This was originally published on CBSNews.com.
WASHINGTON--Congressional Democrats' proposal to create a trading system for carbon emissions will create jobs and bolster the economy, the Obama administration told Congress on Wednesday.
House Republicans insisted, however, that the proposal, which would charge the largest emitters of carbon dioxide for burning fossil fuels, would result in higher energy and gasoline prices for consumers, as well as a loss of U.S. jobs as carbon emitters moved positions overseas to unregulated markets.
"I believe this is a jobs bill that focuses our country's attention on the global industry of the future, which is the clean energy industry," Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The far-reaching legislation being drafted by Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) would institute a cap-and-trade system in which carbon emitters would be allowed to buy and trade permits for certain levels of emissions. The bill would also establish a renewable electricity standard and an energy efficiency standard.
"In the future, it is very clear we will be living in a carbon-constrained world," said Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "The U.S. must position itself so we can lead that transition."
Republicans on the committee, however, countered that the bill does not provide enough specifics to reach the administration's optimistic conclusions and warned that just the opposite could be true.
"My fear, my belief, is this is an intentional move to deceive us so we're not allowed to do the cost-benefit analysis," said Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.).
This bill is the "largest assault on democracy and freedom on this country that I've ever experienced," he said.
Specifically, the bill lacks details on whether the permits would all be auctioned to carbon emitters, or whether some would be automatically granted to some companies to relieve their economic burden during the transition to a cap-and-trade system. Other data has yet to be provided, such as a proposed cost for the permits.
"This proposal puts a bull's eye on the back of working families," said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.). "Just wait until they get their hands on their utility bills that are capped and taxed."
The administration representatives said cost of the carbon permits should be returned to the American people in the form of the rebate.
Additionally, they said, any costs that may be passed onto consumers would presumably be offset from the benefits gained from higher-efficiency homes and appliances.
Working with the information available from the draft bill, the EPA completed a preliminary analysis of the cap-and-trade portion of the bill, concluding that it would accelerate the deployment of clean-energy technology while growing the economy, at relatively little cost to the consumer.
Before including cost-saving measures like the increase of energy-efficient appliances, the analysis concludes the cap-and-trade program would cost the average household $98 to $140 a year. To reach that figure, the EPA assumed about 40 percent of the allowances would be returned to citizens in some form such as rebates.
The number stands in stark contrast to the figure of $3,100 a year floated by Republicans. That figure was based on a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but its author said it misrepresented his findings.
In addition to higher energy prices, consumers would suffer from job losses, said Shimkus, who pointed to the 35,000 coal-mining jobs lost in Ohio as a result of regulations imposed under the Clean Air Act.
Jackson warned, "The 'no, we can't' crowd will spin out doomsday scenarios about runaway costs."
She pointed out that the Acid Rain Trading Program, which was established in 1990 under the Clean Air Act, delivered huge benefits--to the tune of $120 billion a year--with an annual cost of only $3 billion a year. The acid rain program is a trading system comparable to a carbon cap-and-trade program.
Republicans also questioned whether putting a price on carbon in the United States would have any impact, given that growing carbon producers like China and India are not adopting similar programs.
"If the United States does take the lead, China will follow," Chu said, adding that he had spoken at length personally with Chinese officials on the issue. "They are taking it very seriously because they see the impacts of climate change as well."
WASHINGTON--Democrats and Republicans share some common goals in terms of energy policy--both parties want a diversified energy portfolio and a lower dependence on foreign oil. With different motives for achieving those goals, however, as well as opposing views on how to accomplish them, partisan politicians in Congress could stall the ambitious energy and climate change legislation currently up for debate.
If the House cap-and-trade bill or the comprehensive energy legislation currently under works in the Senate are delayed, it will certainly not be for a lack of discussion.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday began three full days of hearings on climate change legislation, sponsored by Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), which calls for national mandates for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Wrapping up with testimony from former Vice President Al Gore and former Republican Senator John Warner on Friday, the committee will hear from a total 54 witnesses.
There have already been eight hearings this year within the full committee and its subcommittees relating to energy and climate change, and Waxman hopes to move the bill to the full House before the Congress breaks for Memorial Day recess.
John McCain harshly criticized President Obama's cap-and-trade plan on Tuesday.
(Credit: Stephanie Condon/ CNET)All 23 Republicans on the committee, however, signed a letter sent Tuesday to Waxman and Markey asking for more hearings. The Republicans primarily expressed concern over the lack of any specifications on permit allocations versus auctions.
"The manner in which you will address this issue is the cornerstone of the legislation," the letter says. "Without it the bill is simply not finished and not ripe to be marked up or accurately discussed in the context of a hearing."
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is also currently working on a comprehensive energy bill that could potentially encompass a number of facets of energy policy, including a renewable energy standard, transmission line development, and energy market financing. Committee Chair Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) also wants to forward the bill to the full Senate for a floor vote by Memorial Day, with at least three more meetings to amend and reshape the bill planned.
However, ranking Republican Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on Tuesday the bill should remain in development into the summer, given the complexity of the issues.
"I do have concerns we won't be given the time sufficient in committee to draft the policy," she said at an energy forum hosted by the Reform Institute. "Senator Bingaman and I are saying we need to be working through the committee process, but on the other hand you'll hear comments made by the (Senate) majority leader and folks on the House side that we need to move it more quickly--that we need to have it done yesterday."
Climate policy vs. energy policy
Murkowski said it was unwise for House Democrats to "hijack (energy policy) as a vehicle for climate change legislation," and that a system to put a price on carbon emissions should be tackled independently from energy policy.
"Climate change is a serious issue, and we must take steps to address it, but we should be honest about such a price tag (regulating carbon) would carry," she said.
At the same event, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) excoriated President Obama for the cap-and-trade plan in his budget, which anticipates raising $650 billion from the auction of carbon credits from 2012 to 2019.
"I am a supporter for a strong cap and trade system, but I cannot align myself with a giant capital slush fund...used to pay for health care reform or other programs that fit with this president's agenda," he said. "The budget the president puts together undermines our ability to work together on this crisis."
The views expressed during Tuesday's energy forum were mostly conservative, though the Reform Institute bills itself as a nonpartisan organization. McCain and former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey were the founding co-chairs of the institute. In spite of the largely conservative sentiment, though, a number of speakers at the event took a more favorable view of the president's climate change policies.
"We are at a very special time in Washington in that we have a president who has proven with the checkbook he is sincere in the promise" of energy and climate change reform, said Eric Schwartz, chairman of the nonpartisan, not-for-profit Securing America's Future Energy. "The stimulus package was the largest energy bill by far. It's a huge amount of money, and the commitment is pretty deep."
"If you believe him, the president wants to do things in a bipartisan way," he added.
The partisan controversy over energy policy, the speakers explained, largely stems from the two major parties' divergent priorities: Republicans are interested in diversifying energy sources primarily for the sake of security, while Democrats are more interested in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, they said.
"We ought to be able to develop a bipartisan solution around those goals," said Dave Conover, an attorney for the Bipartisan Policy Center. "Good energy policy is good climate policy."
Certain issues, however, are expected to be especially difficult to forge compromises on.
For instance, Murkowski said she was concerned about Bingaman's interest in a provision that would require utilities nationwide to abide by a common renewable energy standard.
"We've got to come to terms with our relationship with fossil fuels," she said. "While we're moving towards a low carbon energy future, we have a long ways to go."
She also said the committee will have a difficult time agreeing on state versus federal eminent domain authority for building transmission lines.
"We have reached an impasse in terms of transmission siting," she said. "That's one of the tougher nuts we have to crack."
 |
Business supplies and services can get expensive. Get smart spending tips and learn about new cost-saving opportunities for your business
|
 |
As industry and public interest groups wait for the president to fill the remaining positions in his administration, such as the new position of intellectual-property enforcement coordinator, opposing sides of the copyright debate are speaking up.
The Copyright Alliance, along with 40 other groups representing intellectual-property holders, sent a letter (PDF) to President Obama on Monday arguing that intellectual-property protection stimulates creativity and creates jobs.
The letter was sent in response to an earlier letter, sent by 19 different groups, that urged the president to choose administration officials who "reflect the diversity of stakeholders affected by IP policy."
The April 2 letter, signed by groups including Public Knowledge, the American Library Association, and the Consumer Electronics Association, said that, "To date, several of (Obama's) appointees to positions that oversee the formulation and implementation of IP policy have, immediately prior to their appointments, represented the concentrated copyright industries."
The president has, in fact, filled out some high-level Justice Department positions with lawyers favored by the copyright industry, including attorneys who have represented the Recording Industry Association of America and the Business Software Alliance. The signatories of the April 2 letter said the Justice Department's intervention last month in favor of a record label in a file-sharing case heightens their concern.
"We ask you to consider that individuals who support overly broad IP protection might favor established distribution models at the expense of technological innovators, creative artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and an increasingly participatory public," the letter said. "Overzealous expansion and enforcement of copyright, for example, can quash innovative information technologies, the development and marketing of new and useful devices, and the creation of new works, as well as prohibit the public from accessing and using its cultural heritage."
The letter also asks the president to create new offices in agencies like the State Department dedicated to promoting innovation, to counter the enforcement-focused IP enforcement coordinator position.
The letter sent Monday by groups like the Directors Guild of America, the Entertainment Software Association, and Time Warner countered that "enforcement of copyrights and patents and protecting the freedom to create and be compensated for it are essential components of promoting the progress of sciences and arts, as articulated so clearly by our Founding Fathers in the U.S. Constitution."
IP protection and promoting innovation are not mutually exclusive, the letter continued.
"Intellectual property drives innovation and creativity, from the production of new creative works to the development of consumer electronics and medicine," it said.
The letter sites research indicating that the creative industries employ 38 million U.S. workers and points out that copyright and patent protections apply to a number of different businesses including movies, visual arts, video games, computer software, and pharmaceuticals.
The intellectual property holders said in their letter that Obama's administration is diverse in experience and perspectives and that the president's appointees so far have been solid choices.
"We have every confidence these hallmarks will be demonstrated in your future IP policy appointments," their letter said.
WASHINGTON--State governments are turning to tools like Twitter to manage elections in order to cut costs and keep up with increasingly Net-savvy citizens.
Both California and Ohio are using more Web tools to communicate with citizens and their own staff during elections, the states' respective secretaries of state said Monday.
Through projects such as the Voting Information Project, states have been moving voter information online, such as voter registration instructions, polling locations, and descriptions of issues and candidates on the ballot. Millions of citizens also turn to state-run sites to track election results.
Now, the state of California is planning to utilize cloud computing for its election night services with the aim of saving money by storing data with external hosting providers, said California Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and California Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Monday discussed the use of Web 2.0 tools to manage elections.
(Credit: Stephanie Condon/CNET)Maintaining reliable servers "to have a giant party two or three times a year that lasts four or five hours," is not the best use of the states' resources, Bowen said at the Politics Online Conference here, hosted by the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University and by Campaigns & Elections' Politics Magazine.
That state also intends to use the micro-blogging site Twitter as a means to communicate with its poll workers. Bowen's office currently lacks an effective way to give a quick, direct message to the state's nearly 24,000 precincts, she said.
Such a platform could have been useful during the 2008 presidential primaries, Bowen said, when there was confusion over whether some citizens were eligible to participate in the primaries.
"All it takes is one of our five or six polling workers to have a BlackBerry," she said. "That information (about primary voting eligibility) would have been more than 140 characters, but we could have directed people to a URL with a simple text explanation."
Bowen said she manages her own Twitter and Facebook accounts but redirects complicated questions she receives through constituent services to ensure citizens get complete answers.
"Neither Facebook or Twitter are good for having a complex discussion," she said.
Facebook has proven useful, however, for upholding election laws. Bowen received a Facebook message last year regarding someone misrepresenting the contents of a petition for which they were gathering signatures. The secretary of state's investigators discovered they had an outstanding warrant for the arrest of the individual in question on a previous violation of California elections code on signature gathering.
Ohio has started using online courses to train poll workers-- part of the state's efforts to attract poll workers below the current average age of the volunteers, which is 72.
"It's been a constant struggle," said Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said.
Brunner previously suggested recruiting poll workers in the same manner the state recruits jurors.
"That's not sounding so outlandish now with the trouble we've had keeping people engaged, especially some of the older people who may not be familiar with the technology," she said.
The state also makes widgets available for third-party sites to embed with online voter registration tools.
"We look at 2.0 solutions as a way to increase access to democracy," Brunner said. "There are so many ways to reach voters, and there's no one silver bullet."
It's unlikely, however, that voters will be able to vote online anytime soon, the officials said, given the privacy concerns that would arise. Moreover, creating an online voting system would be "phenomenally expensive," Bowen said, given how complicated it would be.
"We have to know exactly who are you are up to the minute you cast your vote, but we cannot know anything about how you cast your ballot," she said. "We use these voting systems twice every other year, and ... we already have a relatively inexpensive means of voting."
In contrast, there are no privacy concerns associated with using cloud computing to host election night data, Bowen said.
"With election night results, there's nothing that's private," she said. "The question is what is the most efficient, cost-effective way to provide that service."
The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday took the first step toward regulating greenhouse gas emissions by proposing a ruling to declare greenhouse gases a cause of global warming and a threat to public welfare.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson proposed the ruling after completing the scientific review ordered by the Supreme Court in 2007, when it ruled that the agency has the authority to regulate emissions from vehicles. Before the EPA can officially adopt the ruling or take any regulatory actions, the proposed ruling must undergo a 60-day public comment period.
"This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations," Jackson said in a statement. "Fortunately, it follows President Obama's call for a low carbon economy and strong leadership in Congress on clean energy and climate legislation. This pollution problem has a solution-one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country's dependence on foreign oil."
The proposed ruling is based on a peer-reviewed scientific analysis of the six gases in question: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.
"The current global atmospheric concentrations of the six greenhouse gases are now at unprecedented and record high levels compared to both the recent and distant past," the ruling (PDF) says. "It is also unambiguous that the current elevated greenhouse gas concentrations are the primary result of human activities."
It also calls the U.S. transportation sector is a "significant contributor" to U.S. and global carbon emissions.
In addition to saying human emissions have caused an increase of global temperatures and subsequently changes like increased drought, more intense storms, and more flooding, the ruling says climate change has serious national security implications.
"Climate change can aggravate existing problems in certain regions of the world such as poverty, social tensions, general environmental degradation, and conflict over increasingly scarce water resources," it says.
While the proposed ruling could lead to regulatory action, Jackson, President Obama, and other administration leaders have said they would prefer to see comprehensive legislation to address the issue.
"There are things that can be done that won't quite work within the existing law," White House "energy czar" Carol Browner said Monday.
Congressional hearings are set to begin on Tuesday on a cap-and-trade bill under consideration.
Washington is also attempting to address climate change and carbon emissions in conjunction with other nations. President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced Thursday that Mexico and the U.S. are establishing a "bilateral framework on clean energy and climate change" that will allow for greater political and technical cooperation and facilitate joint efforts to develop clean energy economies. Players in the global carbon market expect actions by the United States to have a significant impact on the market.
|
Business supplies and services can get expensive. Get smart spending tips and learn about new cost-saving opportunities for your business
|
|
The Obama administration and Congress are determined to ratchet up the production of green energy in the United States, but that goal is being undermined by "radical environmental activism," the business community is trying to convince Washington.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday stepped up its campaign for congressional action to streamline the production of clean-energy infrastructure by launching the Web site ProjectNoProject.com.
Too many infrastructure projects, including electric transmission lines and solar farms, the chamber says, are held up by what it refers to as "green tape": lengthy permitting processes, litigation from concerned local activists and environmental groups, and other hurdles like rezoning. In many cases, the chamber says, these challenges delay projects for so long that financing dries up and the projects are abandoned.
"If we're truly going to be a green society and begin deploying these projects, we're going to have to find a way to streamline these projects into commerce," said William Kovacs, the U.S. Chamber's vice president of environment, technology and regulatory affairs.
Within the last 18 months, around 65 projects have been substantially delayed or killed, he said.
The new Web site gives examples of delayed projects in each state, and it gives visitors a "grassroots toolkit" to promote the site. It also provides a link to a standard letter that visitors can send to Congress members to urge them to shorten the environmental permitting process and more strictly regulate litigation against green-energy projects.
The chamber is asking Congress to set a 270-day time limit for the environmental assessments that must be completed for a stimulus-funded green-energy project to move forward. The organization would also like to see some limits on litigation against these projects, such as a time limit on legal actions or limits on the number of appeals possible. Alternatively, the chamber may ask for adjustments to the litigating process, such as taking cases directly to a court of appeals.
"We're not trying to change anyone's rights," Kovacs said. "All we're saying is there has to be an end point."
The Sierra Club and other prominent groups have adamantly opposed some projects, such as San Diego Gas & Electric's proposed Sunrise Powerlink project, a 1,000-megawatt transmission line that would transfer geothermal energy from California's Imperial Valley to the San Diego area.
"The center pin at a bowling alley isn't better positioned to do more damage at once than this reckless scheme which would string a power line over eagles, waterfalls, and history," the Sierra Club said in its April newsletter (PDF).
The energy bill proposed by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is too tolerant of this kind of opposition, said Kovacs, since it has no limits on lawsuits against energy projects.
Janet Kavinoky, the chamber's director of transportation infrastructure, said the chamber's message is catching on around Capitol Hill and already has support from some members like Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wy.) and David Vitter (R-La.).
"We have heard from members interested in finding out what projects have been stopped in their states," she said.
The Obama administration announced new plans on Thursday to kick-start smart-grid development, including funding details and the start of a standardization process.
During a visit to Jefferson City, Mo., Vice President Joe Biden detailed plans for the U.S. Department of Energy to distribute more than $3.3 billion in stimulus funds for smart-grid technology development grants. Additionally, the Energy Department will hand out $615 million for regional demonstration projects that exhibit smart-grid storage, monitoring and technology viability.
"We need an upgraded electrical grid to take full advantage of the vast renewable resources in this country--to take the wind from the Midwest and the sun from the Southwest and power areas across the country," Biden said in his prepared remarks. "By investing in updating the grid now, we will lower utility bills for American families and businesses, lessen our dependence on foreign oil and create good jobs that will drive our economic recovery."
The $3.375 billion Energy Department grant program will give out grants ranging from $500,000 to $20 million for smart-grid technology deployments. It will also give out grants of $100,000 to $5 million for the deployment of grid monitoring devices.
The $615 million for demonstration projects will specifically fund exhibitions that verify technology viability and examine new business models, give energy storage demonstrations, or exhibitions that demonstrate grid monitoring devices that allow system operators to manipulate electric flows in real time.
Alongside the vice president in Jefferson City, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced his plans to chair, with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a series of meetings in May with private-sector leaders and others involved in smart-grid development to devise industry-wide smart-grid standards. The meeting participants are expected to commit to a timetable for reaching a standards agreement and to abide by the standards devised.
Regulators and private-sector representatives have warned Washington that if common smart-grid standards are not implemented, the government risks wasting taxpayers' money on soon-obsolete technologies that could be incompatible with one another.
"A smart electricity grid will revolutionize the way we use energy, but we need standards in place to ensure that all this new technology is compatible and operating at the highest cybersecurity standards to protect the smart grid from hackers and natural disasters," Locke said in his prepared remarks. "The Recovery Act will fund the development of those standards so the exciting technology can finally take off."
The 2008 election was truly the most Internet-based presidential race ever, but the more voters went online, the more they sought out partisan content, a new report shows.
For the first time ever, more than half of the voting age population--55 percent of adults--went online for news and information about a presidential election or to communicate with others about the race, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project.
Twenty-six percent of Americans said they relied on the Internet as a major source of campaign news in 2008, compared with 11 percent in 2000.
(Credit:
Pew Research Center)
With greater online political engagement, the report shows, came greater partisanship. One-third of online news consumers said they usually seek out online political information from Web sites that share their political point of view, and the more online news sources a person regularly visited, the more likely he would be to seek out specific view points. Nearly half of online news consumers visited at least five different online types of news content in 2008.
"The 2008 elections saw the role of the Internet in politics increase, and it witnessed the emergence of a unique group of online political activists," said Aaron Smith, the Pew research specialist who authored the new report. The research for the report was conducted between November 20 and December 4, 2008.
Official campaign Web sites were also more popular in the 2008 election. While 18 percent of all Internet users visited the John Kerry Web site in 2004 and 14 percent visited George Bush's 2004 site, 30 percent went to Barack Obama's site last year and 21 percent went to John McCain's.
Social media Web sites also featured much more prominently in the 2008 election, which is not surprising--most were in their infancy, if even in existence, during the 2004 campaign. Nearly half of all 18 to 29-year-olds--Internet users and nonusers alike--watched online political videos during the campaign. Among Internet users with a social networking profile, 52 percent used social networking sites for political purposes.
Obama supporters typically were more engaged online than John McCain supporters--26 percent of Obama supporters online created their own original political content online, compared with 15 percent of McCain supporters.
Some voters went online to find voting information. Nearly one in five voters used the Internet to find out where to vote, 16 percent of voters went online for information about absentee or early voting, and 9 percent went online to find out where they were registered to vote.
While more voters turned to the Internet for political information, fewer relied on traditional news sources like radio or newspapers. Television remained the most common source of election news, with 77 percent of Americans watching election-related coverage. Twenty-eight percent of voters cited newspapers as a major source of election news, down from 39 percent in 2000.
Because of quirks in many state laws, sales taxes may be levied on CDs sold in storefronts but not on iTunes and other digital downloads. It's a situation that recession-weary, tax-hungry politicians are hoping to change.
A growing number of states are considering laws to tax digital goods, such as iTunes songs, Amazon MP3s, or electronic books. Yet at a time when governments say they want to encourage broadband adoption and the development of a low-carbon economy, opponents say taxing digital goods sends exactly the wrong message.
Mississippi is one of the latest states to write into law a tax on digital products. The measure, which was adopted mid-March and goes into effect July 1, imposes a sale and use tax on specified digital products--including digital audio-visual works such as movies, digital audio works such as ringtones, and digital books.
Republican Gov. Haley Barbour endorsed the legislation via Twitter. "On HB 1461, I support this bill and here's why: This bill will treat Internet sales like catalog sales making it a level playing field," he said on March 11.
Including Mississippi, at least 18 states claim they have the authority to collect taxes on digital goods, and more are likely to join them.
On March 12, a bill was introduced in the North Carolina general assembly "to modernize the sales and use tax statutes by treating music, movies, books, and computer software that are delivered electronically the same as those that are purchased in a tangible medium."
A digital goods tax measure was also introduced in the Minnesota House of Representatives in late March. The bill could raise the state more than $8.2 million in 2010 through 2013, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue (PDF).
States such as Washington and Vermont are also considering such measures, according to Stephen Kranz, an attorney at the Sutherland law firm who represents companies in the digital media industry.
The idea isn't popular everywhere. A proposal to tax digital goods in New York died this month when it was left it out of the state budget.
Rob Atkinson, the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said that policy makers should distinguish between digital goods and digital services in their tax laws.
"A service would be someone designing your Web site for you," Atkinson said. "Whether they design it from a thousand miles away or in your office is irrelevant. On the other hand, if someone is buying (music online), it should be treated in the same way as a physical analog in the economy."
"I don't think most policy makers think about it that way," he added.
The Washington state bill would clearly tax digital services as well as what's typically considered digital goods, Kranz said. The Streamlined Sales Tax Project, a multistate effort to develop uniform standards for taxation, adopted in 2007 a specific definition of digital products, along with procedures for how they should be taxed.
Location, location, location
A uniform definition across states would make the taxes less burdensome to merchants, Atkinson said.
"There has to be some easy to use plug-in software...so each seller doesn't have to go through this accounting nightmare," of determining the taxes due in each state, he said.
However, some proposed laws such as Minnesota's would not apply to online merchants based outside the state, Kranz said. That's because under the legal concept of "nexus," a state generally may only tax a company that has a physical business presence within the state's borders--though a state may apply a "use tax" for goods coming into the state from elsewhere.
Those states that are not including a use tax in their proposals are "'discriminating against their own digital community," Kranz said. "If I'm a consumer and I have a choice between two Web sites and one charges tax and one doesn't, which one do you think I'm going to purchase from?"
In fact, North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven on March 19 signed into law a measure to explicitly exempt digital goods from taxes for that reason.
"I think it's important we send a message to the world of digital products that this is a state that's favorable to their interests," Dwight Cook, the state senator who introduced the tax exemption bill, told CNET News in January.
The tech industry has also been advocating for the government to promote the use of information and communications technology as a means of creating a more energy efficient economy--a goal that may be undermined by digital goods taxes, according to some.
"The digital economy is growing fast, and the tiny carbon footprint of downloads is something that benefits all of us," said Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice. "Digital downloads are the most environmentally responsible way to get movies, music and software, and tax policy is one the ways we promote environmentally sound decisions."
Digital goods taxes may be particularly unappealing to consumers on April 15, DelBianco said.
"Writing a fat tax check is particularly painful when your home (value) and savings have declined so deeply, and the idea of facing new taxes on digital goods makes that pain last all year long," he said.
In a move to reach out the Cuban people, the White House on Monday announced a series of changes to U.S. policy toward Cuba, including the authorization of greater telecommunications links to the communist country.
"This will increase the means through which Cubans on the island can communicate with each other and with persons outside of Cuba," the White House said in a statement. "Cuban American connections to family in Cuba are not only a basic right in humanitarian terms, but also our best tool for helping to foster the beginnings of grassroots democracy on the island."
Under the new policy, U.S. telecommunications providers will be able to establish fiber-optic cable and satellite telecommunications facilities linking the U.S. and Cuba, as well as license to enter into and operate under roaming service agreements with Cuba's telecommunications providers. Additionally, U.S. satellite radio and satellite television service providers will be able to obtain a license to provide services to customers in Cuba.
Persons under U.S. jurisdiction will be allowed to activate and pay U.S. or third-country service providers for telecommunications, satellite radio, or satellite TV services provided to individuals in Cuba, save for certain senior Communist Party and Cuban government officials. People will also, under a license exception, be able to export to Cuba communications devices such as mobile phone systems, computers, software, and satellite receivers.
The Obama administration's announcement continues the transition to more open communications between the United States and Cuba set in motion under the Bush administration. President Bush announced in 2008 that Americans could send cell phones to family members in Cuba. He also permitted faith-based organizations and nonprofit groups working with Cuba to provide computers and Internet access to the Cuban people.
Bush's actions came in response to Cuban President Raul Castro's decision to lift the ban prohibiting the use of cell phones by ordinary citizens in Cuba.
The change in policy could also make Cuba less reliant on Venezuela, another leftist country with icy U.S. relations. Even though it would have been more efficient to lay a new cable between Cuba and the U.S., Cuba in 2006 signed a deal with Venezuela to lay a new undersea fiber-optic cable between the two countries.
