USA OUTLOOK FEBRUARY 19 TO 23, 2024

US to soften tailpipe rules, slow EV transition through 2030

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration is set to ease proposed yearly requirements through 2030 of its sweeping plan to aggressively cut tailpipe emissions and ramp up electric vehicle sales, two sources told Reuters on Sunday.

Automakers and the United Auto Workers had urged the Biden administration to slow the proposed ramp-up in EV sales. They say EV technology is still too costly for many mainstream U.S. consumers and that more time is needed to develop the charging infrastructure.

The Environmental Protection Agency in April 2023 proposed requiring a 56% reduction in new vehicle emissions by 2032. Under the initial EPA proposal covering 2027-2032, automakers were expected to aim for EVs to constitute 60% of their new vehicle productionby2030and67%by2032tomeetstricter emissions requirements.

Under the revised final regulation expected to be made public as soon as next month, the EPA will slow the pace of its proposed yearly emissions requirements through 2030.

Souce:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/biden-administrationrelax-ev-rule-tailpipe-emissions-ny-times-2024-02-18/

US Supreme Court wrestles with bid to challenge debit card 'swipe fee' rule

U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday grappled with a North Dakota convenience store's challenge to a government regulation on debit card "swipe fees" - a case that could make it easier for businesses to try to undo longstanding federal rules.

Arguments in the case focused on whether the store was too late in bringing its 2021 lawsuit challenging a 2011 Federal Reserve regulation governing how much businesses pay to banks when customers use debit cards to make purchases.

The store, called Corner Post and located in Watford City, appealed after lower courts threw out its lawsuit on the basis of missing the six-year statue of limitations that generally applies to such litigation. Corner Post argued it should not be bound by the statute of limitations because it opened for business in 2018, meaning its legal injury arose only after the deadline had passed.

Souce:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-weighs-bid-challenge-debitcard-swipe-fee-rule-2024-02-20/

Photo REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Photo: PREUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach Purchase Licensing Rights

US IRS trains tax-audit sights on personal use of corporate jets

The Internal Revenue Service said on Wednesday it planstocrackdownonwealthyexecutiveswhomay be using company jets for personal trips but claiming the costs as business expenses for tax purposes, as part of a new audit push to boost revenue collections.

The IRS announced that it will begin dozens of audits involving personal use of business aircraft, focusing on large corporations, large partnerships and high-income taxpayers.

The agency said it would use "advanced analytics" and other resources from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which provided $80 billion in new funding over a decade for the IRS to modernize, improvetaxpayerservices and beefupenforcement and compliance.

The IRS said the audits aim to determine "whether for tax purposes, the use of jets is being properly allocated between business and personal reasons."

Souce:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-irs-trains-tax-audit-sights-personal-usecorporate-jets-2024-02-21/

US farmers face harsh economics with record corn supplies in silos

Illinois farmer Dan Henebry regrets not selling more of his corn crop last summer, when the Midwest needed rain and prices were high. He is not alone.

Farmers across the United States are kicking themselves for putting off corn sales after fields dried up in May and June, fueling expectations for higher prices and smaller harvests. Instead, prices tanked as rains saved the crop. The size and speed of the price collapse stung farmers and left their storage bins stuffed with record amounts of corn.

Thesteepestmarketdownturninadecadein2023 has extended into 2024, hurting the U.S. rural economy. Two years of high prices and tight crop supplies spurred by unfavorable global weather and disruption from the Ukraine war have been quickly reversed.

Photo: REUTERS/Erin Scott/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Photo: REUTERS/Lawrence Bryant Purchase Licensing Rights Souce:

Moon landing: US clinches first touchdown in 50 years

A spacecraft built and flown by Texas-based company Intuitive Machines landed near the moon's south pole on Thursday, the first U.S. touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century and the first ever achieved by the private sector.

NASA, with several research instruments aboard the vehicle, hailed the landing as a major achievement in its goal of sending a squad of commercially flown spacecraft on scientific scouting missions to the moon ahead of a planned return of astronauts there later this decade.

But initial communications problems following Thursday's landing raised questions about whether the vehicle may have been left impaired or obstructed in some way.

The uncrewed six-legged robot lander, dubbed Odysseus, touched down at about 6:23 p.m. EST (2323 GMT), the company and NASA commentators said in a joint webcast of the landing from Intuitive Machines' (LUNR.O), opens new tab mission operations center in Houston.

Souce:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/us-achieves-first-moon-landing-halfcentury-with-private-spacecraft-2024-02-23/

Photo: Intuitive Machines/Handout via