7/7/21 Opinion: Private Investment in EV Charging is a Must Negotiations are ramping up between Republicans and the White House as both sides work to reach a bipartisan agreement on an infrastructure package that has the potential to revitalize America's aging transportation system and drastically reduce the sector's fossil fuel reliance. While the White House meets with Republican leadership, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Congressman Frank Pallone, has been holding hearings to consider a slate of bills aiming to champion electric vehicles, a key pillar of the White House's infrastructure agenda. . . But one of the biggest concerns surrounding the transition to electric vehicles revolves around the current lack of charging stations. According to the Department of Energy, at the moment there are less than 42,000 charging stations nationwide, with barely 5,000 of these being fast chargers. For reference, this is less than a third of the 136,000 gas stations located across the country. 7/7/21 Biden Is Preparing An Executive Order Targeting Noncompete Clauses For Workers President Biden will push federal regulators to crack down on noncompete clauses, occupational licensing requirements and other measures that administration officials say hurt workers' ability to pursue better jobs, as part of a broad executive order meant to bolster competition across the economy. The efforts to increase competition in the labor market, according to a person familiar with them, will be detailed in an order issued in the coming days. The order will encourage the Federal Trade Commission to ban or limit noncompete agreements, which employers have increasingly used in recent years to try to inhibit their workers' ability to quit for a better job. It encourages the commission to also ban "unnecessary" occupational licensing restrictions, which can restrict workers' ability to find new work, especially across state lines. And it encourages both the commission and the Justice Department to further restrict the ability of employers to share information on worker pay in ways that might amount to collusion. More broadly, the executive order encourages antitrust regulators to consider the ways that mergers might contribute to monopsonies, or industries in which workers have few choices of where to work and therefore lack leverage to negotiate higher wages or better benefits.
7/6/21
E15 Year-Round Sales Rule Nixed by U.S. Appeal Court The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last week struck down a Trump-era rule that allowed for year-round sales of E15, saying the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority by lifting summertime restrictions on the sale of E15, reports Reuters. In 2019, the EPA extended a waiver permitting 15% ethanol fuel blend to be sold all year. According to the court, the EPA exceeded its authority in that rule when it said E15 qualified for an emissions waiver for E10, fuel blends "containing" 10% ethanol. The court said that statutory language was clearly intended for 10% ethanol gasoline, reports ArgusMedia.com. 7/6/21 Rising Oil and Gas Prices Add to U.S. Economic Challenges As the U.S. economy struggles to emerge from its pandemic-induced hibernation, consumers and businesses have encountered product shortages, hiring difficulties and often conflicting public health guidance, among other challenges. Now the recovery faces a more familiar foe: rising oil and gasoline prices. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil-price benchmark, hit $76.98 a barrel on Tuesday, its highest level in six years, as OPEC, Russia and their allies again failed to agree on production increases. Prices moderated later in the day but remained nearly $10 a barrel higher than in mid-May. Reflecting the increase in crude prices, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the United States has risen to $3.13, according to AAA, up from $3.05 a month ago. A year ago, as the coronavirus kept people home, gas cost just $2.18 a gallon on average. The auto club said on Tuesday that it expected prices to increase another 10 to 20 cents through the end of August.
7/5/21
NJ Gas Prices Remain High, Possible Spot Shortages Loom [video] NJ gasoline prices - now at a seven-year high - show no signs of easing over the coming months. That's apparently causing some businesses to pull back on travel, even as the economy strives to recover from the pandemic. While overall gas supplies look stable, depending on how much crude OPEC decides to produce this year, analysts do predict some pumps could go dry temporarily in less centrally located areas. The reason? Labor shortages - like a lack of gas truck drivers who deliver fuel to service stations. 7/2/21 South Jersey Refinery Says Cost-mandated Fuel Credits Threaten Its Survival New Jersey lawmakers waded into a long-running battle by independent oil refiners for reform of a federal mandate that the companies say is costing them millions of dollars and threatening their survival. Both the Senate and Assembly unanimously passed a resolution urging President Joe Biden and the Environmental Protection Agency to allow waivers to the Renewable Fuels Standard that would ease financial pressure on refiners such as Parsippany-based PBF Energy which employs about 225 people at a facility in Paulsboro. 7/2/21 NJ Mask Mandates Could Return: Here's What Murphy, Health Officials Say Almost 5 million New Jersey residents are now completely vaccinated but another 246 confirmed COVID cases have been reported and hospitalizations have ticked up to 315 with 49 people now in intensive care. Health officials believe the reason why is the Delta variant circulating in the unvaccinated population, and Gov. Phil Murphy said it is possible masking mandates could return in the fall depending on what happens with the COVID metrics. . .Murphy said hopefully COVID infections and hospitalizations won't spike and force mandatory masking "but if we have to, we will." 7/2/21 Teen Workers Fill Job Shortage, But What Happens When Summer Fades? As restrictions ease and customers return, workers with child care responsibilities or concern about Covid-19 have been hanging back - making room for an army of teen workers to fill labor shortage gaps this summer. More than 32 percent of teens have a summer job this year, the highest since 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment is ticking up slowly, with 850,000 jobs added in June, beating expectations of 700,000. But hiring remains touch and go, and the unemployment rate notched up 0.1 percent to 5.9 percent. |
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