Rising Gas Prices, Global Trade, and Where’s My Refund?

Tax Policy/News:

May 26: IRS changes guidance on EITC

The Internal Revenue Service has updated its frequently asked questions page on the 2021 Earned Income Tax Credit, with new information on using prior tax years to calculate it. Families can now use pre-pandemic income levels to qualify if it results in a larger credit.

The EITC lets low- to moderate-income workers and families claim a refundable tax credit to either reduce the amount of taxes they owe or an added payment to increase a tax refund.

Question 15 asks, "Can I elect to use my 2019 earned income to figure my Earned Income Tax Credit for 2021?" The answer is yes.

For 2021, eligible taxpayers can choose to calculate the EITC using their 2019 earned income if it was higher than their 2021 earned income, even if they didn't have any earned income in 2021.

"Taxpayers who did not file a return for the tax year 2020 or 2021 or who did not claim the Earned Income Tax Credit on their 2020 or 2021 return because they had no earned income in those years may file an original or amended return to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit using their 2019 earned income, if they are otherwise eligible to do so," said the IRS. However, that's not true for other years. The IRS noted that taxpayers may not use their 2020 earned income to calculate the EITC on their 2021 return.

May 25: IRS upgrades 'Where’s My Refund" tool to track refunds for two years

The Internal Revenue Service has enhanced it "Where's My Refund?" online tool, introducing a new feature this week that enables taxpayers to check the status of their current tax year and tax refunds for the two previous years, as the agency continues to come under fire for processing backlogs from 2021.

The app only showed the most recently filed tax return status within the past two tax years. The information available to those calling the tax refund hotline will be limited to the 2021 tax return, however. Using the app, taxpayers can start checking the status of their refund within 24 hours after e-filing the tax year 2021 return; Three or four days after e-filing the tax year 2019 or 2020 return; or, Four weeks after mailing a return.

"We process returns on a first-in basis, so the sooner the better. There's really no reason to wait until October 17 if filers have the relevant information to file now. Free File is still available for extension recipients to use to prepare and file their federal tax return for free." The IRS is continuing to face criticism from Congress over the long backlogs in processing tax returns.

Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, led by ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, sent a letter Tuesday to Rettig to strongly encourage the agency to implement 2-D barcoding for paper returns in the 2023 tax filing season to help the agency more efficiently process millions of tax returns and speed up taxpayer refunds.

"For others, the backlog means the unavailability of tax transcripts necessary to secure a loan or employment." In March, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins recommended the IRS implement 2-D barcoding for paper tax returns to encode the data and import it in digital form into the IRS's computer systems, bypassing time-consuming manual data entry and streamlining the process.

May 24: IRS raids alliantgroup offices

Agents from the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation Division raided the Houston headquarters of tax consulting firm alliantgroup, seizing computer servers Friday, May 20, and prompting the firm to give employees the day off Monday until they were able to return Tuesday morning. The nature of the investigation is unknown but is thought to be related to the firm's work in securing tax credits and other incentives for clients, some of which have been challenged by the IRS, leading to lawsuits after the IRS denied the claims and clients refused to pay the firm, according to the Going Concern blog.

Even though employees were allowed to return on Tuesday, IRS agents returned to the Galleria building where the firm is based and continued to search other floors Tuesday, according to the Houston Press. The firm has attracted several top officials who used to lead the IRS, including former commissioners Mark Everson and Steven Miller, and two former commissioners who headed the Small Business/Self-Employed Division, Eric Hylton and Kathy Petronchak, to sit on alliantgroup's strategic advisory board.

The firm has specialized in several tax areas, including research and development tax credits, Section 179D energy efficiency tax credits, employee retention credits, and the domestic production activities deduction. The firm has also assisted tax whistleblowers, including Bradley Birkenfeld, a former wealth manager at UBS who played a key role in helping the IRS and the Justice Department build a case against the bank, but was sent to prison.

Economic News/Policy: 

May 31: Biden to meet Fed chair as inflation bites US pocketbooks

The White House and the Fed initially portrayed the inflation surge as a temporary side effect caused by supply chain issues as the U.S. emerged from the pandemic. Ahead of the meeting Biden pledged not to interfere in the Fed's decision-making but suggested that he and Powell are aligned on addressing inflation.

"My predecessor demeaned the Fed, and past presidents have sought to influence its decisions inappropriately during periods of elevated inflation," Biden said in an op-ed posted Monday by The Wall Street Journal.

The united front between Biden and Powell is in sharp contrast to Powell's relationship with President Donald Trump, who repeatedly attacked Powell after the Fed chair oversaw moderate interest rate hikes in 2018.

"That's why comparisons to the 1970s are wrong," said Sebastian Mallaby, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of a biography on former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, "The Man Who Knew." "The president's essay was striking because he explicitly backed the Fed.".

Powell has acknowledged the U.S. central bank has limited tools to respond to supply shocks, and one of the major uncertainties is whether the Fed can bring inflation down without causing a recession in the U.S.The administration also has few means for curbing inflation, possibly putting Biden's political fortunes at the mercy of global markets.

Powell has pledged to keep ratcheting up the Fed's key short-term interest rate to cool the economy until inflation is "Coming down in a clear and convincing way." Those rate hikes have spurred fears that the Fed, in its drive to slow borrowing and spending, may push the economy into recession.

May 30: Fed Official Supports Raising Interest Rates at Fast Clip ‘for Several Meetings’

A few regional Fed presidents have said they would support pressing ahead with an aggressive pace of rate increases in September if monthly inflation readings remain elevated, and Mr. Waller's comments at a university lecture aligned himself with that bloc on Monday. Many Fed presidents have recently said the central bank could dial down its rate increases to the more traditional quarter-point increment by September because they expect the economy and inflation to slow.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic last week told reporters he could see a case for pausing rate increases entirely in September.

In recent public comments, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has suggested the central bank won't slow its rate increases until it sees clear evidence that inflation is declining. Mr. Powell indicated in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on May 17 that a pause in September is unlikely because the Fed isn't likely to reach a more neutral rate setting until the fourth quarter.

Once the public comes to believe inflation will be higher in the future, "It is very difficult and economically painful" for the Fed to reduce inflation, he said. The Fed official focused much of his lecture presenting an analysis of why the Fed might be able to slow economic growth without triggering increases in unemployment that only occurs during a recession.

May 29: Economy Week Ahead: Hiring, Unemployment in Focus

Tuesday: Lockdowns across China have pummeled the economy and economists estimate that factory activity declined for the second straight month in May. China’s official purchasing managers index is forecast to stay below 50, which separates expansion from contraction, leaving the world’s second-largest economy struggling to record positive economic growth in the second quarter of the year.

Figures to be released by the European Union’s statistics agency are expected to show that the eurozone’s annual rate of inflation has risen to a record high in May, with economists estimating that consumer prices have climbed 7.6% over the past 12 months, a pickup from the 7.4% rate of increase recorded in April. An acceleration of price rises would cement expectations that the European Central Bank will raise its key interest rate for the first time since 2011 at its July policy meeting.

Wednesday: The Institute for Supply Management’s survey of purchasing managers at U.S. factories is expected to show that activity expanded at a slower pace in May than in April. Demand for manufactured goods surged during the pandemic, creating supply shortages and fueling higher prices, but may now be cooling as economic growth slows and consumers adjust their spending.

The Bank of Canada in April pulled the trigger on its biggest rate increase in more than two decades as the central bank looks to keep inflation from spiraling out of control. BOC Gov. Tiff Macklem has suggested another half-percentage point increase could follow on June 1 to cool inflation that is running at a three-decade high.

Friday: U.S. employers likely added jobs at a healthy clip in May, though economists estimate the pace of hiring slowed as companies confronted a tight labor market and rising economic uncertainty. One key metric to watch: is the unemployment rate. Some forecasters predict that unemployment ticked down to 3.5% in May from 3.6% in April, matching a half-century low last reached in February 2020—just before the Covid-19 pandemic landed with full force on the economy.

May 27: Americans Keep Spending Even as Inflation Erodes Buying Power

Incomes aren't keeping up with spending, or with rising prices: After-tax income rose 0.3 percent in April from the prior month and was flat after accounting for inflation. The slowdown in inflation in April was largely the result of a drop in the price of gasoline and other energy.

The comparatively tame increase in core prices in the data released Friday stood in contrast to the sharp acceleration in the equivalent measure in the Consumer Price Index report released by the Labor Department this month.

Fast price increases spell trouble, but moderate price gains can lead to higher wages and job growth. Even if inflation continues to ebb, prices are still rising far more quickly than the Fed's target of 2 percent over time.

May 27: Prices rose at slightly slower rate in April, new data shows

Consumer prices grew at slower yearly and monthly rates in April, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of inflation, rose 6.3 percent in the 12 months ending in April, down from a 6.6 percent annual inflation rate in March. Without food and energy prices, which tend to be more volatile, the PCE price index rose 4.9 percent annually in April and 0.3 percent between March and April.

The Fed has hiked its baseline interest rate to 0.75 to 1 percent from near-zero levels earlier in the year and is expected to keep raising rates quickly to fight inflation. Personal consumption expenditures, a measure of consumer spending, rose 0.9 percent in April and 0.7 percent when adjusting for inflation.

The new inflation data will likely keep the Fed on track with a set of aggressive rate hikes. "Front-loading rate hikes could allow the Fed to pause to assess how past rate hikes are affecting inflation, the labor market, and financial market conditions," Sweet wrote.

May 27: Gas Prices Hit New Highs as Summer Driving Season Starts

Energy traders have also bid up oil prices in the expectation that Western governments will impose even tougher sanctions on Russia and its energy industry. "Fixing the problem would mean people would have to drive less," said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service.

The national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline on Friday was $4.60, up from $3.04 a year ago, according to AAA. Airfares, which typically move up and down with jet fuel prices, have risen even faster. Gasoline prices are largely determined by the price of oil, and that is set in a global market.

Many experts had thought that energy prices would rise even more than they have. Oil industry executives have often said the cure for high prices is those very high prices. Because oil prices slumped to levels not seen in decades, international oil companies slashed investments.

May 26: Worry about stagflation, a flashback to the ’70s, begins to grow

For Americans of a certain age, it conjures memories of painfully long lines at gas stations, shuttered factories, and President Gerald Ford’s much-ridiculed “Whip Inflation Now” buttons. Stagflation is the bitterest of economic pills: High inflation mixes with a weak job market to cause a toxic brew that punishes consumers and befuddles economists.

For decades, most economists didn’t think such a nasty concoction was even possible. They'd long assumed that inflation would run high only when the economy was strong and unemployment low.

"The economic outlook globally," Yellen said, "Is challenging and uncertain, and higher food and energy prices are having stagflationary effects, namely depressing output and spending and rising inflation all around the world."

The widespread fear, reflected in shrunken stock prices, is that the Fed will end up botching it and will clobber the economy without delivering a knockout blow to inflation.

The U.S. unemployment rate is now just 3.6%.In the European Union, where joblessness typically runs higher, Zandi's threshold is different: 9% unemployment and 4% year-over-year inflation, in his view, would combine to cause stagflation. Each year from 1974 through 1982, inflation and unemployment in the United States both topped 5%. The combination of the two figures, which came to be called the "Misery index," peaked at a most miserable 20.6 in 1980. Stagflation, and especially chronically high inflation, became a defining feature of the 1970s.

At the same time, inflation has been eroding Americans' purchasing power: Prices have risen faster than hourly pay for 13 straight months. "The Fed has worked hard since the stagflation of the late 1970s and early 1980s," Zandi said, "To keep inflation and inflation expectations closer to its target," which is now around 2%. Other factors, including the rise of low-cost manufacturing in China and other developing countries, kept a tight lid on prices that consumers and businesses pay.

May 26: Democratic discontent brews with Federal Reserve

Discontent with the Federal Reserve is brewing among Democrats, even those who voted earlier this month to confirm Fed chairman Jerome Powell for another four-year term. Specifically, Democrats say the Fed started raising interests too late following the onset of the pandemic, missing an opportunity to curb the inflation that's weighing on Democratic hopes for reelection.

The GOP argument is getting some backing from economists who see the stimulus from Congress, the administration, and the Fed as having had a snowball effect on inflation. The Fed is hoping it can tame inflation without triggering a recession.

"The Fed persisted in massive quantitative easing even after it was clear inflation was worse than forecast," he said.

"These are policy errors that have worsened inflation and hurt low-income people the most. I recognize that Chairman Powell has a difficult job in challenging times, and I sincerely hope for his success in his second term."

"People are more optimistic, consuming more, and their consumption is outpacing production, and that leads to inflation. So it's great to have so many people at work and low unemployment, but it just feeds the fires of inflation. It's a tough situation, fairly unique in our history."

May 25: High Inflation Will Persist Into Next Year, CBO Projects

High inflation is expected to persist for the rest of the year, saddling Americans with higher costs as price hikes continue, the Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday. The nonpartisan budget office estimated that key measures of inflation will show signs of easing this year relative to last year, but will remain uncomfortably high as demand continues to outstrip supply, putting upward pressure on prices.

The CBO report offers some hope for the White House as well, indicating high growth and low unemployment this year. The CBO projects the U.S. economy will grow at 3.1 percent in 2022 - faster than usual, but slower than the rapid 5.5 percent clip of 2021 - as some of the factors juicing demand begin to ebb. Unemployment is projected to remain low, at 3.8 percent this year and 3.5 percent next year.

The CBO projects the federal deficit will shrink to $1 trillion in 2021 and average $1.6 trillion annually from 2023 to 2032. Federal revenue is projected to reach its highest level as a percentage of gross domestic product in more than two decades because of the strong economic recovery from the pandemic, according to the CBO. In the news briefing, CBO officials said strong incomes across the economy - through offset by high prices - mean that tax revenue overall is being pushed up, though they said many factors are likely in play.

May 25: Freight railroad slowdowns under microscope amid supply crunch

Freight railroads are failing to keep pace with consumer demand, putting additional strain on the nation's supply chains that have been plagued by trucker shortages and congested ports, among other challenges.

"The most important reason why the railroad leg of the supply chain failed over the last year and a half is the fact that they did not have the workforce or the equipment to be able to deal with the demand for goods," said Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department, which represents several railroad worker unions.

The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers testified that service disruptions and lack of competition in the railroad industry worsen inflation, stating that transportation and distribution costs account for 11 percent of the price of gas at the pump.

"Railroads are not immune to the broader challenges of the labor market, but the industry is confident in its plans to normalize the number of workers to a level consistent with demand," Ted Greener, assistant vice president for public affairs at the Association of American Railroads, said in a statement.

As railroads push to hire more workers, they're engaged in a long-running dispute with labor unions that say train conductors are overworked, fatigued, and underpaid. The National Mediation Board, an agency that works out railroad contract disputes, began a three-day negotiation session Tuesday between the leading freight carriers and 12 railroad labor unions. Railroad unions see the negotiations as a potential pathway to their first contract in several years.

Global Trade:

May 30: China’s Slowdown Poses Credibility Test for Economic Data

A severe slowdown in China's economy during a year of acute political sensitivity for Chinese leader Xi Jinping is testing the credibility of Beijing's official economic data. One lesson economists say they have drawn from scrutinizing Chinese statistics is to be on the lookout for discrepancies in China's data when the economy is at a turning point as it appears to be now-or at moments of special political significance.

"The problem of statistical data fraud is still relatively prominent," China's top discipline watchdog said in March, saying some officials are tempted to advance their careers by fabricating or inflating data to paint a rosier picture of growth and development in areas under their control.

A review of local government releases by The Wall Street Journal found that in March, statistics experts in at least 10 Chinese provinces visited major local companies to check activity data from the first two months of the year when national-level growth figures released by Beijing struck many economists as being far rosier than expected from surveys and other preliminary data.

Still, many analysts and economists say a variety of alternative sources to the official data mean that obscuring the true state of China's economy isn't an easy task.

China's current slowdown is evident in the earnings of multinational companies that do big business in China such as Apple Inc. or Tesla Inc., or the export data published by trading partners such as Taiwan and South Korea.

Iris Pang, chief economist for Greater China at ING in Hong Kong, said she thinks the quality of China's economic data is better than it was a few years ago, but that confidence in the numbers could be helped if authorities published more detailed data on the economic activity underpinning the headline figures.

May 27: the US sanctions North Korea in response to the latest missile launches

The Treasury Department will freeze the assets of two North Korean banks, one individual, and a trading company working with the country's rocket ministry following the May 24 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile and two shorter-range missiles by North Korea. The sanctions target supporters of the country's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, as well as foreign financial institutions that "Have knowingly provided significant financial services" to the North Korean government, Brian Nelson, head of the Treasury Department's terrorism and financial intelligence division, said in a statement.

The property of import-export company Air Koryo as well as an individual named Jong Yong Nam was frozen by the order from Treasury for their role in trying to procure "Transistors and hydraulic system components" for the North Korean state rocket industry. The assets of the North Korean Far Eastern Bank and Bank Sputnik will also be frozen for similar support of prohibited enterprises.

Tuesday's missile launches by North Korea were timed with a meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, an informal but increasingly frequent security conference held by the United States, Japan, Australia, and India that's seen as a bulwark against Chinese territorial ambitions.

In the latest meeting, the four countries condemned North Korea's missile program and reaffirmed their goal of getting rid of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula.

On Wednesday, the U.S. and Japan responded with a military exercise of their own, in which four Japanese F-15s and four American F-16s from the 35th Fighter Wing flew over the Sea of Japan.

May 25: Democrats divided on tariffs amid woes over inflation

Faced with mounting inflation and bad poll numbers, Democratic lawmakers are divided over whether to get rid of Trump-era tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in goods imported from China, which some Democrats think would lower costs for consumers. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo favor easing tariffs, while national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai oppose dropping tariffs on China, according to a New York Times report published Monday.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, the chairwoman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, on Tuesday, questioned the effectiveness of tariffs on Chinese goods and said that easing tariffs could help reduce inflation, which has become the Democrats' biggest political problem. "The tariffs haven't been as effective as they think," she said, adding that easing tariffs "Could help relieve some of the costs that people are seeing."

If the investigation concludes that solar panels imported from these countries used Chinese parts that should have been subject to tariffs, it could result in huge retroactive tariffs - in some cases exceeding 200 percent, experts estimate. The debate within the administration over what to do about Trump-era China tariffs and the Commerce Department's investigation into whether the China solar industry tried to avoid U.S. tariffs by operating through Southeast Asian countries are two sides of a bigger question: What to do about the importation of Chinese goods at a time when costs are soaring in the United States?

Other Democrats are leery of easing tariffs on China at a time of rising tension over the future of Taiwan and the South China Sea and after China declared a "No-limits" partnership with Russia.

Ukraine Crisis/Russia’s Economic Impact: 

May 26: As Russia Diverges From the Global Economy, Soviet-Style Scarcity Looms

Gripped by heavy economic sanctions and increasingly isolated from Western suppliers, Russia worked on Thursday to keep its factories and businesses running and stave off a return to Soviet-era scarcity. The economic toll on Russia, though difficult to quantify, has spread widely, from its largest companies to its small shops and workers.

The Russian automaker Avtotor even announced a lottery for free 10-acre plots of land - and the chance to buy seed potatoes - so workers could grow their own food amid "The difficult economic situation." The company announced the vegetable-farm giveaway after Western sanctions hobbled production at its assembly plant in Kaliningrad."I call what is happening now a horrible experiment," Ivan Fedyakov, who runs Infoline, a market research firm in Russia, said in a telephone interview.

Russia has avoided some economic pain, at least temporarily, because the European Union has not been able to overcome Hungary's objections to a proposed oil embargo, which would be one of the toughest measures imposed by the West so far.

European Union members finally reached an agreement on a Russian oil embargo and new sanctions against Russia. As Ukraine seeks to hold Russia accountable for atrocities, two Russian soldiers on Thursday pleaded guilty to firing on a town in the Kharkiv region from a position across the border in Russia. The Azov brigade has origins as a far-right group, giving a veneer of credibility in Russia to Mr. Putin's claims that Russia is purging Ukraine of Nazis.

May 26: Russia cuts its benchmark rate to 11 percent as the ruble hits a multiyear high

Russia's central bank slashed its benchmark interest rate to 11 percent, from 14 percent, in a hastily arranged meeting on Thursday as policymakers sought to support businesses and households struggling under sanctions. The bank is cutting interest rates faster than expected as the country's currency has rapidly appreciated, reaching its strongest level in four years against the U.S. dollar this week.

Capital controls imposed by the central bank after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, particularly those forcing exporters to exchange their earnings for rubles, have increased demand for the Russian currency. The annual inflation rate in Russia climbed to 17.8 percent last month, the central bank said, but it was estimated to have declined slightly since then, faster than policymakers expected.

"The capital controls are probably the primary driver of why the ruble has recovered and strengthened so much," said Brendan McKenna, an emerging-markets economist and currency strategist at Wells Fargo Securities.

"It's difficult right now to just buy U.S. dollars and convert rubles into dollars or any other currency in Russia." The bank quickly raised its benchmark interest rate to 20 percent and imposed capital controls to restrict the flow of money out of the country to support the currency.

Environmental Policy:

May 27: How an Organized Republican Effort Punishes Companies for Climate Action

In Texas, a new law bars the state's retirement and investment funds from doing business with companies that the state comptroller says are boycotting fossil fuels. "We're an energy state, and energy accounts for hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue for us," said Riley Moore, the West Virginia state treasurer.

The pushback has been spearheaded by a group of Republican state officials that has reached out to financial organizations, facilitated media appearances, and threatened to punish companies that, among other things, divest from fossil fuels.

New York State's pension fund plans to start shedding its fossil fuels holdings, and Maine became the first state last year to require both it's Treasury and its public employee pension fund to divest from fossil fuels.

Mr. Moore, the West Virginia state treasurer, coordinated a letter in November from 16 state treasurers and comptrollers to banks across the country, threatening "Collective action in response to the ongoing and growing economic boycott of traditional energy production industries by U.S. financial institutions."

"These big banks are virtue signaling because they are woke," Gary Howell, a West Virginia state representative who sponsored a bill that would blacklist companies that have divested from fossil fuels, wrote in a Feb. 8 email to Mr. Moore.

Months later, a nonprofit group called Consumers' Research received an influx of funding from undisclosed donors and began running ads attacking Mr. Fink. Will Hild, executive director of Consumers' Research, told CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, in February that Mr. Fink and BlackRock had "Helped vote on three radical environmentalists to the board of directors of Exxon whose stated goal is to get that company not focused on serving American consumers affordable gas but on Larry Fink's personal politics."

May 27: G-7 countries agree to ‘eventual’ coal power phaseout

A group of major economic powers including the U.S. on Friday said they would agree to eventually phase out coal-fired power, a major contributor to climate change. The environment ministers of the Group of Seven said in a joint statement on Friday that they would agree to an "Eventual" phaseout of "Unabated" coal power.

Japan is expected to be particularly impacted by the commitment, as the country got 32 percent of its electricity from coal in 2019.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that the countries had been considering an even more stringent action on coal - a phaseout by 2030. The call for a phaseout is a step further from what countries agreed to during last year's COP26 climate meeting in Glasgow, Scotland when countries only agreed to "Phase down" coal.

While a major economic shift toward mostly carbon-free power would cut a significant amount of planet-warming emissions, the goal is less ambitious than the Biden administration's own stated goal of reaching entirely carbon-free power by that date. Amid high oil and gasoline prices, the countries also called on oil producers including OPEC - which includes major producers such as Saudi Arabia - to "Act in a responsible manner and to respond to tightening international markets."

May 26: Supreme Court rejects red states’ bid to block Biden accounting metric

The Supreme Court is rebuffing an attempt from red states to block the Biden administration from using a key climate accounting metric in its decision-making. In a new order on Thursday, the high court denied the states' request to review a ruling that enabled the Biden administration to use the climate impacts measurement.

The Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations have all used social cost values for greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, but the Trump administration put a much lower cost on their release. Republican attorneys general have challenged the Biden administration's cost estimates.

Since the states receive revenue from those leases, they may end up shortchanged if less land is leased because of the climate costs, the attorney's general argued.

At their request, a federal court in Louisiana temporarily blocked the Biden administration's use of the metric in February, but in March, that ruling was halted, reinstating the use of the social costs. Late last month, 10 Republican attorneys general asked the Supreme Court to once again block the administration's use of the social costs.

ICYMI: 

May 31: Key Senate antitrust bill hangs in the balance

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is pushing for a summer vote on a key antitrust bill targeting tech giants, but updates to the language released last week may do little to quell concerns from Democrats teetering on support. Even some Democrats who voted to advance the bill in January have expressed hesitation in supporting it on a floor vote, and more may back off amid a dwindling deadline ahead of competitive midterm races.

The unlikely allies could give the bill a fair chance of passing in the evenly split 50-50 Senate if called for a vote. At least a handful of lawmakers who voted on the bill during the January markup, and even some co-sponsors, told The Hill on Thursday they had yet to review the revisions Klobuchar released late the night before.

During the committee markup in January, Feinstein and Padilla said they were concerned the bill targets specific companies that are mostly headquartered on their home turf. "It was a good bill before and a better bill today," Haworth said.

Eighty percent said they support the Open App Markets Act, another bill that advanced out of committee with a focus on regulating dominant app stores, according to a poll of 1,200 voters.

May 28: Covid was vanishing last Memorial Day. Cases are five times higher now.

The United States is recording more than 100,000 infections a day - at least five times higher than this point last year - as it confronts the most transmissible versions of the virus yet. Public health authorities are bracing for Memorial Day gatherings to fuel another bump in cases, potentially seeding a summer surge.

"Over the Memorial Day holidays, if you are in settings where you are indoors with large numbers of people without masks there is a good likelihood you will suffer a breakthrough infection."

Experts had hoped that the explosion of the omicron variant this winter, estimated to have infected a quarter of Americans who hadn't already been infected, and the subsequent spring wave of omicron's even more transmissible sub-variants, would provide a buffer against future surges.

Burhan Yardimci, his wife, and their three young children - who had all contracted coronavirus in February - joined thousands of Turkish Americans on Madison Avenue recently for the return of New York's annual Turkish Day Parade, canceled the last two years because of the pandemic.

The Transportation Security Administration on Thursday reported screening more than half a million additional fliers a day compared with the same day last year. Parents of young children are entering Memorial Day weekend frustrated that children younger than 5 remain the only group ineligible for vaccines.

May 26: Formula shortage won’t end until July, FDA chief says

The nation's infant formula shortage likely won't be fully resolved until late July, the head of the Food and Drug Administration told senators Thursday. During a Senate Health Committee hearing, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said it will take time to get to the point when store shelves are fully stocked but that eventually there will be a surplus. The Senate hearing marked the second time in as many days Califf testified to frustrated lawmakers about the agency's actions related to the formula crisis.

During a House hearing on Wednesday and again in the Senate on Thursday, Califf admitted the agency was too slow to respond to reports that infants were being hospitalized after consuming a formula that was manufactured at Abbott Nutrition's plant in Michigan. Califf said the company has yet to meet the FDA's lengthy requirements and won't be ready for the next several weeks.

"Our oversight is critical, but make no mistake: The return to normal will only take place when Abbott takes steps to resume in a safe manner," Califf said Thursday.

"We were monitoring the supply. Up until about a month ago, there were issues but they were manageable for the vast amount of people. And then things turned to empty shelves very quickly. That's when we revved up the public communication," Califf said.

For Fun: 

May 31: Egypt Unearths 250 Mummies In Sarcophagi At Saqqara Necropolis

Archaeologists in Egypt announced Monday that they had uncovered a trove of ancient artifacts at the necropolis of Saqqara near Cairo, including mummies and bronze statues dating back 2,500 years.

Among the treasures were 250 sarcophagi - or painted coffins - with well-preserved mummies inside, unearthed during recent excavations at a burial ground outside Cairo, said Mostafa Waziri, the secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Ancient finds have been made across the country in recent years, bringing a fresh understanding of the dynasties that ruled ancient Egypt.

In February last year, archaeologists found 16 human burial chambers at the site of an ancient temple on the outskirts of the northern city of Alexandria. Two of the mummies had golden tongues, which Egyptian Antiquities Ministry officials said were to allow them to "Speak in the afterlife."

The beer, researchers hypothesized, was used in burial rituals for Egypt's earliest kings. The Saqqara necropolis, where the latest discoveries were made, was part of the burial grounds for the ancient capital, Memphis.

May 31: Tau Herculids Meteor Shower Could Unleash 1,000 Shooting Stars Per Hour

The forthcoming Tau Herculid meteor shower ordinarily results in just a trickle of shooting stars between mid-May and mid-June, but there's a chance it could be something extra special this year. According to space.com, several astronomers are optimistic that a new meteor shower may be in the offing this year, and some even assert that meteor storm levels - corresponding to 1,000 shooting stars per hour - could be attained.

Meteor rates could range between one and 1,000 meteors per hour.

"If the debris from SW3 was traveling more than 220 miles per hour when it separated from the comet, we might see a nice meteor shower. If the debris had slower ejection speeds, then nothing will make it to Earth and there will be no meteors from this comet."

Meteor storms have occurred with the Leonid meteor shower, which happens each year in November.

Once in a while, the heavens explode with sudden spikes of extreme activity and meteor rates of 100,000 per hour. Clerke placed estimates of meteor rates at the unheard-of level of as many as 240,000 shooting stars per hour.