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☆ Borrowers should avoid getting hopes up for Biden's next round of student loan forgiveness, expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Annie Nova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

After the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden's original student loan forgiveness plan, Biden said he would pursue a new path to deliver relief to holders of federal educational debt. "Borrowers should avoid getting their hopes up for forgiveness," said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz. At the end of June, the high court justices ruled that the executive branch didn't have the authority to widely cancel people's debts. "That would be easier to justify in front of a court that is skeptical of broad authority," said Luke Herrine, assistant professor of law at the University of Alabama. "As the president said, he'll be fighting to get relief to as many borrowers as possible, as quickly as possible," Hasan said.

Persons: Joe Biden's, Biden, Mark Kantrowitz, Luke Herrine, Abdullah Hasan, he'll, Hasan Organizations: Finance, University of Alabama

☆ Texas governor to defy DOJ request to remove floating barriers in Rio Grande: ‘Texas will see you in court, Mr. President’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Chris Boyette Priscilla Alvarez | Chris Boyette | Priscilla Alvarez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Greg Abbott will not be ordering floating barriers to be removed from the Rio Grande, in defiance of the US Department of Justice. The Justice Department gave Texas a deadline of Monday at 2 p.m. ET to commit to the removal of the floating border barriers or face legal action, according to the letter sent to Abbott. The governor’s actions are cruel and putting both migrants and border agents in danger,” White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said. Among the complaints are reports that Texas troopers were told to push back migrants into the Rio Grande and ordered not to give them water.

Persons: Greg Abbott, “, ” Abbott, Joe Biden, ”, Abbott, Abbott’s, Abdullah Hasan, Ted Cruz, Biden’s Organizations: CNN, Texas Gov, US Department of Justice, DOJ, Justice Department, Texas, The, Department gave Texas, Republican, Texas Constitution, Patrol, Department of Homeland Security, United States Army Corps of Engineers, Justice, Texas Department of Public Safety, DPS Locations: Rio Grande, “ Texas, Texas, Mexico, United States, Rio

☆ Manchin's Mountain Valley Pipeline would get the green light debt ceiling deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Ella Nilsen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The conservative Democrat from West Virginia, who has been critical of the Biden administration’s environmental goals, praised the White House and congressional Republicans this week. “All of a sudden, [the White House] did their job, they negotiated. Manchin has been critical of Biden's climate goals, but praised the White House and congressional Republicans this week for their work on the debt ceiling deal. White House officials backed Manchin’s effort last year, and climate and energy officials – including White House senior adviser John Podesta and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm – voiced support for approving the pipeline more recently. A Hail Mary effort to remove itThere could be a last-ditch effort to undo the pipeline piece of the debt ceiling bill.

Persons: CNN — Sen, Joe Manchin’s, Virginia –, Manchin, Kevin McCarthy, ” Manchin, “, Joe Biden’s, Justin Pearson, Kent Nishimura, Biden, ”, Abdullah Hasan, West Virginia’s Marcellus, James Van Nostrand, John Podesta, Jennifer Granholm –, Chuck Schumer, Mary, Sen, Tim Kaine, “ Sen, Kaine Organizations: CNN, Democratic, Democrat, Biden, White, Republicans, West, Appeals, Fourth Circuit, Keck, Environmental, Los Angeles Times, West Virginia University, White House, Energy, DC, Senate, Virginia Democrats, House, Republican, Kaine Locations: West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, clawing, West, Utica, Texas

At the same time, U.S. officials are expanding holding capacity for migrants at the border while piloting faster asylum screenings. The Biden plans aim to address a likely increase in unauthorized immigration after COVID border restrictions that have been in place since 2020 are set to end on May 11, barring any last-minute legal or congressional intervention. The expansion of refugee processing in Latin America would come as the Biden administration has yet to restore refugee admissions after they were slashed under Trump. Miller noted that an estimated 660,000 migrants are currently in Mexico, citing United Nations figures. CBP has capacity to detain 6,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and plans to add space for 2,500 more, Miller said, adding that the agency has stepped up its ability to quickly transport migrants away from the border.

☆ Expect bigger dividends if Joe Biden's tax on stock buybacks increases, says PepsiCo's CFO
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Dividends could be larger if a plan to boost taxes on stock buybacks becomes law, PepsiCo's CFO told CNBC. President Biden called for quadrupling the tax on buybacks during his State of the Union remarks Tuesday. That comes as oil companies and tech giants have approved massive repurchase plans. Biden also tied the criticism of buybacks specifically to big oil companies, which have earned massive profits amid the tight energy market. In December, Exxon Mobil announced plans to pay $50 billion in buybacks through 2024, after spending $15 billion on them in 2022.

☆ Big Oil made $200 billion in profit last year. Shareholders won big, clean energy missed out
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

But the flood of cash has not delivered a commensurate boom in renewable energy investments, despite clear evidence that the world needs to move much faster with efforts to address the climate crisis. The record-setting results mark a dramatic turnaround for a sector that suffered brutal losses and slashed shareholder payouts in 2020, when pandemic lockdowns sharply reduced demand for energy and oil prices collapsed. An aerial view of the BP oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana on August 29, 2019. Tannen Maury/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockJust three years ago, BP unveiled a plan to slash oil and gas production by 40% from 2019 levels by 2030. It is also now aiming to cut carbon emissions from its oil and gas production by 20%-30% by 2030, down from the previous goal of 35%-40%.

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The White House on Friday launched a fresh attack against U.S. oil companies, accusing them of using profits to pay shareholders instead of boosting supply, after Chevron Corp (CVX.N) said its annual profit doubled for 2022. Other oil companies are expected to follow suit. "Companies clearly have everything they need – record profits and thousands of approved permits – to increase production," White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said in a statement. "The only thing getting in the way is their own decision to keep plowing windfall profits into the pockets of executives and shareholders instead of using them to boost supply." Hasan's comments mark the latest set of attacks from the White House lambasting oil companies for funneling a windfall of profits to investors.

☆ Chevron is catching heat for tripling its stock buyback to $75 billion as soaring energy prices led to record profits
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Chevron wowed investors with a massive $75 billion stock buyback on Wednesday. The stock buyback program has no expiration date and is triple the company's prior share repurchase program of $25 billion. Surging oil prices in 2022 helped fuel record profits for Chevron, and the company expects those profits to continue to flow in 2023. But Chevron is working to increase its oil production in 2023. The capital discipline employed by Chevron is also being employed by ExxonMobil, which increased its stock buyback program to $50 billion last month.

☆ Swimming in cash, Chevron plans a $75 billion slap in the face to drivers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

All of that helped make Chevron the top-performing Dow stock of last year, with shares surging more than 50%. To be clear: It’s not that Chevron, or any of its peers, did anything special to earn their windfall profits last year. Instead, Chevron is buying $75 billion worth of its own shares, and jacking up its quarterly shareholder dividend. Of course, Chevron and other US oil producers, including Exxon Mobil, are putting some money into new energy projects this year. That was far less than the $6.3 billion that Union Pacific spent repurchasing shares of stock.

☆ Texas Governor Abbott endangered lives with Christmas Eve migrant drop -White House
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Nandita Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 26 (Reuters) - The White House on Monday accused Texas Governor Greg Abbott of endangering lives after busloads of migrants from the southwest border in Texas were dropped near Vice President Kamala Harris' home in Washington, D.C., on a cold Christmas Eve. "Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities," White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said in a statement. The Republican Abbott, a vocal critic of Biden administration immigration policies, has not acknowledged the Christmas Eve drop and his office has not claimed responsibility. Abbott has said previously his state was purposefully busing migrants to sanctuary cities, where law enforcement is discouraged from deporting immigrants. Hasan said the Biden administration was willing to work with Democrats and Republicans on solutions to the migrant issue.

☆ White House condemns Texas governor after migrants were dropped off outside Kamala Harris' house: 'Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Greg Abbott after busloads of migrants arrived in Washington, DC. Busloads of migrants arrived on Christmas Eve outside of Vice President Kamala Harris' home. The move comes as the future of an immigration policy known as Title 42 remains uncertain. "Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities," White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said in a statement. Abbott previously sent migrants to Harris' home in September to pressure the administration to take further action.

Three buses coming from Texas dropped off about 140 recent migrants — including babies and young children — near Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, D.C. in historically frigid temperatures on Saturday evening. But immigration activists said Saturday’s incident was particularly cruel because of the freezing temperatures in Washington, D.C., and because of the fact that it occurred on Christmas Eve. Madhvi Bahl, an organizer with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, confirmed the arrival of the migrants on Saturday to NBC News. The buses dropped the migrants near Harris’ residence at the Naval Observatory. There have been several instances of migrants being dropped off outside, or near, Harris’ residence.

Schumer, a New York Democrat who has long pressed the administration to terminate Title 42, is far from alone. Since March 2020, when the authority was invoked, border officials have turned away migrants at the US-Mexico border more than two million times. But just days away from the anticipated end of Title 42, plans are still being sorted out. The Biden administration is also asking Congress for more than $3 billion as it prepares for the end of Title 42, according to a source familiar with the ask. It is not specific to the end of Title 42, the source said.

☆ El Paso faced a ‘major surge in illegal crossings’ over the weekend, senior border official says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Priscilla Alvarez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —More than 2,400 migrants crossed into the United States near El Paso, Texas, daily over the weekend, according to a senior Border Patrol official, marking what he described as a “major surge in illegal crossings” in the region. “Over the weekend, the El Paso Sector experienced a major surge in illegal crossings, with a 3-day average of 2,460 daily encounters, primarily through the downtown area of El Paso. We will continue to keep the public informed as the situation evolves,” said acting Chief Patrol Agent Peter Jaquez of the El Paso Sector in a tweet. El Paso city has been monitoring the situation and is in ongoing discussions with federal, state and local partners, according to Laura Cruz Acosta, strategic communications director for the city. The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it had deployed additional agents to El Paso amid the surge, claiming that criminal smuggling organizations are behind the influx.

The plan could involve directing revenue from future crude oil sales of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to purchase heating oil for the northeast reserves, two of the sources said. White House officials have held at least two meetings with members of the oil industry to discuss ways to increase supplies of diesel. No option is off the table," White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said on Wednesday. Distillate stockpiles (USOILD=ECI), which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.7 million barrels last week, versus expectations for a 550,000-barrel drop. The Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve currently holds roughly 1 million barrels, or enough for roughly 10 days of supply.

Two student loan borrowers, represented by the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, are asking the Supreme Court to step in and block student loan relief. The borrowers claim they will face a hefty tax bill for unwanted relief. The suit was dismissed by a lower court and now an appeal is headed to the high court. "The claim is baseless for a simple reason: No one will be forced to get debt relief. Because opponents of the debt relief plan are trying anything they can to stop this program that will provide needed relief to working families."

☆ Biden's student-loan forgiveness could be delayed as lawsuits mount. Here's where 6 major cases stand.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Biden's student-loan forgiveness is facing at least six lawsuits from conservative groups. The administration faces at least six major lawsuits seeking to halt Biden's debt relief plan. For now, borrowers can still continue applying for debt relief on the studentaid.gov website that will close in December 2023. On September 27, the Pacific Legal Foundation — a conservative nonprofit legal organization — helmed the first major lawsuit against Biden's debt relief. On October 19, WILL asked the Supreme Court to halt Biden's debt relief will waiting for a decision on its appeal.

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