Economy & Business

"Engineers know how to protect people from tornadoes like the ones that recently devastated parts of Kentucky, but builders have headed off efforts to toughen standards."

"Senator Joe Manchin III on Monday cited a litany of issues that drove him to oppose President Biden’s $2 trillion Build Back Better bill, from Democrats’ refusal to attach work requirements to social benefits to their failure to raise tax rates on the rich. But left almost unsaid was the issue that has always propelled his political career as a Democratic maverick: climate change."

"The Department of Energy is at risk of wasting a significant amount of money on carbon capture and storage demonstration projects without greater oversight, according to a new Government Accountability Office report."

"Federal regulators warned for the first time in an annual report to Congress on Friday that climate change was an “emerging threat” to the U.S. financial system, laying out how the costs associated with more hurricanes, wildfires and floods caused by global warming could lead to a cascade of damage throughout the economy."

"The declaration from Senator Joe Manchin III that he cannot support his party’s $2.2 trillion Build Back Better bill has significantly dimmed the prospects for the climate action that scientists say the United States must take to avert the most catastrophic effects of global warming."

"The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on Thursday proposed the first-ever federal climate guidance for banks."

"If you’re in the market for an oil pipeline, you’re in luck—we’ve got a lot of extra ones right now. About half of the oil pipelines in the U.S. are sitting unused, energy research firm Wood Mackenzie said in figures shared with Reuters Thursday."

"Sen. Elizabeth Warren called on the country’s top securities regulator to examine the pay practices of large energy companies, citing a report in The Washington Post that revealed how some fossil fuel giants reward executives for meeting environmental goals even in years when their companies caused significant environmental harm."

"A push by Senate Democrats to pass a roughly $2 trillion tax-and-spending measure before Christmas appeared in dire political peril Wednesday, as talks soured between President Biden and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) over the size and scope of the economic package."