Pfizer Headquarters

If the administration doesn’t block it, Pfizer, one of the world’s biggest drug companies, could successfully dodge approximately $35 billion in taxes. (emphasis added)

How would Pfizer get away with that tax dodge? By merging with a firm in Ireland, then reincorporating overseas so that it can pay that country’s lower tax rate. Pfizer would not become an Irish company in any meaningful sense. The hugely profitable drug company would still remain based in New York and continue to benefit from all that America offers—legal protections for its lucrative drug patents, government purchases from Medicare and Medicaid, and much more. Pfizer will simply stop paying its fair share of US taxes.

This trick is called “corporate inversion” and President Obama, who once called these companies “corporate deserters,” has the power to stop it. To prevent Pfizer and similar corporations from shirking their responsibility, the president can instruct the Treasury Department to update its 2014 Notice or issue a new Notice. That wonky-sounding change could ensure the American people are […]

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Rooftop solar is casting a $2 billion shadow over power generators across the eastern United States.

With more than a million U.S. houses set to have solar panels by the end of next month, grid managers serving the eastern U.S. plan to cut the amount of electricity they buy from conventional plants by about 1,400 megawatts, starting in 2019, according to industry consultant ICF International Inc. That’s enough juice to power about 780,000 households.

The result could be as much as $2 billion in lost revenue for generators that are already reeling from lower demand, tight environmental regulation and depressed prices. Power producers including NRG Energy Inc. warn that the growing reliance on solar may curtail investment in conventional power plants, threatening the reliability of the U.S. electricity system. That’s already happened in Germany, they say, citing plans by EON and RWE to scrap existing or planned plants.

The decision “creates a risk you are going to repeat in the United States what’s happening in Germany,” said George Katsigiannakis, a principal at Fairfax, Va.-based ICF, in a telephone interview. “The result of that is […]

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In this Monday, Jan. 19, 2015, file photo, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and his wife, Dianne Bentley, walk down the Capitol steps during his inauguration for a second term, in Montgomery, Ala. Alabama’s first lady on Friday. Aug. 28, 2015, filed for divorce from Gov. Robert Bentley, saying their 50-year marriage has suffered an “irretrievable breakdown.” The divorce was one of Alabama’s top stories in 2015.
Credit: AP/Brynn Anderson

When the city Birmingham, Alabama voted last month to give its lowest-paid workers a $2.85 raise, Republican Gov. Robert Bentley signed a bill banning Alabama cities from raising their minimum wages at all. Now, […]

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U.S. House of Representative with all members present.
Credit: www.ibtimes.co.uk

House Democrats received a bit of good news on Friday: The nonpartisan Cook Political Report changed the ratings of 10 House races in Democrats’ favor.

And given the unpredictable nature of this cycle, the elections and campaigns newsletter said it could not be certain Republicans will hold the House in November.

“So many assumptions have been wrong this cycle that it’s difficult to be definitive about another: that the House majority won’t be in play in 2016,” wrote longtime Cook political analyst David Wasserman.

While a Donald Trump or Ted Cruz nomination “wouldn’t guarantee a down-ballot disaster,” Wasserman wrote, it would make congressional races much more difficult to predict, especially if Trump becomes the GOP standard bearer.

Here are the 10 Cook ratings changes that favored Democrats:

• Freshman David Young (R-Iowa) moves from Lean R to Toss Up.

• Freshman Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) […]

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