Everything from the New Rules Project

National Banks Subject to State Banking Laws, Supreme Court Rules

jdahlheimer — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:12:26 -0500

In recent years, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC), the chief regulator of national banks, has preempted dozens of state banking laws designed to protect consumers, ensure fair lending, and maintain competition. Among those laws preempted by the OCC were regulations in place to protect consumers from the predatory lending schemes that led to the rash of subprime mortgages and subsequent foreclosures that have ravaged communities nationwide.

The OCC’s gutting of state banking laws has come to an end.

East Coast Governors Say National Transmission Grid Limits Local Energy

jbailey — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:05:16 -0500

On May 4th, 2009, Governors from 10 East Coast states sent a sign-on letter opposing the current House & Senate bills to expedite transmission line planning and siting. The states that signed onwere Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. The letter argued against a greater federal subsidy for long-distance transmission, stating that the focus should be on more local renewable generation, such as off-shore wind along the East Coast.

Amazon and Google may be the Next Gatekeepers of our Cultural Heritage

christopher — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:36:56 -0500

Here at the New Rules Project, we support local businesses over businesses like Amazon. We have focused on the threat they pose to local businesses, but there is another threat from large Internet-based corporations and Cory Doctorow outlines it in this report from Internet Evolution.

That danger is that a couple of corporate giants will end up with a buyer's market for creative works, control over the dominant distribution channel, and the ability to dictate the terms on which creative works are made, distributed, appreciated, bought, and sold.

San Francisco Toughens Recycling Laws, Creates iPhone App

christopher — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:02:19 -0500

San Francisco recently accepted more responsibility for its waste by increasing recycling requirements.

The Board of Supervisors passed new recycling and mandatory composting rules on Tuesday in a 9-to-2 vote. The city already diverts 72 percent of the 2.1 million tons of waste its residents produce each year away from landfills and into recycling and composting programs. The new ordinance will help the city toward its goal of sending zero waste to landfills by 2020, said Jared Blumenfeld, director of the city’s Department of the Environment.

Death of the Category Killers

smitchell — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:42:32 -0500

Borders Books is on "death watch," according to one industry observer. Virgin shut down its last U.S. record store this month. Office Depot and Staples are struggling. Circuit City is gone. Best Buy has launched a desperate ad campaign.

While the decline of independent businesses has leveled off, the rest of the retail sector is undergoing dramatic consolidation as a small number of massive companies become ever more dominant. This is an ominous trend for manufacturers and consumers, and it exposes serious flaws in U.S. antitrust policy.

Smart Infrastructure Starts with Planning - at the Community Level

christopher — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:15:30 -0500

Montana's Great Falls Tribune has an article that examines a community success story from Cleveland and the greater NE Ohio region.

Instead of going to Hollywood to see what the future may hold, go to Cleveland. It's here you'll find an example of a community with five years of experience in creating a regional fiber-optic network that connects more than 1,000 organizations — hospitals, school districts, governments, museums, libraries and other public and nonprofit organizations.

California may miss 33% RPS target due to focus on centralized generation

jfarrell — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:33:16 -0500

In a nutshell: On paper, California could meet its targets, provided it can afford and build $12 billion in new transmission lines and higher electricity costs. In reality, the state probably won’t make the target, concludes the California Public Utilities Commission in its latest analysis of the state’s clean-energy quest...

Department of Homeland Security Helps Local, State, Fed Gov with Open Source Software

christopher — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:14:40 -0500

The Department of Homeland Security has started funding a program to help all levels of government better understand open source options for computer software.

DHS' Science and Technology Directorate will fund the Homeland Open Security Technology (HOST) project, which will start with a one-year, $1.5 million contract and possible additional years to follow. The University of Southern Mississippi and the Open Source Software Institute (OSSI) will conduct the work, and the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command will handle the contracting and help with guidance for the program.

Wal-Mart to Create 22,000 Jobs — and Destroy Many Thousands More

smitchell — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:43:00 -0500

Last week, Wal-Mart announced that it would create 22,000 new jobs in the U.S. to staff new and expanded stores. More than 100 newspapers and magazines reported this news as a welcome bright spot amid the downturn. But had these news outlets turned to sources beyond Wal-Mart's press release and attempted to provide at least some analysis of the broader impact, the headlines might not have been so rosy.

In all likelihood, Wal-Mart's expansion will make the U.S. employment picture worse, not better. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that the addition of 22,000 jobs at Wal-Mart will lead to the loss of at least as many, and probably more, jobs at other businesses.

Municipal Property Tax Financing for Renewable Energy and Improvements - Palm Desert, CA

jdahlheimer — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:29:06 -0500

In 2008, the City of Palm Desert became the first city in California to pursue public financing of distributed renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements under AB 811.