Historic Climate Rule Proposed
EPA climate rule will create jobs and lower energy bills, says WH. The Hill: "'This proposed rule will, when implemented, save Americans on their electricity bill and significantly reduce the amount of carbon emissions into our air,' White House press secretary Jay Carney said. The White House spokesman also argued the new regulations would create 'tens of thousands of new jobs.' ... According to the EPA, the regulations could cost between $7.3 billion and $8.8 billion, but would generate some $90 billion in climate and health benefits."
GOP dishonestly attack rule with Chamber of Commerce study about a different hypothetical rule. W. Post's Glenn Kessler: "...that the EPA rule said that the agency would seek a reduction of 30 percent. But on page 15 of the Chamber report, the Chamber says it assumed the rule would impose a 42 percent reduction ... The Chamber assumed that $339 billion of an estimated $478 billion in compliance costs would result from having to build new power plants. But that in turn depended on the [wrong] assumption that more expensive carbon capture plants would need to be built ..."
Rule doesn't call for abrupt cuts from biggest coal states. AP: "...the Environmental Protection Agency would only require Kentucky, which relies on coal for about 90 percent of its electricity needs, to improve its carbon dioxide emissions rate by 18 percent over the next 15 years. By 2030, Kentucky would be second only to North Dakota for having the most carbon-intensive power plants in the country ... Indiana's target, at 20 percent, presents a challenge in a state that sits atop a major vein of coal and where more than 80 percent of power is produced by coal. But the EPA gave Indiana credit for already taking steps to reduce carbon emissions, such as encouraging utilities to set renewable energy standards, and environmental activists say they believe the goal can be accomplished."
But will accelerate transition away from coal. Bloomberg: "'The rule is going to speed the transition away from coal into natural gas and renewables and potentially increase the role nuclear electricity plays in the U.S.,' said Christopher Knittel, director of the Center for Energy & Environmental Policy Research at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. 'Twenty or thirty years from now, we should expect coal to play a more modest role.'"
Climate rule could cause government shutdown in fall. The Hill: "...House Republicans could try to stop it by including a provision in one of the annual appropriations bills ... Senate Democratic leaders would almost certainly reject an appropriations the bill that blocked the climate rules, however, so passage of a bill with an EPA rider could lead to another government shutdown battle. The shutdown could be limited to the funding bill for the EPA and Interior, but in that case popular agencies such as the National Park Service would be affected. That means the strategy could carry big risks for Republicans, since the deadline for finishing the 12 annual appropriations bills comes just a few weeks before a midterm election in which they hope to retake the Senate."
Warren Meets Piketty
Piketty declares debate over his book over at Warren discussion. HuffPost: "...critics of the book, Piketty said, are deceiving themselves if they think that discrediting his work will somehow improve the long-run political fortunes of the people who read The Financial Times. The problem, he said, is not his book -- it's reality. 'People should be afraid more of the realities than with my book. My book is not the problem. The problem is rising inequality, the fact that top wealth holders have been rising three times faster than the size of the economy,'..."
MA sues Fannie and Freddie. NYT: "Martha Coakley, the attorney general of Massachusetts, filed suit on Monday against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an effort to force the federally owned mortgage finance giants to comply with a state antiforeclosure law passed in 2012. The law seeks to ease the way for so-called buyback programs, which are aimed at reducing the debt of the homeowner while saving the lender the cost of foreclosure and eviction. Fannie and Freddie have refused to allow homes with mortgages they back to enter buyback programs, the suit contends, even though it costs them money not to ... The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, declined to comment on pending litigation. Ms. Coakley’s office had written a previous letter to Mel Watt, who became the agency’s director in January ... Watt has not yet weighed in on the subject of debt reduction."
Seattle approves $15 minimum wage. NYT: "The City Council here went where no big-city lawmakers have gone before on Monday, raising the local minimum wage to $15 an hour, more than double the federal minimum, and pushing Seattle to the forefront of urban efforts to address income inequality. The unanimous vote of the nine-member Council, after months of discussion by a committee of business and labor leaders convened by Mayor Ed Murray, will give low-wage workers here — in incremental stages, with different tracks for different sizes of business — the highest big-city minimum in the nation."
