deliver packages to people’s doorsteps. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an experimental pass to the online shopping giant to use for development, training and development of its drones, it said.
Finance
Richard Shelby’s big challenge
POLITICO
Jennifer Liberto
A modest Senate Banking package to change rules governing the financial system is looking even narrower. Democrats are telling Senate Banking chief Richard Shelby that if he wants bipartisan support, he needs narrow his expectations.
How Foreigners Became America’s Financial Regulators
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Peter J. Wallison and Daniel M. Gallagher
At a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew denied that the decisions of the Financial Stability Board—an international body of financial regulators—were binding on its member nations, which include the United States. Chairman Jeb Hensarling asked him why, then, did the FSB need to give three Chinese banks “exemptions” from its “nonbinding” rules. Mr. Lew was unable to explain.
Kirk, Heitkamp offer new Export-Import bill
THE HILL
Kevin Cirilli
Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), with help from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), on Thursday introduced a bill to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank through September 2019. Congress must reauthorize the bank by June 30 or it will shut down. The debate over renewing the charter is expected to be fierce, with GOP critics arguing the government should get out of the business of providing Ex-Im support for U.S. companies.
Politics
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu Tells NBC He Wants a ‘Peaceful Two-State Solution’
NBC NEWS
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, in his first American television interview since winning re-election, appeared to back away Thursday from his declaration that he would not allow the establishment of a Palestinian state. “I don’t want a one-state solution,” he told NBC News in an interview. “I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution.”
Campaign staffers in the cross hairs
POLITICO
Jonathan Topaz and Katie Glueck
The cross hairs are no longer trained solely on the candidates themselves: Staffers are now also considered fair game for opposition research hits — and campaigns are struggling to react to a world in which the candidate isn’t always the focal point for attacks.
A mighty fundraising operation awaits Clinton, as well as financial hurdles
WASHINGTON POST
Matea Gold
The team of fundraisers tasked with raising more than $1 billion for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s expected presidential bid will start with two major assets: a national grass-roots operation two years in the making and a network of wealthy Democratic donors much broader than the one that backed her first White House run.
Martin O’Malley hopes years of political investment in Iowa pay off
WASHINGTON POST
John Wagner
Over the past two years, as Martin O’Malley has mulled a run for president, he has poured hefty resources into Iowa, appearing at 24 campaign events and fundraisers, lending 14 staffers to Democratic candidates and the state party, and donating more than $40,000.
An ObamaCare Plan Beats No Plan
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Liberals are lobbying the Supreme Court to uphold ObamaCare’s illegal subsidies by claiming Republicans won’t fix any resulting problems. This claim is political, not legal, but it is also likely wrong. In recent months the GOP has made more intellectual progress on health care than any period since ObamaCare passed. The question is whether the GOP can cohere around a reform alternative before the High Court rules in June, or repeat its recent dysfunction.
Long-Sought ‘Doc Fix’ Funding Agreement Reached
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Siobhan Hughes
House Republican and Democratic leaders Thursday rolled out legislation to permanently fix a formula for calculating Medicare reimbursements to doctors and other health-care providers, a deal supporters say will stand a chance of passage given its bipartisan support.
Republican budget proposals a tough sell within increasingly polarized GOP
WASHINGTON TIMES
Tom Howell Jr.
They’ve written their budgets, but now Republican leaders must try to round up the votes to pass them amid an ever-more polarized GOP riven with disputes over defense spending and the pace of cutting entitlements.
In Video, Obama Appeals to Iranian Youth on Nuclear Deal
NEW YORK TIMES
David Sanger
Two weeks after Senate Republicans issued a letter to the Iranian leadership warning that any nuclear agreement Iran signs with the administration may be temporary, President Obama has issued a missive of his own: A video directed at Iran’s young people, urging them to pressure their leaders to accept the deal on the table.
