Bid to revoke Obama methane rule fails in surprise U.S. Senate vote

A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, in a file photo. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected a resolution to revoke an Obama-era rule to limit methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to free the drilling industry from what he sees as excessive environmental regulation.
The Congressional Review Act resolution received just 49 votes after Republican leaders scrambled for weeks to secure the 51 needed to pass it. The resolution would have revoked the rule and prevented similar regulations from being introduced.
Getting the Trump administration to repeal the BLM rule had been a top priority of the oil and gas industry. Companies said it was unnecessary, would could cost them tens of thousands of dollars per well and hinder production.
But not all Republicans supported the measure, in part because it would have made regulating methane waste more difficult in the future.
Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona made a surprise vote against the resolution, joining fellow Republicans Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine in opposition to torpedo it.
“While I am concerned that the BLM rule may be onerous, passage of the resolution would have prevented the federal government, under any administration, from issuing a rule that is ‘similar’,” McCain said in a statement.
He said the Interior Department should issue a new rule on to replace the existing one on methane leaks, which he called a public health and air quality issue.
The rule, finalized by President Barack Obama in his last weeks in office, updated 30-year-old regulations that govern flaring, venting and natural gas leaks from oil and gas production. Obama’s administration said it would preserve up to 41 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas per year that is currently lost to leaks and flaring.
The American Petroleum Institute and other industry groups have said the methane rule is unnecessary because companies have made strides in reducing leaks on their own.
“The rule could impede U.S. energy production while reducing local and federal revenues,” said Erik Milito, API’s Upstream and Industry Operations Group Director.
Members of the Western Energy Alliance, which include Devon Energy , Whiting Petroleum and EOG Resources had also been strongly opposed to the rule.
Environmental groups hailed what they depicted as a rare victory for the environment after several regulatory rollbacks by the Trump administration.
“In recent months, thousands of Americans asked the Senate to stand up for clean air and against the oil lobby, and their efforts were successful today,” said Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society.
The Western Values Project estimated that if the rule had been rescinded, the U.S. Treasury would have lost out on $800 million in lost potential royalties from leaked or vented natural gas over the next decade.
Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works who supported the resolution to kill the rule, called on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to act unilaterally to revoke it.

Republican Senators McCain, Sasse oppose Trump’s U.S. trade representative pick

Republican U.S. Senators John McCain and Ben Sasse said on Wednesday they would vote against President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, because of his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Unfortunately, your confirmation process has failed to reassure us that you understand the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) positive economic benefits to our respective States and the nation as a whole,” McCain and Sasse said in a letter to Lighthizer.

Delay seen, again, on Trump growth agenda after Comey sacking

Not even a week after the Trump administration and Congress rekindled optimism that they could soon make progress on a pro-growth agenda including tax cuts, the unexpected firing of the head of the FBI late Tuesday presented investors with a fresh reason to second-guess their confidence in the “Trump trade.”
At the least, financial market participants viewed President Donald Trump’s abrupt dismissal of FBI Director James Comey as an unwelcome distraction, while some fretted it could tie Washington in knots for months, potentially postponing already-delayed reforms.
The takeaway for the stock markets: don’t bet on any quick legislation around trade, the budget, healthcare or infrastructure.
“There is nothing good out of this for markets,” said Michael Purves, chief global strategist at Weeden & Co. “It will weigh on Trump’s ability to cut deals with Congress. It costs him negotiating leverage.”
Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at BMO Private Bank, said, “on a medium-term basis, it does undermine the administration’s power to get things done.”
Trump’s election last November unleashed a powerful upswing in U.S. stock markets on the premise that he would cut taxes and regulation and usher through a major infrastructure spending package. The benchmark S&P 500 <.SPX> has gained 12 percent since Election Day, while shares of tech stocks and smaller companies have performed even better.
Nagging concerns about Trump’s ability to get things done, along with some anxiety about stretched equity valuations, have combined to cap the rally, and stocks have done little since early March.
Around midday Wednesday, the S&P was near unchanged, as were other market benchmarks.
The administration recovered some credibility last week when the House of Representatives voted to repeal major portions of former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act after failing to do so a month earlier. The simple achievement of advancing the healthcare bill to the Senate had been seen by investors as a signal that enacting tax cuts was doable, the big question was just how soon – this year or next.
“There’s a tremendous amount of hope baked into the market that Trump is going to be able to act, particularly on tax reform,” said Brad McMillan, Chief Investment Officer for Commonwealth Financial in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Edward Perkin, Chief Equity Investment Officer at Eaton Vance, said if the date to pass tax “is pushed out it’s not so much a problem, but if people question if it will ever happen, then that’s a problem.”
The degree to which this further alienates Democrats on Capitol Hill, especially in the Senate, was another concern given how narrow support has been so far for Trump’s agenda.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a senior Democratic lawmaker from California, was not optimistic that tensions between the parties would ease anytime soon.
“I had been hopeful that we could have a line of activity that’s going to bring a very divided country together,” Feinstein told Reuters Wednesday. “The problem out there is that people are so divided.”
Should the Comey episode weaken Trump’s bargaining ability with lawmakers, it may actually act as a catalyst for a tax bill, just one that might resemble congressional Republicans’ version more than Trump’s.
“An ongoing special investigation or shift in the balance of power could actually make Trump more eager to sign off” on the previously existing congressional tax plan, analysts at NatWest Markets said.
Of course, some had already adopted the view that Trump’s promised reforms were a distant hope, at best.
“Investors are realizing that the fiscal policy agenda is being pushed out farther on the horizon,” Michael Arone, Chief Investment Strategist at State Street Global Advisors .

FBI Director Comey Cartoons

U.S. Republican Graham curious on Trump business deals

U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Tuesday he wants to know more about President Donald Trump’s business dealings in relation to Russia, but that congressional investigations may have to avoid the matter if they conflict with an FBI probe.
Graham asked former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Monday whether he had concerns about Russian ties to Trump’s business interests. Clapper said he could not comment because the issue could be a subject of an ongoing investigation.
CNN reported on Tuesday that Graham intended to look into Trump’s business ties to see if any connections exist between Russia and the Trump campaign or the president’s associates.
The White House said it would welcome any fact-finding by Graham and the subcommittee, which he chairs, saying the president has no business ties to Russia.
“He has no business in Russia; he has no connections to Russia,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. “So he welcomes that.”
Spicer added that Trump had directed a law firm to send Graham a certified letter stating as much.
While Graham expressed interest in finding out whether Trump’s business interests had any Russia ties, he said the subcommittee may have to “steer clear” of the issue if it conflicts with the FBI’s probe of Russia and the Trump campaign.
He clarified later that he had not taken any new actions.
“This is nothing new here,” he told reporters at the Capitol. “I’m not a prosecutor. But if you ask me if I want to know if there are any Trump business ties to Russia that are inappropriate, the answer would be ‘yes.'”
Graham told CNN it would be helpful to see Trump’s tax records but that it was too soon to say whether he would be willing to subpoena them, the network said.

Senate votes to confirm Gottlieb as head of FDA

The U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a conservative health policy expert and venture capitalist, as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
Gottlieb, a physician and former deputy FDA commissioner during the George W. Bush administration, is seen as competent and knowledgeable. But critics worry about his ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Gottlieb has agreed to divest his holdings in about two-dozen healthcare stocks.

Flynn associates subpoenaed in Russia probe: CNN

Federal prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas seeking business records from people who worked with former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn when he was a private citizen, CNN reported on Tuesday.
Citing people familiar with the matter, CNN said the subpoenas were issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria, Virginia. They targeted people who worked with Flynn on contracts after he was pushed out of his job as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, it reported.
Flynn later joined the Trump campaign but was fired as the White House national security adviser by President Donald Trump in February after he failed to tell the truth about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, did not respond immediately to a request for comment. A Justice Department spokeswoman said the department does not comment on the existence of ongoing investigations.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into allegations Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election to benefit Trump, as well as possible links to the Trump campaign.
Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the U.S. election and the Trump administration denies allegations of collusion with Russia.
Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday, saying he had lost confidence in Comey over his handling of an election-year email scandal involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Flynn, a retired general, has emerged as a central figure in the Russian probes.
Investigators have been looking into whether Flynn properly disclosed payments from clients with links to foreign governments, including Russia and Turkey, CNN said.

Trump fires FBI Director Comey, setting off U.S. political storm

Hillary Henchman?

U.S. President Donald Trump ignited a political firestorm on Tuesday by firing FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to influence the election outcome.
The Republican president said he fired Comey, the top U.S. law enforcement official, over his handling of an election-year email scandal involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The move stunned Washington and raised suspicions among Democrats and others that the White House was trying to blunt the FBI probe involving Russia.
Some Democrats compared Trump’s move to the “Saturday Night Massacre” of 1973, in which President Richard Nixon fired an independent special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal.
White House officials denied allegations that there was any political motive in the move by Trump, who took office on Jan. 20.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said he spoke to Trump and told him he was “making a very big mistake” in firing Comey, adding the president did not “really answer” in response.
An independent investigation into Moscow’s role in the election “is now the only way to go to restore the American people’s faith,” Schumer said.
Though many Democrats have criticized Comey’s handling of the Clinton email probe, they said they were troubled by the timing of Trump’s firing of him.
Senator Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is overseeing its own investigation into Russian interference during the election, said in a statement he was also troubled by the timing of Comey’s termination.
“His dismissal, I believe, is a loss for the Bureau and the nation,” Burr said.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a January report that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an effort to disrupt the 2016 election, with the aim of helping Trump.
CNN reported on Tuesday night that federal prosecutors had issued grand jury subpoenas to former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, seeking business records, as part of the probe into Russian interference in the election.
Trump’s firing of Comey came a day after former acting Attorney General Sally Yates told a Senate panel that she had informed the White House on Jan. 26 that Flynn was at risk of blackmail by Moscow because he had been untruthful about his discussions with the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak. Trump fired Flynn 18 days later.
Russia has repeatedly denied any meddling in the election and the Trump administration denies allegations of collusion with Russia.
RESTORING ‘PUBLIC TRUST’
Trump, in a letter to Comey released by the White House, said: “It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.”
The president told Comey in the letter that he accepted the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he could no longer provide effective leadership. Comey’s term was to run through September 2023. He was appointed director by Democratic President Barack Obama in 2013.
Sessions advised Trump’s campaign before being picked by the president to lead the Justice Department. Sessions had recused himself from involvement in the Russia investigation, after he misstated his own 2016 contacts with Russia’s ambassador to Washington.
Comey’s deputy, Andrew McCabe, became acting FBI director. The White House said the search for a new permanent director would begin immediately.
Pushing back against critics of the move, White House officials said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a career prosecutor who took office on April 25, assessed the situation at the FBI and concluded that Comey had lost his confidence.
Rosenstein sent his recommendation to Sessions, who concurred and they forwarded their recommendation to Trump, who accepted it on Tuesday, they said.
The White House released a memo in which Rosenstein wrote: “I cannot defend the Director’s handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken.”
Rosenstein cited several former Justice Department officials’ comments criticizing Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation, including his public statements.
But one of those he cited, Donald Ayer, a former deputy attorney general under President H.W. Bush, questioned the purported reasons for the firing. Reached by Reuters, Ayer said in an email that the administration’s explanation was “a sham.”
Comey was traveling in Los Angeles when the news broke that he had been fired.
In an odd twist, a White House official said the letter firing him was delivered to the FBI by Keith Schiller, Trump’s longtime armed personal bodyguard who is now director of Oval Office Operations at the White House.
Trump, in the letter, said: “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau.”
EMAIL CONTROVERSY
Comey, 56, had been the target of criticism from many quarters for his handling of a probe involving Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was U.S. secretary of state under Obama. As recently as Tuesday, the FBI clarified remarks that Comey made on the matter last week.
Trump had originally criticized the FBI director for not pursuing criminal charges against Clinton last July, but later lavished praise on him.
Comey had said in July the Clinton email case should be closed without prosecution, but then declared – 11 days before the Nov. 8 election – that he had reopened the investigation because of a discovery of a new trove of Clinton-related emails.
Clinton and other Democrats say they believe Comey’s decision help cost her the election.
The firing came as a shock to FBI staff, nearly all of whom had confidence in Comey despite the controversy surrounding his handling of the Clinton email situation, according to an FBI official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said there was concern among agents that the firing was a political act related to the Russian investigation.
Other current and former U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials questioned the White House explanation for Comey’s firing.
“Trump praised him for the work on the email investigation, so that’s not it,” said Austin Berglas, a former FBI supervisory agent on hacking cases. “I think he realized the extent of the Russia investigation under way and moved him out. To me, that’s the only logical explanation right now.”
Trump’s dismissal of Comey does not mean the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election will be disrupted or end – career FBI staffers can continue the probe even as the search for a new FBI director begins, legal experts said.
Republican Representative Justin Amash wrote on Twitter that he and his staff were reviewing the possibility of drafting legislation to create an independent commission to look into the Russian campaign meddling.
Legislation related to the appointment of a special prosecutor or independent counsel has lapsed. But Justice Department regulations provide for the appointment of a special counsel, which is selected by the attorney general, or acting attorney general in the case of recusal, the experts said.