Thursday News & Notes
AUGUST 5, 2021 -- PRESIDENT REAGAN FIRES 11,359 AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS, 1981
•Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, could file for cloture today to end the amendment process on the $1-trillion infrastructure bill, which means a vote to end cloture on the weekend, Punchbowl News explains. That would result in a full Senate vote on the bill by late next week (wiping out the first week of the Senate’s August recess). The Senate then will take up the issue of the White House’s $3.5 trillion “social infrastructure” budget reconciliation bill, which needs just 50 votes plus the vice president to pass. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives must vote on the final Senate infrastructure package, and that won’t happen until members return from recess next month, and until, per Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, D-CA, requirement, there also is a reconciliation bill to vote on. Bottom line, Punchbowl News says, the $1-trillion infrastructure bill and the $3.5-trillion reconciliation package will drone on through autumn and possibly winter, which is what News & Notes predicted weeks ago.
•The White House’s reversal of opinion that it had no authority to extend a federal moratorium on evictions due to the pandemic came Tuesday after the Biden administration consulted legal scholar Laurence Tribe, The Washington Post reports. The moratorium has been extended to October 3.
•Mask Mandate 2.0: Are we convinced it’s necessary? Charles Dervarics explains, Michelle Naranjo argues from the left column and David Iwinski argues from the right, in a home page debate at https://thehustings.news
Biden Targets China on EV Leadership with New Emissions Standards – President Biden today will introduce strict new standards today in concert with automakers’ goal to reach up to 50% new electrified vehicle production by the end of the decade. After four years of the Trump administration’s fighting California’s waiver on federal standards and easing up on the Obama administration’s 5% per-year emissions improvement standard, the Biden administration says it will set the nation’s highest standards ever. The U.S. is considered to be well behind China in development and production of zero-emissions vehicles. President Trump had cut the improvement level to just 1.5%, which was supported by Big Oil, but not the automakers that made an agreement with the California Air Resources Board.
Executives from Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Stellantis (Fiat, Chrysler, Jeep, etc.), and United Auto Worker officials will meet at the White House today in support of new standards. Along with BMW, Honda, Volkswagen Group and Volvo, the automakers have committed to reaching 40-50% of auto sales powered by battery-electric, fuel cell and plug-in hybrid by 2030.
Note: Provisions in Biden’s initial infrastructure package proposed building charging stations for electric vehicles, as well as tax incentives and subsidies for their purchase, but they have largely been stripped from the bill making its way through the Senate. It’s now up to automakers to make it easier for consumers to choose EVs over a gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles, and to be able to keep them charged up. However, there are a few caveats: there must be customer demand for the vehicles, which account for about 2% of the market, and the automotive companies want assurance that there will be the charging infrastructure built out in order to keep them readily charged up.
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Exxon-Mobil Considers ‘Net-Zero’ by 2050 Carbon Pledge – Meanwhile, Exxon-Mobil CEO Darren Woods is considering making a “net-zero” by 2050 carbon emissions pledge, The Wall Street Journal reports. How would an oil giant reduce net carbon emissions in less than 30 years? By “decarbonizing” high-emissions sectors and support regulations to spur it, the WSJsays.
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DeSantis Critical of Biden on COVID — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a press conference Wednesday that illegal aliens could be responsible for an increase in COVID cases and of President Biden, “Why don’t you do your job. Why don’t you get this border secured, and until you do that I don’t want to hear a blip about COVID from you,” according to Politico (which notes that a clip of the speech quickly turned up in a fundraising email for the governor’s political committee).
Note: DeSantis, who has been a leader in the anti-mask approach to governance, heads a state that reported 16,935 new COVID cases, 140 deaths and in excess of 12,000 people hospitalized, “the majority of them younger and unvaccinated,” according to the Miami Herald. The paper noted that Florida has 6.5% of the U.S. population, but accounted for 16% of the new cases in the country on Tuesday. What’s more, there was a 700% increase in cases during a seven-day average August 3 compared with July 3.
What seems somewhat odd about DeSantis’ claim is that between Florida and Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Seems a bit of a stretch.
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To Booster, Or Not to Booster – Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine has proven to be 93% effective six months after the second jab, but a booster shot will likely be necessary by winter, The Hill reported Thursday morning. Meanwhile the World Health Organization put out a plea Wednesday for wealthy countries to put moratorium on booster shots at least to the end of September, as less-wealthy nations with poor vaccination rates catch up. Countries with low-income rates have been able to administer just 1.5-jabs per 100 people, Reuters reports, and the WHO says that this is impeding control of the coronavirus globally.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash