Month: October 2017

Enlarge / EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. (credit: EPA)

As expected, the Trump administration has launched the process of eliminating its predecessor's Clean Power Plan, which was designed to limit carbon emissions from the electric grid. But what was less expected is the reason the EPA is giving for doing so. It's declaring the Obama administration's approach inconsistent with the text of the Clean Air Act. Rather than regulating a pollutant as a whole, the Trump EPA would like to limit any regulation to the pollution produced by individual sources.

In addition, the EPA is asking for comment on whether it should regulate carbon emissions at all unless Congress specifically tells it to. Rescinding the Clean Power Plan, it says, would, "avoid potentially transformative economic, policy, and political significance in the absence of a clear Congressional statement of intent to confer such authority on the Agency."

Collective vs. individual emissions

The Obama-era EPA proposed the Clean Power Plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. This portion of the statute allows the EPA to set overall standards for emissions of a pollutant for each state; the state would then provide the EPA with a plan for reaching that standard. Those plans should include "standards of performance for any existing source for any air pollutant," and, collectively, this should create the "best system of emissions reduction."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Dimitri Otis)

A Federal Communications Commission decision to eliminate price caps imposed on some business broadband providers should be struck down, advocacy groups told federal judges last week. The FCC failed to justify its claim that a market can be competitive even when there is only one Internet provider, the groups said.

Led by Chairman Ajit Pai, the FCC's Republican majority voted in April of this year to eliminate price caps in a county if 50 percent of potential customers "are within a half mile of a location served by a competitive provider." That means business customers with just one choice are often considered to be located in a competitive market and thus no longer benefit from price controls. The decision affects Business Data Services (BDS), a dedicated, point-to-point broadband link that is delivered over copper-based TDM networks by incumbent phone companies like AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink.

But the FCC's claim that "potential competition" can rein in prices even in the absence of competition doesn't stand up to legal scrutiny, critics of the order say.

(credit: Artur Debat / Getty Images)

A patent-holding company that stands to win 12.5 cents for every iPhone sold has filed a new lawsuit (PDF) against Apple.

Ironworks Patents LLC is a patent-enforcement company formed earlier this year, with no apparent business other than filing lawsuits over patents. It's a business model that's now decades old, and companies that engage in it are often derided as "patent trolls."

Yet Ironworks isn't your everyday patent enforcer. The company has inherited a patent portfolio belonging to MobileMedia Ideas LLC, which has already proven its value. MobileMedia Ideas was a kind of "corporate troll," majority-owned by a patent pool called MPEG-LA. Minority stakes in MobileMedia were owned by Sony and Nokia, who also provided patents that could be used in lawsuits against other tech companies.

Here's something you don't see everyday: a Silicon Valley platform, whose revenue is based on advertising, has shunned a political advertisement because it's "inflammatory." The company is Twitter, and the buyer was Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican of Tennessee.

The micro-blogging service on Monday took down a Blackburn campaign video ad that said, "I fought Planned Parenthood and we stopped the sale of baby body parts, thank God." In the advertisement, Blackburn also announced her 2018 Senate bid to replace retiring Republican Bob Corker.

Blackburn tweeted that "@Twitter shut down our video ad, claiming it's 'inflammatory & 'negative.'" The video is blanketing Twitter and social media now, but Twitter has solely blocked the ability to pay to promote the advertising campaign. Twitter hasn't removed Blackburn's tweet or other tweets from people who link to the video.