Seth Meyers: Guest Alabama Senator-elect Doug Jones

Seth Meyers: The Brown-Nosed Reindeer, Goodbye 2017 - Monologue - 12/21/17

Is Obamacare repealed, as Trump said?

WASHINGTON — President Trump has prematurely declared "Obamacare" dead and displayed a misunderstanding of where the money comes from to make the health law work.

A look at his remarks Wednesday about the tax plan he will soon sign into law and its effect on President Obama's health insurance overhaul:

Trump claim: "Obamacare has been repealed in this bill."

The facts: It hasn't. The tax plan does end fines for people who don't carry health insurance, which is a big change, yes, but far from totally dismantling the law.

Mr. Trump said at a meeting with his Cabinet, "When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed," adding, "We will come up with something much better."

Other marquee components of Obama's law remain, such as the Medicaid expansion serving low-income adults, protections that shield people with pre-existing medical conditions from being denied coverage or charged higher premiums, income-based subsidies for consumers buying individual health insurance policies, the requirement that insurers cover "essential" health benefits, and the mandate that larger employers provide coverage to their workers or face fines.

Also, the tax bill doesn't repeal fines for uninsured individuals until the start of 2019, meaning the "individual mandate" is still in force for next year unless the administration acts to waive the penalties.

More: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/did-trump-repeal-obamacare-fact-checking-new-tax-bill-aca-individual-mandate/

Tax that pays for oil spill cleanup trust fund expires on Dec. 31

The 9 cents per barrel tax on oil that funds the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, used by the U.S. Coast Guard to pay for cleanups after accidents like the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, expires on Dec. 31, and there are no plans to ask Congress to restore it.

At the end of November, the trust fund contained $5.8 billion, said Allen Thuring, a senior financial analyst with the Coast Guard's National Pollution Fund Center, which oversees the trust find. And that should be enough to handle oil spill emergencies for the foreseeable future, he said.

The trust fund actually is filled by four sources of money, and the oil excise tax historically provided the largest share of its money, Thuring said. But there are other sources of money for the fund, including fines charged to companies found responsible for oil spills under the Clean Water Act, recovery of cleanup costs paid out by the fund from partie responsible for spills, and the interest earned by money in the fund, Thuring said.

The trust fund was created in 1986, but it wasn't until Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act in 1990 that the excise tax was approved to fund it. The Oil Pollution Act was spurred by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in of 10.8 million gallons of oil in Prince William Sound in Alaska.


More (includes photo gallery): http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/12/oil_spill_trust_fund_tax_expir.html

Seth Meyers - Republicans Praise Trump; Trump Claims He Repealed Obamacare: A Closer Look

Seth Meyers: Mitch McConnell's Neck Pouch, Arby's Meat Sweats - Monologue - 12/20/17

Nebraska Sticks To Keystone XL Decision

The Nebraska Public Service Commission upheld its November decision to allow the construction of the controversial Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, although it demanded a change of its route. Now the watchdog has upheld its decision in the face of opposition from the project developer, TransCanada, which wanted to build the pipeline along a shorter route.

However, Nebraska landowners who had challenged the original route considered the regulator’s decision to be a victory. Lawyers for these landowners told media after the decision was announced that it was the worst possible one for TransCanada. Still, the Canadian company said the change of route will not have an impact on the project costs and they will remain around US$6.3 billion.

Keystone XL is planned to carry Albertan crude through Montana and South Dakota, ending in Nebraska, where it would connect to the existing pipeline network that goes on to the Gulf Coast. It took the project nine years to get the final go-ahead from all authorities concerned, but this doesn’t mean TransCanada’s Keystone XL worries are over.

The company has yet to make the final investment decision on Keystone XL, after it spent four months in open season to see if there is sufficient interest from potential buyers of the crude the pipeline will transport. At the same time, TransCanada is being pressured by Albertan oil producers to make up its mind.


More: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Nebraska-Sticks-To-Keystone-XL-Decision.html

Tax Bill Opens Arctic Refuge for Oil; Expect Delay to Follow

(Bloomberg) -- Congress is close to lifting a 40-year-old ban on energy development in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but drilling for oil in that frozen wilderness may still be years away as the effort faces exhaustive environmental reviews and likely lawsuits.

It could be a decade or more before any well is drilled, following required environmental scrutiny and permit reviews -- and then the inevitable lawsuits from local communities and environmental groups opposed to any development in that rugged wilderness.

"It’s still an open question about whether drilling will ever happen there," said Matt Lee-Ashley, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former Interior Department official. "It’s hard to image that drilling will occur in the next 10 years -- or ever."

The House voted Tuesday for a tax bill that includes a provision mandating that the Interior Department hold lease sales in the so-called 1002 area of the Arctic Refuge, a coastal portion of the 19-million-acre federally protected wilderness area. The refuge is estimated to contain 11.8 billion barrels of technically recoverable crude.

More: https://www.rigzone.com/news/wire/tax_bill_opens_arctic_refuge_for_oil_expect_delay_to_follow-20-dec-2017-152880-article/

Seth Meyers - Republicans Pass Their Tax Plan: A Closer Look

Seth Meyers: Disney World's Animatronic Trump, Ocean's 8 Trailer - Monologue - 12/19/17