Please help InsideSources continue to grow. Ask your friends and colleagues to signup for InsideAlerts.
Energy
GOP Presidential Hopefuls Risk Iowans’ Ire on Ethanol
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Beth Reinhard
For decades, presidential candidates have bowed to Iowa’s corn-based ethanol industry while campaigning in a state where corn is king. But several of the likely Republican candidates slated to address the state’s agricultural industry on Saturday backed the sunset of ethanol subsidies in 2011, and many oppose the industry’s new sacred cow: the renewable-fuel standard, which requires blending ethanol and other biofuels into the gasoline supply.
Christie blasts back to defend Exxon settlement
POLITICO
Alex Guillén
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie defended himself on Thursday against complaints his administration approved a sweetheart deal for ExxonMobil to settle an environmental contamination case for a fraction of the money the state had sought. New Jersey officially announced Thursday that it had reached a settlement agreement in which Exxon would pay $225 million in damages related to pollution from its refinery facilities in the Garden State, a figure that former state officials said was far less than the $8.9 billion they had originally wanted.
EPA plan has states jockeying over credit for green power
POLITICOPRO (Subscribe)
Alex Guillén
EPA’s upcoming climate rule for existing power plants has created a big divide on who gets the credit for green electricity — the state that produces it or the state that uses it? The debate has major stakes for populous, electricity-hungry states like California, already a major buyer of renewable and fossil-fuel power produced elsewhere. But it’s just as important for states like Wyoming, which is both the nation’s largest coal producer and its 12th-largest generator of wind power.
Don’t Kill Keystone XL. Regulate It.
NEW YORK TIMES
Jonathan Waldman
Pipelines are the safest way to move oil. They’re an order of magnitude more reliable than trains, and trains are an order of magnitude more reliable than trucks. So the banners that say “If you build it, it will leak” should also be followed by “But if you don’t build it, you’ll have a lot more leaks.” That said, there is much we can do to make pipelines even safer. This is especially important now that our pipelines are aging: More than half of them were built before 1980.
Alaska cannot afford to miss this opportunity
JUNEAU EMPIRE
Margo Thorning
Alaska has the supply. It has the capital technology skills to develop this infrastructure. The question Gov. Walker should be asking himself is how can I encourage capital investment? Don’t let politics and uncertainty put Alaska’s LNG project on the shelf.
Technology
Can Net Neutrality Survive the Impending Onslaught of Lawsuits?
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Brendan Sasso
The specific legal arguments will largely depend on the language of the new rules, which the FCC still has not publicly released (although it has outlined the most important elements). Once the actual text is available, teams of highly paid lawyers for the cable and telecom companies are sure to examine every word of the 317 pages, searching for any weaknesses. In such a complex and massive set of regulations, there are sure to be dozens of legal lines of attack.
This new GOP bill would completely gut the FCC’s net neutrality rules
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
The bill, introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), has the support of 31 co-sponsors, all Republicans. It would undo the FCC’s aggressive regulations that aim to prevent Comcast, Verizon and other Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web sites. And it would prohibit the FCC from overseeing those companies with utility-style rules in the future.
Cyber Bill Is Slowed By Privacy Concerns
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Damian Paletta
The White House and some congressional Democrats have raised privacy concerns about a cybersecurity bill drafted by top Senate Intelligence Committee lawmakers, stalling—at least temporarily—one of Congress’s top priorities.
The FTC wants to know how companies are tracking you across computers and smartphones
WASHINGTON POST
Andrea Peterson
And now the Federal Trade Commission says it will look into just what this so-called “cross-device tracking” means for consumers. The FTC will put on a workshop on the topic this fall, Chairwoman Edith Ramirez announced during a summit held by the International Association of Privacy Professionals on Thursday. The details of the workshop aren’t yet clear, but such events are often the first step to the agency releasing reports and ramping up enforcement on practices that may negatively affect consumers. “We want to make sure to highlight for consumers practices that have significant privacy implications,” Ramirez said.
Ellen Pao trial takes a raunchy turn
USA TODAY
Elizabeth Weise
Testimony in the Ellen Pao gender discrimination case took a raunchy turn Thursday, dragging others into the fray and making clear that the culture of all of Silicon Valley, not just the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, is on trial. Thursday’s testimony featured discussion of alleged locker room talk on a private plane trip, unwanted sexual advances, retaliation and whether Pao, the woman who reported it, had “a female chip on her shoulder.”
Finance
The Outsider
POLITICO
Glenn Thrush and Manu Raju
Elizabeth Warren wants to be the most powerful Democrat in America—without running for president.
Fed tests point to $500bn risk for banks
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Barney Jopson and Ben McLannahan
The biggest US banks would suffer combined losses of almost $500bn in the event of a financial crisis, according to stress tests carried out by the Federal Reserve, which rules next week on how much capital banks can return to shareholders.
Foreign Takeovers See U.S. Losing Tax Revenue
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Liz Hoffman and John D. McKinnon
Just months after the Obama administration cracked down on mergers that helped U.S. companies skirt domestic taxes, a wave of foreign takeovers is steering more tax revenue away from Uncle Sam. In deals known as “tax inversions,” which spiked in 2014, U.S. companies acquired foreign rivals and redomiciled in low-tax countries, reducing the taxes paid back home. The moves sparked an outcry from lawmakers and others that prompted the Treasury Department in September to make such tie-ups more difficult and less lucrative.
Negative Interest Rates Threaten the Banking System
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Paul Kupiec
Banks are now charging their big institutional customers to keep money on deposit—and these so-called negative interest rates are forcing liquidity out of the banking system. The irony is that this is the result of postcrisis financial regulations that are supposed to ensure that banks remain liquid.
Politics
The Early Betting Lines For 2016
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Charlie Cook
A question I often am asked is: “Who would you bet on to win the presidency?” Personally, I don’t bet on politics, but here’s my current take on the 2016 presidential race—with, of course, the caveat that we don’t know which campaigns will turn out the best in terms of organization, strategy, tactics, or execution, much less which candidates will step on land mines along the way.
The Temptation of Hillary
NEW YORK TIMES
David Brooks
Hillary Clinton’s record is more moderate than the Democratic primary voter today. So it was always likely that she would move left as the primary season approached. It’s now becoming clearer how she might do it. She might make a shift from what you might call human capital progressivism to redistributionist progressivism.
‘Who knows? She could implode totally’
POLITICO
Gabriel Debenedetti
Three days into the rolling controversy over Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email address as Secretary of State, Democrats are showing signs of stress. In interviews with more than three dozen Democratic activists, donors, and officials from across the country — including many in the influential presidential nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina — some were scathing in their criticism over the revelations, while others admitted to being unnerved.
Scott Walker stakes out hardline position
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Neil Munshi
A 20-week abortion ban. The deportation of 11m undocumented immigrants. Eliminating the 48-hour waiting period for handgun purchases. Massive cuts to higher education. Right to work legislation.
Since his star-making speech at a Republican gathering in Iowa a month ago, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has backed a wish list of conservative legislation. Since his star-making speech at a Republican gathering in Iowa a month ago, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has backed a wish list of conservative legislation.
Democrats recruit big names in bid to unseat freshman Republican senators
WASHINGTON TIMES
David Sherfinski
Democrats have recruited big names to run in some of the most competitive Senate races next year, helping the party put early pieces into place as they make a major push to recapture the upper chamber. Former Rep. Joe Sestak said he will make another bid for Senate in Pennsylvania, setting up a repeat of the 2010 race he lost to Republican Patrick J. Toomey. Democrats have recruited Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander to challenge Sen. Roy Blunt and former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland to run against Sen. Rob Portman.
Dems vow to protect Boehner from conservative coup
THE HILL
Mike Lillis
A number of right-wing Republicans, long-wary of Boehner’s commitment to GOP efforts attacking President Obama’s policy priorities, have openly considered a coup in an attempt to transfer the gavel into more conservative hands. But Democrats from across an ideological spectrum say they’d rather see Boehner remain atop the House than replace him with a more conservative Speaker who would almost certainly be less willing to reach across the aisle in search of compromise. Replacing him with a Tea Party Speaker, they say, would only bring the legislative process — already limping along — to a screeching halt.
