NEWS OF THE W EEK
RECOVERY IS SLOW, TRADE GROUP FINDS ECONOMY: Leading chemistry
indicator shows that U.S. economic growth is stalling
SLUGGISH Chemical performance hasn’t made progress over the past six months.
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EPEATING A PATTERN seen in 2010 and 2011,
economic growth dipped in the middle of this year, dashing hopes for an imminent robust recovery, says the American Chemistry Council, the U.S. chemical industry’s main trade association. ACC’s Chemical Activity Barometer, a leading indicator of overall economic performance that the association introduced in June, increased just 0.3% in September over the previous month and 1.8% over the same month a year ago. CAB hit a recent peak of 90.0 in April, declined in May and June, and has since grown slowly. “While it is encouraging to see SOURCE: American Chemistry Council three consecutive months of gains,
CONGRESS REMAINS DIVIDED TO THE END ELECTION RECESS: Partisan battles shift from Capitol Hill to campaigns
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HE SHARP PARTISAN divide that has plagued
CH RI STOPHER FITZGE RALD/NEWSCOM
Signs in rural West Virginia echo this year’s political battles in Congress.
the legislative process in this Congress continued right up to Sept. 22, the day Democrats and Republicans recessed to head home and begin full-time campaigning. Energy and environmental legislation showed some of the sharpest separation, particularly in the House of Representatives. Some 17 energy and environmental bills cleared the lower body, according to staff of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, where these bills originated. The bills, with few exceptions, were strongly opposed by House Democrats. Most of these measures have no chance of passing in the Senate, and many received a veto promise from President Barack Obama. Only one became law, H.R. 2937, a bill to toughen safety requirements for gas and liquid pipelines. Even the bills’ names reflect the partisan split. Gone were the objectively WWW.CEN-ONLIN E .ORG
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this is not yet cause for celebration,” says T. Kevin Swift, ACC’s chief economist. “Rather, what we’re seeing is that the CAB is signaling subpar economic growth into 2013 as the economy continues to face strong headwinds and concerns around the fiscal cliff crystallize.” The fiscal cliff is the combination of federal spending cuts—called sequestration—and automatic tax increases; both are scheduled to kick in at the start of 2013. Congress has until the end of the year to take action to avoid this cliff. CAB is a monthly index that includes chemical production, price, and company stock data, as well as end-use measures such as inventories and new building permits. ACC has calculated CAB back to 1947 and has found that its peaks foreshadow recessions, as measured by the National Bureau of Economic Research. An ACC chemical production report issued last week also signals economic weakness. According to the report, U.S. chemical production slipped 0.2% in August versus July and 0.4% compared with August 2011. Year-to-date data show a modest gain of 0.2% against the 2011 period. Europe, which has been mired in a fiscal crisis for several years, is worse off, according to data compiled by ACC’s counterpart, the European Chemical Industry Council. Its most recent production report shows that European chemical output declined 2.4% for the first six months of the year.—ALEX TULLO
descriptive Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 or the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Instead, this year, the House passed the Stop the War on Coal Act (H.R. 3409) on Sept. 21, which would strip the Environmental Protection Agency of authority to regulate greenhouse gases and block current regulations for emissions of mercury and other pollutants. Also passed was the No More Solyndras Act (H.R. 6213), based on an 18-month Republican-led committee investigation of the Obama Administration’s support for a failed solar energy company. The bill, passed on Sept. 14, would end the government loan guarantee program, killing aid for renewable energy projects but retaining support for nuclear and fossil-fuel projects. These bills reflect themes in several electoral campaigns, notes the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). “Stop the war on coal” is seen in television, radio, and billboard ads in campaigns in states such as Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia; the Solyndra saga is working its way into campaign ads in California, Virginia, and West Virginia, for example, according to NRCC. “It is not usual for a party that controls one house to pass legislation to make political points,” notes Norman J. Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank. “But it is unusual to see them do it over and over again. What the House did was soak up precious days of floor time, passing and repassing bills that have zero chance of success. That is unusual. This was truly the mother of all do-nothing Congresses.”—JEFF JOHNSON
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