Today’s briefing is sponsored by America’s Power.
InsideSources and the Des Moines Register are excited to host a policy luncheon on April 9 in Des Moines, Iowa. The event is sponsored by America’s Power. It will feature Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Governor Rick Perry of Texas, Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Congressman David Youngof Iowa.
You may RSVP to attend the event HERE.
The event will be livestreamed on InsideSources.
Energy
California’s Green Drought
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Not even Gov. Brown can make it rain, but he and other politicians can stop compounding the damage by putting water storage, transportation and market pricing above environmental obsessions.
This Is How Obama Is Going To Reward Veterans … With Solar Industry Jobs
DAILY CALLER
Michael Bastasch
The White House announced Friday a plan to train 75,000 workers for the solar industry, some of whom will be veterans, as part of the administration’s United Nations pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 26 to 28 percent by 2025. Obama is increasing his previous goal of 50,000 solar workers by 2020 and partnering with community colleges to train workers.
Lindsey Graham: Too green for the GOP?
POLITICO
Darren Goode
Lindsey Graham may paint some green onto the 2016 Republican presidential platform. Just don’t call him a moderate. The South Carolina senator and potential GOP presidential contender is one of the few Republicans left on Capitol Hill to embrace the idea that humans play a sizable role in warming the planet. He spent months negotiating with Democrats on an attempt at major climate legislation during President Barack Obama’s first two years, and he’s received both praise and fundraising help from the Environmental Defense Fund, a centrist voice in the green movement.
As Quakes Rattle Oklahoma, Fingers Point to Oil and Gas Industry
NEW YORK TIMES
Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Michael Wines
At a packed town hall meeting days later, Ms. Cooper said, state officials called the shocks, including a 5.7 tremor that was Oklahoma’s largest ever, “an act of nature, and it was nobody’s fault.” Many scientists disagree. They say those quakes, and thousands of others before and since, are mainly the work of humans, caused by wells used to bury vast amounts of wastewater from oil and gas exploration deep in the earth near fault zones. And they warn that continuing to entomb such huge quantities risks more dangerous tremors — if not here, then elsewhere in the state’s sprawling well fields.
This conservative group is tired of being accused of climate denial — and is fighting back
WASHINGTON POST
Tom Hamburger, Joby Warrick and Chris Mooney
Facing a loss of high-profile corporate sponsors, a conservative state-level policy group — the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — threatened action in recent weeks against activist groups that accuse it of denying climate change. Attorneys for ALEC sent letters to Common Cause and the League of Conservation Voters asking them to immediately “cease making false statements” and “remove all false or misleading material” suggesting that ALEC does not believe in global warming.
Washington Governor Puts Focus on Climate Goals, and Less on Debate
NEW YORK TIMES
Kirk Johnson
[Gov. Jay Inslee] has proposed collecting a new charge on emissions from oil refineries, power plants and other industries that would reap an estimated $1.3 billion in the first year. But in contrast to similar systems in California and the Northeast, energy experts said, Mr. Inslee’s plan would use most of the new revenue for education and transportation rather than on climate or energy projects.
Technology
Ellen Pao Says Gender Issues Won’t ‘Go Away’ After Kleiner Trial
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Jeff Elder
Warning “you can’t just hide” from the problem of workplace sexism, Ellen Pao says Silicon Valley must continue to work on the issues brought up in her loss to venture capital-firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in a much-watched gender-bias trial. “You need to work through these issues,” Ms. Pao said in her first interview since the March 27 verdict, “because they are here and they’re not going to go away.”
Publication of New Internet Rules to Prompt Cheers and Challenges
NEW YORK TIMES
Rebecca Ruiz
For those who have spent more than a decade fighting for stricter regulation of the Internet, the official publication of the rules in the Federal Register, expected as early as Monday, will give reality to their latest victory. For those opposed, it is likely to touch off a flurry of lawsuits.
Amazon’s Drones Exiled to Canada
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Gordon Crovitz
There are thousands of commercial drone operators in the U.S. forced to work in the shadows. Mr. Bezos is trying to embarrass regulators by pointing out that other countries are flying ahead of the U.S. At least so far, these regulators have shown themselves to be beyond shame.
Business advocates lobby Congress for more guest workers, high-tech visas
WASHINGTON TIMES
Stephen Dinan
With the push for a broad immigration bill now dead in Congress, business advocates are ramping up their calls for Republicans who run both chambers to at least consider updating the nation’s guest-worker programs to help boost the economy.
Lawmakers in cybersecurity rush
THE HILL
Cory Bennett
Lawmakers are rushing to pass a major cybersecurity bill this month before a divisive debate over reauthorizing the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs bogs them down. Lawmakers have maintained that their cyber efforts — which would provide legal protections to companies that share cyber data with the government — have nothing to do with surveillance.
Finance
2016 politics stir up Ex-Im debate
THE HILL
Kevin Cirilli
House Republicans and 2016 White House hopefuls are headed for a collision course over whether to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank. After years of bipartisan support, Ex-Im’s charter has become a political litmus test for Republicans — and likely presidential candidates are caught in the crossfire. In recent weeks, prominent GOP presidential hopefuls have spoken out against the bank, siding with powerful Tea Party groups like Heritage Action and Freedom Partners and portraying it as an example of cronyism and corporate welfare.
Big Investor Involvement Could Boost Bitcoin
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bradley Hope and Michael J. Casey
Some of the U.S.’s biggest proprietary traders and investors are testing the waters for a bigger move into bitcoin, giving a potential boost to the fledgling virtual-currency industry. While still cautious of becoming exposed to “cryptocurrencies,” some of the firms, which trade with their own money on their own behalf, say they see potential for big profits in trading bitcoin as more investors enter the market and financial-services firms use the currency to streamline transactions.
Victims of Financial Wrongdoing Need a More Muscular S.E.C.
NEW YORK TIMES
Gretchen Morgenson
As the financial crisis shows, the S.E.C.’s penalties often proved to be nominal costs of doing business for reckless institutions or their employees. The agency is clearly hamstrung in its efforts to generate recoveries on behalf of harmed investors. Isn’t it time to ensure that when the S.E.C. comes knocking, the fine fits the crime?
Another Preet Defeat
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Preet Bharara has a difficult decision. Late last week the full Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his request for an en banc rehearing of his defeat on insider-trading cases, so the U.S. Attorney now has two choices. He can cut his losses and accept that more of his unjust prosecutions will be overturned. Or he can appeal to the Supreme Court, which could result in an even more consequential defeat for his elastic theory of what constitutes criminal trading.
Politics
The Obama Doctrine and Iran
NEW YORK TIMES
Thomas Friedman
President Obama invited me to the Oval Office Saturday afternoon to lay out exactly how he was trying to balance these risks and opportunities in the framework accord reached with Iran last week in Switzerland. What struck me most was what I’d call an “Obama doctrine” embedded in the president’s remarks. It emerged when I asked if there was a common denominator to his decisions to break free from longstanding United States policies isolating Burma, Cuba and now Iran. Obama said his view was that “engagement,” combined with meeting core strategic needs, could serve American interests vis-à-vis these three countries far better than endless sanctions and isolation. He added that America, with its overwhelming power, needs to have the self-confidence to take some calculated risks to open important new possibilities — like trying to forge a diplomatic deal with Iran that, while permitting it to keep some of its nuclear infrastructure, forestalls its ability to build a nuclear bomb for at least a decade, if not longer.
G.O.P.’s Israel Support Deepens as Political Contributions Shift
NEW YORK TIMES
Eric Lipton
As the proposed agreement over Iran’s nuclear program is debated in coming weeks, President Obama will make his case to a Congress controlled by Republicans who are more fervently pro-Israel than ever, partly a result of ideology, but also a product of a surge in donations and campaign spending on their behalf by a small group of wealthy donors.
Rand Paul seems to stray from libertarian roots as he courts GOP base
WASHINGTON POST
Karen Tumulty and Robert Costa
When the presidential buzz began building around Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) a couple of years ago, the expectation was that his libertarian ideas could make him the most unusual and intriguing voice among the major contenders in the 2016 field. But now, as he prepares to make his formal announcement Tuesday, Paul is a candidate who has turned fuzzy, having trimmed his positions and rhetoric so much that it’s unclear what kind of Republican he will present himself as when he takes the stage.
POLITICO Campaign Pro’s 2016 Senate rankings
POLITICO
Kyle Cheney
Standard caveats apply: It’s early. Some incumbents may still decide to retire. Some top-tier candidates might decline to run, affecting the competitiveness of races in their respective states. And fundraising numbers due for release next month could reshape expectations. But what follows is the POLITICO Campaign Pro team’s bird’s-eye view of the Senate races as they stand today, ranked by how likely they are to shift from one party to the other.
