Archive by Author

British filmmaker says he expected Jan. 6 violence: 'I thought it would be even worse'

The British filmmaker whose crew documented former President Trump and his circle around the 2020 election said he predicted violence would take place on Jan. 6, 2021, and believed the attack on the Capitol “would be even worse.”

Filmmaker Alex Holder told CBS’ Norah O’Donnell in an interview broadcast Thursday that on the eve of the Capitol riot he joked with his crew, “You know the president’s gonna tell everyone to march on the Capitol.”

“We sort of prepared for that potentially happening,” the filmmaker told O’Donnell.

As his crew documented the rallies and events leading up to Jan. 6 last year, Holder said the “volume of rhetoric and sort of the belligerence that was coming out post-election was so significant” that it “had to end with something violent.”

“Even if you look at the way the campaign was going on before, the idea of the election being something that was going to be irregular was already coming up during that time as well,” Holder said.

Holder documented Trump around the 2020 election as well as before and after the Capitol attack. The filmmaker testified for a two-hour closed door deposition on Thursday with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

He also turned over material to the panel. Along with footage of the Capitol riot, Holder said he provided interviews he conducted with Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump since September 2020.

The House committee held its fifth hearing on Thursday. It has postponed its final two hearings until July, in part because it obtained new evidence lawmakers will have to sift through.

Holder on Thursday told CBS’ O’Donnell that the evidence he provided, including the interviews with Trump, would contain some new revelations.

Although he was close to Trump’s orbit at the time, Holder said the outcome of Jan. 6 was inevitable because of Trump’s rhetoric.

“You’re telling 75 million people that their election doesn’t count, and they, you know, believe you,” he added. “You’re their president, and they voted for you, and you’re saying that their election doesn’t count, and then what — what else is gonna happen?”

Source: TEST FEED1

Five takeaways about Trump's pressure campaign at DOJ

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Thursday turned its focus to the internal turmoil that swept the Justice Department and White House in the weeks after the 2020 election as then-President Trump pushed baseless claims of widespread election fraud and tried to use federal law enforcement in his scheme to stay in office.

The hearing featured witness testimony from three Justice Department leaders at the time — acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and Steve Engel, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel — who pushed back against Trump’s claims and eventually warned a mass resignation would take place if the president tried to install a loyalist as attorney general.

The select committee showed how Trump’s pick to lead the department, Jeffrey Clark, the acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, pushed the election fraud claims within the administration and was at the center of a confrontation between DOJ leaders and the president.

Here are five takeaways from the select committee’s DOJ hearing.

Pardon revelations

At least four GOP House members — Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Mo Brooks (Ala.), Louie Gohmert (Texas) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.) — asked Trump for pardons in the final days of the administration, the select committee revealed Thursday.

At a hearing earlier this month, the panel showed evidence that Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) had asked for a pardon as well. And it also revealed Trump’s legal advisor, John Eastman, had requested to be included on any potential pardon list.

The requests came on the heels of the attack on the Capitol, suggesting a fear of criminal liability in the ensuing law enforcement scrutiny.

“The only reason I know to ask for a pardon is because you think you’ve committed a crime,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said during the hearing.

Responding to the select committee’s hearing Thursday, Brooks said he and other Republicans were worried that a Democratic administration would exploit federal law enforcement to pursue politically-motivated prosecutions against those who stood by Trump.

“The email request says it all. There was a concern Democrats would abuse the judicial system by prosecuting and jailing Republicans who acted pursuant to their Constitutional or statutory duties under 3 USC 15,” Brooks said in a statement, citing the statutory provision laying out the Electoral College certification process.

The asks of the Justice Department ranged from bizarre to inappropriate

Rosen said he began fielding calls from Trump even before he officially stepped into his role.

The Department of Justice was met with a barrage of requests from Trump: that they publicly back his baseless claims of election fraud; that they file lawsuits alongside his campaign; that they announce a special legal counsel to investigate the matter; and, later, that they send letters to states asking them to hold off on certifying their election results while the DOJ investigated alleged fraud. 

Engel dismissed the idea of joining any lawsuit after being handed a draft prepared by the campaign. 

“Obviously, you know, the person who drafted this lawsuit didn’t really understand, in my view, the law and or how the Supreme Court works or the Department of Justice. So it was just not something we were going to do,” he said.

Trump also wanted the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate voter fraud — something officials were unwilling to do because they could not verify any allegations of fraud.

The committee revealed it was his own campaign attorney Sidney Powell, who is now facing disbarment based on faulty voter fraud allegations she presented in court, that Trump wanted to appoint special counsel for investigating election fraud.

Still, the allegations of voter fraud kept coming, including one alleging that ​​an Italian defense contractor hacked a satellite to switch votes from Trump to President Biden.

When the DOJ dismissed the theory as “absurd,” Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows forwarded the idea to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, who evidently asked a high ranking official based in Italy to follow up on the allegations.

“The ask for him was can you call out the defense attache Rome and find out what the heck’s going on? Because I’m getting all these weird crazy reports and probably the guy on the ground knows more than anything,” Miller said, according to a clip of his videotaped deposition.

As DOJ officials repeatedly dismissed Trump’s demands, he turned to one official who would forward a baseless investigation into his election fraud claims. 

Trump was increasingly desperate as Jan. 6 approached

Thursday’s witnesses portrayed Trump as increasingly desperate to reverse the election results as Jan. 6 got closer, ramping up his pressure campaign through a series of conversations that would culminate in an explosive White House meeting on Jan. 3. 

The officials met with Trump on Dec. 15, the day Barr announced his resignation, when Trump presented a bogus report claiming that voting machines in a Michigan county had a 68 percent error rate. (A DOJ investigation found the actual error rate to be .0063 percent).

By Dec. 21, Trump was airing his DOJ grievances publicly, urging his supporters to “fight” and calling on Justice officials “to finally step up.” 

The next day he was introduced to Clark, a longtime environmental lawyer only recently tapped to lead the DOJ’s civil division. Clark vowed to lead Trump’s charge, drafting a letter to Georgia officials asking them to hold off on certification of their election results pending a DOJ investigation.

By Dec. 23, Rosen said, Trump “either called me or met with me virtually every day with one or two exceptions,” often bringing new allegations of voter fraud or making new requests.

But as the month came to a close, Kinzinger said, Trump “looked for another attorney general, his third in two weeks.”

In a Dec. 27 meeting, DOJ officials said Trump’s behavior was an “escalation of the earlier conversation.”

“As we got later in the month of December, the President’s entreaties became more urgent. He became more adamant that we weren’t doing our job,” Donoghue said. 

The pressure campaign exploded in the Jan. 3 meeting, with the committee revealing that the White House already considered Clark to be fulfilling the role. White House call logs shared by the committee reveal a conversation with “acting Attorney General Jeffrey Clark.”

DOJ leaders rallied against Clark

Anticipating that Trump might try to install Clark as acting attorney general in a last-ditch effort, Rosen, Donoghue and Engel said they worked fervently to head off the possibility.

Donoghue and Engel quickly decided that they would resign should Trump replace Rosen with Clark. 

Ahead of what would turn out to be an explosive Jan. 3 meeting in the Oval Office, they reached out to a group of assistant attorneys general and found that most of the group would quickly follow suit if Clark took over the DOJ.

It turned out to be a key piece of leverage when Trump asked the three DOJ officials about what would happen if he replaced Rosen with his ally. Donoghue and Engel promised it would lead to a mass resignation beginning at the top of the department and potentially sweeping across the nation’s U.S. Attorneys’ offices. 

“Jeff Clark will be left leading a graveyard,” Donoghue told Trump.

“All anyone is going to think is that you went through two attorneys general in two weeks until you found the environmental guy to sign this thing,” Engel added. “And so, the story is not going to be that the Department of Justice has found massive corruption that would have changed the result of the election. It’s going to be the disaster of Jeff Clark.” 

Donoghue, Engel and White House lawyers present at the Jan. 3 meeting did not hold back when it became clear that they had to make their case against Clark and his plan to use the DOJ’s resources to undermine the election results.

“When he finished discussing what he planned on doing, I said good fucking — excuse me, sorry — effing A-hole, congratulations,” White House lawyer Eric Herschmann said in a taped deposition with the committee. “You just admitted your first step or act you take as attorney general would be committing a felony.” 

New figure emerges linking Trump’s campaign lawyer to internal DOJ scheme

Cheney revealed new details about an attorney at the Justice Department who helped Clark draft a letter to state officials in Georgia requesting they delay certifying their votes while prosecutors investigated election fraud allegations.

Kenneth Klukowski began serving at the DOJ just 36 days before President Biden’s inauguration, joining Clark’s staff on December 15, 2020. 

Cheney said that Klukowski had been working with Eastman, the legal adviser seeking to provide a justification for overturning the election, prior to joining the department and showed evidence suggesting their relationship continued while Klukowski was working under Clark.

She presented a Dec. 28 email from Trump ally Ken Blackwell requesting that then-Vice President Pence receive a briefing from Klukowski and Eastman and warning “to make sure we don’t over expose Ken given his new position.”

“This email suggests that Mr. Klukowski was simultaneously working with Jeffrey Clark to draft the proposed letter to Georgia officials to overturn their certified election and working with Dr. Eastman to help pressure the Vice President to overturn the election,” Cheney said.

Klukowski’s involvement in the draft Georgia letter had come out during the course of the committee’s investigation, but his apparent role as a bridge between Eastman and Clark was not previously known.

Source: TEST FEED1

DUI charges filed against Pelosi’s husband

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband has been formally charged with driving under the influence after he was arrested last month in Northern California. 

A release from the Napa County District Attorney’s Office states that the office filed charges against Paul Pelosi based on a collision he was in that injured another individual. Pelosi’s blood was sent for testing after his accident and was found to have a .082 percent blood alcohol content, just above the legal limit of .08 percent. 

Pelosi is facing two misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and driving with a .08 percent blood alcohol level or higher causing injury. If he is found guilty, he could face up to five years of probation, a minimum of five days in jail, fines, required completion of a court-ordered drinking driver class and other terms as appropriate. 

Pelosi is set to be arraigned on Aug. 3. 

A spokesperson for the speaker’s office deferred a request from The Hill for comment to a spokesperson for Paul Pelosi, who declined to comment at this time.

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for the speaker, told The Hill last month that the speaker was not with her husband at the time and would not comment further on his arrest. 

Paul Pelosi’s bail was set at the time at $5,000. The district attorney’s office release states Paul Pelosi was released from custody upon his promise to appear for the arraignment. 

The release states the district attorney’s office will not provide any additional information to the public outside of the courtroom or in documents filed to ensure Pelosi is able to maintain his right to a fair trial. 

“The media and the public have a right to know what occurs in a criminal case. As such, they have full and free access to our courts,” the release states.

Source: TEST FEED1

Former officials describe fierce Trump pressure on Justice Dept.

Former President Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election by installing a loyalist at the top of the Justice Department would have led to mass resignations at the agency and, ultimately, sparked an unprecedented constitutional crisis, former DOJ leaders testified Thursday on Capitol Hill.

Appearing before the House panel investigating last year’s attack on the Capitol, the former officials — acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, his deputy Richard Donoghue and Steven Engel, then head of the Office of Legal Counsel  — described weeks of chaos inside the Trump White House as the president scrambled to reverse his electoral defeat and grew ever more frustrated they wouldn’t help him to do it. 

In a crescendo of desperation leading up to Jan. 6, they testified, Trump pressed them to investigate a series of sensational fraud allegations — all of them examined and debunked — and when they refused to endorse his false claims of a stolen election, he tried to promote someone who would.

That figure was a mid-level lawyer at the DOJ, Jeffrey Clark, whose willingness to adopt Trump’s false narrative about widespread fraud had endeared him to the former president — so much so that Trump sought to install Clark as acting attorney general, replacing Rosen, in the final weeks of his presidency.

That campaign culminated in an explosive Jan. 3 meeting with Trump, his top lawyers and the DOJ officials in the Oval Office, where Trump threatened an ultimatum: Help reverse the election results or Clark would be promoted. All three figures threatened to quit.

“I said, ‘Mr. President, you’re talking about putting a man in that seat who has never tried a criminal case, who has never conducted a criminal investigation. He’s telling you that he’s going to take charge of the department, 115,000 employees, including the entire FBI, and turn the place on a dime and conduct nationwide criminal investigations that will produce results in a matter of days,” Donoghue testified. 

“It’s impossible. It’s absurd. It’s not going to happen, and it’s going to fail.”

Clark, a longtime environmental lawyer only recently tapped to lead DOJ’s civil division, was introduced to the president by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who accompanied Clark to the White House on Dec. 22, 2020, the day after Trump met with a group of Republican lawmakers to hone a strategy to “fight back against mounting evidence of voter fraud,” according to a tweet from then-chief of staff Mark Meadows.

The hearing, the fifth chapter in an ongoing series of public presentations, kicked off just hours after the Justice Department served a warrant at Clark’s home in suburban Virginia.

While the committee dished out a few bombshells — including new revelations about Republican lawmakers seeking presidential pardons for their role in keeping Trump in power — it largely pivoted away from its past format of heavy reliance on video clips from a wide suite of aides.

Instead, the panel afforded the three former officials a platform for hours to detail how close the country came to what Donoghue said would have “spiraled us into a constitutional crisis.”

Rosen detailed a barrage of requests from Trump, who began calling him even before he officially took over the role in the week between former Attorney General Bill Barr’s resignation announcement and departure.  

“At one point he had raised the question of having a special counsel for election fraud. At a number of points, he raised requests that I meet with his campaign counsel, Mr. Giuliani. At one point, he raised whether the Justice Department would file a lawsuit in the Supreme Court. At a couple of junctures, there were questions about making public statements or about holding a press conference. At one of the later junctures was this issue of sending a letter to state legislatures in Georgia or other states,” Rosen said.

“There were different things raised at different parts or different intervals with the common theme being his dissatisfaction about what the Justice Department had done to investigate election fraud.”

As Trump’s requests were repeatedly rejected by DOJ leadership, he became increasingly fixated on Clark, whom Rep. Adam Kizinger (R-Ill.) describes as an “environmental lawyer with no experience relevant to leading the entire Department of Justice.”

The committee offered new details as to how and why Clark was suddenly brought into the president’s orbit. Namely, he was willing to endorse the claims of voter fraud that the other officials rejected. 

“I do recall saying to people that somebody should be put in charge of the Justice Department who isn’t frightened of what’s going to be done to their reputation, because the Justice Department was filled with people like that,” Trump campaign attorney Rudy Giuliani told investigators in a pre-recorded deposition. 

It also revealed that Trump had considered tapping campaign attorney Sidney Powell — who is now facing disbarment based on faulty voter fraud allegations she presented in court — as a special counsel for investigating election fraud.

Clark was nearly referred for contempt of Congress charges after he walked out of his first deposition with the committee. While he later returned, he largely pleaded the Fifth Amendment, leaving much of what is known about the episode from testimony of DOJ and White House officials.

Clark had a series of calls with Trump unbeknownst to Rosen and Donoghue, who he had promised to inform of his activity after they told him his White House contact was inappropriate.

But things came to a head on Jan. 3 when Clark told Rosen that Trump was going to promote him to acting attorney general. Clark then offered Rosen a chance to serve as his deputy.

“I wasn’t going to accept being fired by my subordinate,” Rosen said.

“I thought that was preposterous. I told him that was nonsensical and that there was no universe where I was going to do that to stay on and support someone else doing things that were not consistent with what I thought should be done. So I didn’t accept that offer, if I can put it that way.”

White House call logs revealed by the committee show Clark and Trump spoke multiple times that day, with a call after 4 p.m. logged as a conversation with “acting Attorney General Jeffrey Clark.”

Justice Department lawyers and even his own White House counsel were able to talk Trump off the plan, largely by berating Clark, noting they would call him when there was an “oil spill” or joking that even if he walked into the FBI director’s office, he wouldn’t know who Clark was.

But they also leaned heavily on the fact that nearly all the top assistant attorneys general at DOJ would join Donoghue in resigning.

“Jeff Clark will be left leading a graveyard,” Donoghue said, relaying Engel’s Jan. 3 message to Trump.

Engel said Trump would not get the voter fraud newsline he was hoping for.

“All anyone is going to think is that you went through two attorneys general in two weeks until you found the environmental guy to sign this thing. And so, the story is not going to be that the Department of Justice has found massive corruption that would have changed the result of the election. It’s going to be the disaster of Jeff Clark,” he said.

“And I think at that point Pat Cipollone said, ‘Yeah, this is a murder suicide pact, this letter.’”

White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, whose salty language-filled deposition has appeared throughout the hearings in numerous video clips, was also in attendance at the Oval Office meeting and told Clark his plan was illegal.

“When he finished discussing what he planned on doing, I said good f—ing — excuse me, sorry — effing A-hole, congratulations. You just admitted your first step or act you take as attorney general would be committing a felony,” he said. 

“You’re clearly the right candidate for this job,” he added sarcastically.

Trump was ultimately dissuaded from installing Clark, and DOJ leadership left the Oval Office feeling relieved.

But just 90 minutes later, Donoghue got a call from Trump, this time raising a new unsubstantiated allegation of truckloads of shredded ballots.

Source: TEST FEED1

CDC investigating 'large, ongoing' outbreak of meningococcal disease in Florida

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating “one of the worst outbreaks of meningococcal disease among gay and bisexual men in U.S. history” after at least 24 cases and six deaths were reported in Florida.

In a Wednesday press release, the CDC described a serogroup C meningococcal outbreak primarily spreading among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, including those living with HIV. About half of the cases were reported among Hispanic men. A serogroup is a group of bacteria containing a common antigen.

The CDC, which is investigating the outbreak along with the Florida Department of Health, is also looking into a separate serogroup B meningococcal outbreak among college students in Leon County, Fla.

The Florida health department first issued an alert about the Leon County outbreak in April.

Meningococcal disease is caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis. It can cause a deadly bloodstream infection or meningitis, an infection of the lining of the brain or spinal cord.

The bacteria is spread through close contact, such as coughing or kissing. The most common symptoms from the disease are a fever, headache or a purple rash.

The CDC is encouraging gay and bisexual men in Florida to get the meningococcal vaccine (MenACWY), which is free of charge through county resources in Florida.

José Romero, the director at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said getting vaccinated “is the best way to prevent this serious illness, which can quickly become deadly.”

“Because of the outbreak in Florida, and the number of Pride events being held across the state in coming weeks, it’s important that gay and bisexual men who live in Florida get vaccinated,” Romero said in a statement.

“Those traveling to Florida talk to their healthcare provider about getting a MenACWY vaccine,” he added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Energy & Environment — Energy chief, oil execs hold 'constructive' meeting

President Biden’s Energy secretary met with oil executives on Thursday as the administration faces pressure to tamp down sky-high gas prices. Meanwhile, the Fish and Wildlife Service has reinstated pre-Trump endangered species protections.  

This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For The Hill, we’re Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk. Subscribe here.

Energy Dept. says oil meeting was ‘productive’

Oil executives and industry groups said a Thursday meeting with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was “constructive.” 

• “Today’s meeting was a constructive conversation about addressing both near-term issues and the longer-term stability of energy markets,” said Mike Wirth, CEO and chairman of Chevron, in a statement.
• “We remain optimistic about our ability to work together to achieve these shared objectives. We appreciate Secretary Granholm’s invitation to participate in the conversation, which was an important step toward achieving greater energy security, economic prosperity, and environmental protection,” he added.

The American Petroleum Institute and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, which respectively represent the oil industry broadly and oil refiners specifically, issued a similar sentiment.  

“Secretary Granholm’s meeting with American refiners today was a constructive discussion about ways to address rising energy costs and create more certainty for global energy markets,” the organizations said in a joint statement.

An Energy Department readout of the meeting likewise described it as “productive.” 

“The meeting took a productive focus on dissecting the current global problems of supply and refining, generating an opportunity for industry to work with government to help deliver needed relief to American consumer” the department said.  

Relationship status — it’s complicated: The positive comments from both sides come amid a period of tension between the Biden administration and oil companies. In a recent letter to oil refiners, Biden criticized their high profits.

• “At a time of war, refinery profit margins well above normal being passed directly onto American families are not acceptable,” he wrote in the letter. 
• And ahead of the meeting, Wirth wrote a letter to Biden criticizing what he described as attempts to “vilify” the oil industry. 
• “Notwithstanding these efforts, your Administration has largely sought to criticize, and at times vilify, our industry. These actions are not beneficial to meeting the challenges we face and are not what the American people deserve,” he wrote on Tuesday.  

The deets: Granholm was scheduled to meet Thursday with executives from ExxonMobil, Shell, Valero, Marathon, Phillips 66, BP and Chevron.

According to the Energy Department readout, participants discussed what the companies are doing to maintain existing operations and hurdles in increasing domestic refining, in which oil is made into gasoline. 

Read more about the meeting here.

Biden administration reinstates habitat protections

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service on Thursday announced a new rule reversing a Trump-era definition of “habitat” as applied to endangered animals.

Under the 2020 rule, the definition of federally-protected habitats for endangered species was narrowed to only those where a species could currently live, excluding those that could someday sustain a species. On Thursday, FWS reversed this, saying it contravened the intent of the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA).   

• When it narrowed the definition, the Trump administration argued that its changes would be more consistent and transparent for landowners. 
• But environmentalists said that the government should be able to protect land that could support an animal in the future and described the Trump move as a “giveaway to industry.” 

“The growing extinction crisis highlights the importance of the Endangered Species Act and efforts to conserve species before declines become irreversible,” Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz said in a statement.

“Today’s action will bring implementation of the Act back into alignment with its original purpose and intent and ensures that species recovery is guided by transparent science-based policies and conservation actions that preserve America’s biological heritage for future generations.” 

Read more here.  

GET WIND OF THIS

The White House said Thursday that it was launching an offshore wind partnership with 11 East Coast states.

• The partnership will entail building up the supply chain for offshore wind, expanding the workforce and addressing regional issues like fishing and connecting to the electric grid.
• The states involved in the push are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, according to The Verge. 

The federal government, New York and Maryland will also jointly fund the development a “supply chain roadmap” for offshore wind. 

The Department of Transportation will also give applications for financing for offshore wind vessels priority status through the Federal Ship Financing Program 

Draft finds mining would pose risk to watershed

A federal study released Thursday determined that hardrock mining in a Minnesota wilderness area would risk contaminating the region.  

• In its assessment, the U.S. Forest Service said copper-nickel mining would pose a major risk to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. While the assessment is a draft, it proposes a 20-year ban on copper mining on federal lands in the watershed. 
• Potential fallout from mining in the area includes “the creation of permanently stored waste materials” upstream, which could lead to the release of water with elevated levels of acidity and metal contamination, the assessment states.  

“The greatest potential risk to water quality of the wilderness area and lands within the withdrawal areas comes from catastrophic failure of a wet basin tailings storage (impoundment) dam,” the assessment added.

“Wet basin tailings storage poses the risk of dam failure and the potential release of a large volume of contaminated sediment (tailings) and water to a nearby water body with potential transport of it to downstream water bodies and receptors.”  

The assessment comes nearly six months after the Interior Department announced the cancellation of two mining leases in the area, which were granted under the Trump administration in 2019. The January legal opinion determined the Trump administration had improperly renewed the leases in 2019 after initially approving them the year before. 

Read more about the draft finding here. 

ON TAP TOMORROW

The House Climate Crisis Committee will hold a hearing on cutting methane emissions 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Lake Mead nears dead pool status as water levels hit another historic low (NBC News) 
• The last nuclear plant in California – and the unexpected quest to save it (The Guardian) 
• Forest Service grazing decision irks environmental group (The Associated Press) 
• OPEC+ Mulls When to Fire Its Last Oil Production Bullets (Bloomberg) 
• Manchin slams ‘stupid’ EV push, cites Chinese supply chain (E&E News) 

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Energy & Environment page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow.  

VIEW FULL VERSION HERE

Source: TEST FEED1

Netflix lays off 300 employees in second round of mass job cuts

Netflix has laid off 300 employees in a second round of layoffs after letting go 150 workers last month as the company tries to cut costs amid a downturn in revenue growth. 

A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the layoffs to The Hill on Thursday, saying the company is continuing to “significantly” invest in its business but needed to make the move to ensure costs are growing in line with the slower revenue growth. 

“We are so grateful for everything they have done for Netflix and are working hard to support them through this difficult transition,” the spokesperson said of the laid off employees in a statement. 

In April, Netflix reported its first loss in subscribers since October 2011, causing its stock to drop by 23 percent. The company lost 200,000 subscribers during the first quarter of 2022. 

Netflix canceled multiple planned shows in the aftermath of the loss. The streaming platform sent a letter to shareholders when the loss was announced, saying that the company expected the decrease in subscribers to continue. In the letter, it predicted a loss of 2 million paid global subscribers during the second quarter of the year.

Source: TEST FEED1

On The Money — Hot labor market stays strong through Fed hikes

Layoffs remain low even as interest rates go higher. We’ll also look at the scrapping of a major cannabis banking bill and where a top Fed official sees rates going. 

But first, Nike is sprinting out of Russia and isn’t looking back. 

Welcome to On The Money, your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. For The Hill, we’re Sylvan Lane, Aris Folley and Karl Evers-Hillstrom. Subscribe here.

Jobless claims fall slightly amid recession fears

New applications for unemployment aid fell slightly last week as the U.S. job market showed few signs of a slowdown despite rising interest rates. 

In the week ending June 18, initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 229,000 after adjustments for seasonal factors, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. 

The background: The labor market has remained historically strong, even as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates at a rapid pace to help cool inflation. Higher interest rates usually slow job growth as businesses facing higher borrowing costs and slower sales pull back job openings and lay off employees.  

“The steady weekly data suggests that the impact of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases has yet to show up in earnest as monetary policies often take months to make their way through the economy,” wrote Tuan Nguyen, economist at RSM, in a Thursday analysis. 

Sylvan has more here. 

LEADING THE DAY

Cannabis banking bill removed from China competition package 

Congressional leaders have removed a key cannabis banking measure from their China competition bill, dealing a blow to marijuana advocates who pushed for its inclusion. 

Supporters will now aim to get the cannabis banking bill, which has passed the House several times with broad bipartisan support, included in another spending package. 

• The SAFE Banking Act, which would allow legally operating cannabis businesses to access banking services, was included in House Democrats’ COMPETES Act but not the Senate’s bipartisan U.S. Innovation and Competition Act passed last year. 
• The decision isn’t surprising, as Republican leaders argued that the cannabis bill didn’t fit with other measures in the China competitiveness package, and prominent Democrats want to pair the banking bill with social justice measures, something that can’t be done in the conference committee. 
• The bill’s supporters said Thursday that lawmakers are endangering cannabis workers by failing to overhaul the current system, which forces most dispensaries to use cash, making them top targets for robberies. 

Cannabis lobbying groups have warned Democrats that they cannot afford to enter the midterms without having passed any marijuana reforms. 

“The support and political will is there to get the SAFE Banking Act across the finish line. We are encouraged by conversations about pairing the bill with other helpful cannabis and criminal justice reforms,” Steven Hawkins, president of the U.S. Cannabis Council, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with our members and allies to help get the job done.” 

Read more here from The Hill’s Karl Evers-Hillstrom.

HIGHER AND HIGHER

Fed’s Bowman expects 75 basis point hike in July 

Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said Thursday she expects the central bank to raise interest rates by another 0.75 percentage points at its next monetary policy meeting in July. 

In a speech to Massachusetts bankers Thursday, Bowman said she believes the Fed will need to issue its second consecutive 75 basis point hike in July with several 50 basis point hikes to follow. She said with inflation “unacceptably high,” the Fed must move quickly to move its baseline interest rate range higher than where markets expect inflation to settle. 

“I expect that an additional rate increase of 75 basis points will be appropriate at our next meeting as well as increases of at least 50 basis points in the next few subsequent meetings, as long as the incoming data support them,” Bowman said. 

“Depending on how the economy evolves, further increases in the target range for the federal funds rate may be needed after that.” 

• Bowman’s projection comes a week after the Fed hiked interest rates by
  75 basis points for the first time since 1994.  
• While Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other top Fed officials signaled for weeks the bank would only hike by 50 basis points, the bank issued a larger hike after an unexpectedly high inflation report alarmed the bank and financial markets in the prior week. 

Here’s more from Sylvan.

STUDENT LOANS

Education Department agrees to cancel $6B in loans 

After three years of litigation, the Education Department agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against it regarding billions of dollars in debt forgiveness for hundreds of thousands of borrowers.  

The terms of the settlement for Sweet v. Cardona state that the Education Department will immediately approve borrower defense claims for approximately 200,000 borrowers, effectively canceling $6 billion in student loans for students that attended schools that the Department determined engaged in misconduct.  

• The settlement is divided into two groups: The first class consists of about 200,000 borrowers who took out federal student loans to attend certain schools — the list includes over a dozen different for-profit institutions around the country — who will have their loans fully canceled, receive refunds for prior loan payments and have their credit repaired.  
• The second class consists of about 64,000 students that took out federal student loans but did not attend a school on the aforementioned list. These students will have their loan cancellation applications considered and get a decision based on how long their application has been pending. 

There’s more on this here from The Hill’s Shirin Ali.

Good to Know

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday that it is banning the sale of Juul e-cigarettes, a major blow to the company and a major step in a broader effort to prevent youth vaping.  

The FDA said Juul must stop selling and marketing its products, and everything that’s already on the market must be removed.  

Here’s what else we have our eye on: 

• The House Armed Services Committee voted to advance its $840 billion version of the annual defense policy bill, adding in more for extra ships, aircraft, Ukraine aid and to offset inflation. 
• Sportswear giant Nike has announced plans to permanently shut down its business ventures in Russia over the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 
• Part shortages resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have led Toyota to again make adjustments to the company’s production plans, reducing the number of globally produced units by 50,000 this July. 
• The House Appropriations Committee advanced its $314.1 billion military construction and veterans’ affairs appropriations bill for fiscal year 2023, sending it to the full lower chamber for consideration. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading and check out The Hill’s Finance page for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you tomorrow. 

VIEW FULL VERSION HERE

Source: TEST FEED1

Transform our energy grid now with renewable microgrids

Recent inflation reports and increases in interest rates confirm what consumers everywhere are experiencing — the cost of living is rapidly rising. Energy costs are the single most important factor in rising inflation. If we can stabilize those costs, we can begin to rein in inflation.

A solution to stabilize energy prices is within our grasp. Acting now can also make the energy we need become more reliable, efficient and local in the long term. That solution is renewable microgrids: localized grids composed of interconnected solar panels or micro wind turbines and storage units like batteries with the ability to disconnect and serve communities if the larger grid isn’t working. More and more common among homeowners, businesses and critical facilities, microgrids provide a path forward to lock in affordable energy prices and facilitate the transition away from reliance on coal, gas and oil, a critical reason for global conflicts and energy insecurity.

Microgrids are increasingly becoming part of a new, modern electrical energy system as communities, businesses and government institutions see them as unique solutions to meet the demand for clean, resilient and efficient energy. From Connecticut to California, and Alaska to Puerto Rico, renewable microgrids are addressing an increasingly unreliable power grid and protecting against high-impact events such as hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires as well as cyberattacks. Lawmakers across the political spectrum are seeing how investing in this technology can help their cities and states become more resilient against these types of disasters.

It’s not just good policy, it’s good politics. Not only can microgrids buffer us from the inflationary impact of volatile oil prices, but they can also add to employment and economic growth. In a recent report, our organizations RMI and the Millennial Action Project, along with Guidehouse, found that renewable energy microgrids, largely based on solar and battery storage, can create 500,000 new jobs while increasing GDP by $72 billion. According to the report, every $1 million invested in renewable energy microgrid assets will create 3.4 skilled jobs and $500,000 in economic benefits. California alone is forecast to create over 166,000 jobs by 2030, generating over $22 billion in GDP.

At the same time, all the customers and users of those microgrids are replacing volatile prices for diesel or electricity with a fixed asset generating power and creating value. Microgrids are cost-effective, even at today’s power and fuel prices. In a world with strained global supply chains and markets, the added disruption from climate change will likely only increase volatility and inflation. 

We can look to Puerto Rico for how renewable microgrids can be transformative. In Puerto Rico, where long-running economic recession persists and the scars of extreme storms are fresh, the electricity costs are over 60 percent higher than the U.S. average, and have increased nearly 50 percent this year. With a commitment earlier this year from President Biden and Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, the path is now clear for Puerto Rico to add thousands more resilient and clean microgrids and protect against immediate cost pressures as well as reduce community risks in a destabilized climate. In California and Texas, the recent extreme weather events have encouraged many to seek funding for microgrids, including appeals in Congress, while utilities are finding new ways to sponsor and integrate these solutions.

American voters are ready for this new energy paradigm. Voters of all types see a persuasive argument for local, independent, clean and reliable systems. Familiarity and support for microgrids have doubled over the past year. An October 2021 bipartisan survey of 1,200 adults found that today 26 percent of adults are familiar with microgrids, up from 13 percent in 2020. Knowledge of microgrids leads to support; after learning more about microgrids, 79 percent of adults favor increasing the use of microgrids, up from 67 percent in 2020.

Microgrids, based largely on clean energy, are now a proven solution to deal with many of our immediate climate and power threats. The new infrastructure law presents us with the resources to integrate microgrids into a more, modern, reliable and cleaner grid to power our lives.

Additionally, the crisis in Ukraine underscores the urgency of pursuing a new era of energy independence — from other countries, from oil and from climate disasters.

Microgrids have emerged as a key intervention for forward-looking lawmakers, especially younger millennial leaders, to act upon. The technology is there. It’s now time for the political will and policy to follow.

Kaitlyn Bunker is a director at RMI, an independent nonprofit founded in 1982 that transforms global energy systems through market-driven solutions to align with a 1.5-degree Celsius future and secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all. 

Layla Zadaine is president and CEO of the Millennial Action Project (MAP), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to activating the next generation of political leaders to bridge the partisan divide and solve future-focused problems. 

Source: TEST FEED1