INFRASTRUCTURE
States acting where Congress has failed
With one in three roads in need of repair and one in four bridges working over capacity, the price tag for infrastructure upgrades continues to grow nationwide. In response, state legislatures across the nation have been raising gasoline taxes to pay for projects.
In 2009, President Obama attempted to address the problem with the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program. It allows the Department of Transportation to invest in transit and port projects that promise to achieve national objectives. But applications this year from all 50 states plus U.S. territories added to $10 billion in requests. The Transportation Department awarded $500 million for 39 projects in 34 states, leaving many state governments looking for more revenue.
So this past year, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah and Washington increased their gas taxes. The taxes passed in some predominantly Republican states, demonstrating that the issue need not be partisan.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2575923
And, contrary to the claims of some lawmakers, voting for the tax increase had few consequences for state legislators: A recent analysis by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association found that voting for a gas tax increase had no harmful effect on re-election. The gas tax increase in South Dakota, for example, will give the state an additional $40.5 million toward improving conditions.
Some states have found ways to address infrastructure needs, such as new fees and taxes on vehicles and other forms of transportation, as well as bond programs. At least 24 states have increased investments in transportation since 2012. – Joana Suleiman
REGULATION
New methane rules could cost governments billions
The United States has become the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. But a wave of new Bureau of Land Management regulations has government officials in oil-producing states worried about loss of jobs and tax revenue at a time when they are struggling to expand their states’ economies.
One new regulation expected this year is the venting and flaring rule, which would require a twice-yearly inspection of all gas-producing wells with special cameras. Each inspection is expected to cost $600 and take half a day. In a state such as New Mexico, where there are more than 20,000 active wells, the annual cost would be more than $24 million, a year not including administrative costs.
Another issue is the proposed update of Onshore Order 3, which partly regulates the metering of production on federal leases. New meters would need to be installed on thousands of wells. Mayors of five cities in New Mexico wrote a letter to their congressional delegation this month warning that significant losses in revenue would be traded for small changes to the accuracy of royalty accounting. They warned the increase in compliance costs would lead to the closing of wells that cannot be economically updated.
The Bureau of Land Management has pointed to higher-than-average methane levels in the west’s Four Corners region as reasons for the new rules. A federal investigation is trying to find possible causes and remedies. But local leaders say companies in the region are already taking steps to lower emissions. One operator with more than 10,000 gas wells in the San Juan Basin has reduced methane leakage by 54 percent since 2003, the mayors wrote in their letter. – Joana Suleiman
ENERGY
EPA’s report on fracking and water under review
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board is reviewing an agency draft report that found that fracking does not systemically pollute water.
In the draft report, the EPA acknowledged there had been instances of groundwater pollution from the oil drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” But the agency said the study showed the threat is not endemic.
“We did not find evidence that these mechanisms have led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States. Of the potential mechanisms identified in this report, we found specific instances where one or more mechanisms led to impacts on drinking water resources, including contamination of drinking water wells. The number of identified cases, however, was small compared to the number of hydraulically fractured wells,” the EPA report said.
The report, which took five years to conduct, is critical for energy companies. Fracking producers have argued that the process does not pollute drinking water because of the concrete containment that surrounds the well, along with other protective measures employed by the industry. Environmentalists disagree.
When the draft was released in June, Tom Burke, the agency’s deputy assistant administrator for the agency’s office for research and development, said the agency did discover that fracking had affected the water in some cases. Poorly constructed wells, for example, led to contamination.
Because the report is considered a “highly influential scientific assessment,” it must be peer reviewed. The Science Advisory Board is taking public comments and holding a series of teleconferences. – John Siciliano
EDUCATION
Obama’s legal attack on school choice program fails
The Obama administration’s attempts to stifle a Louisiana school choice program were dealt a blow on Nov. 10. The Department of Justice lost its case against the Louisiana Scholarship Program, which tried to force the program to hand over data on students’ race.
Once Justice had the data, it could have argued against certain scholarship awards on the basis of an old anti-segregation law. The 2-1 court decision was a harsh rebuke against the Justice Department’s tactics in the case, which Judge Edith Jones called disingenuous. “DOJ’s attempt to shoehorn its regulation of the voucher program into an entirely unrelated 40-year-old case represents more than ineffective lawyering,” Jones wrote. The ruling reversed a district court’s judgment. “The district court’s order exceeded the constitutional infirmity on which this case was predicated,” Jones wrote.
Research shows the program improves racial integration, contrary to the Justice Department’s concerns. The case started in 2013, when then-Attorney General Eric Holder tried to freeze the program with an injunction. More than 7,000 students participate in the program, receiving a voucher averaging $5,500 per year. Students must come from a low-performing school by Louisiana’s standards and a family with income below 250 percent of the poverty line. – Jason Russell
LABOR
Measure would ban IRS workers from unions
A Republican senator is proposing to make it illegal for employees of the Internal Revenue Service to collectively bargain, arguing the agency’s targeting of conservative activist groups may have been influenced by its union affiliation.
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., introduced the Preventing Unionization of Revenue Service Employees Act, which would amend the Civil Service Reform Act, the law that allows federal employees to join unions.
“There is no reason to allow IRS employees to unionize and collectively bargain against the very citizens whose taxes they collect,” Gardner said. “In light of the scandal created by the IRS’ targeting of political opponents, we must ensure that IRS employees function without bias or political influence.”
Gardner’s bill, which was introduced Nov. 6, has no co-sponsors and no votes scheduled in the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction.
The agency has about 82,000 employees, all of whom are officially represented by the National Treasury Employees Union. Not all IRS workers are union members, though; NTEU has only 80,000 members and represents workers in other agencies as well.
The union donates heavily to Democrats. In the 2014 election cycle it gave almost $380,000 to Democrats and just $17,000 to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
A NTEU representative could not be reached for comment. – Sean Higgins
FOOD
What is natural? The FDA wants to know
Natural and organic foods are all the rage now. Just look at the crowds flocking to Whole Foods.
At the same time, consumers and advocates are complaining that the federal government needs to update its definition of what exactly is natural to take into account whether the food has genetically modified ingredients.
So the Food and Drug Administration is asking the public to provide their take on what should define “natural” in labeling of food products. The agency received three citizen petitions asking the agency to define the term.
Some federal courts also have asked the agency to look into the issue in the wake of several lawsuits over what is considered natural. A key question in the litigation is whether food products containing ingredients created by genetic engineering or foods containing high fructose corn syrup may be labeled as “natural,” the agency said.
Previously, the FDA has considered “natural” to mean anything that isn’t artificial or synthetic. Unnatural ingredients include color additives and other ingredients added to foods that aren’t normally expected to be in them, the agency said.
“However, this policy was not intended to address food production methods, such as the use of pesticides, nor did it explicitly address food processing or manufacturing methods, such as thermal technologies, pasteurization or irradiation.”
The request for comments comes during a heated debate over whether food containing genetically modified organisms should be labeled as such. Some activists are calling for the labeling because of health concerns about such GMOs, but there is no conclusive evidence of such health problems.
Meanwhile, a House bill that would prohibit states from adopting such labeling laws was approved in July. – Robert King
