LTD Broadband asked to partly relinquish its eligible telecom carrier designation in Minnesota due to the FCC canceling the company’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support. In a Wednesday letter to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, CEO Corey Hauer said the FCC decision “has left us disappointed and puzzled, as [it] seems to contradict the very purpose of RDOF: to connect unserved and underserved Americans.” LTD seeks to give up ETC status only for RDOF, not for the Connect America Fund Phase II, he clarified. Hauer’s letter marks a turnaround from November when he told the state commission that he still wanted to defend his company and keep the ETC designation (see 2311160039). State telecom and electric industry groups had asked the PUC to revoke the company’s ETC certificate (docket 22-221). The Minnesota Telecom Alliance “is pleased to see this contested case come to closure,” MTA President Brent Christensen said Thursday. “LTD’s decision … is very appropriate given the recent decisions of the FCC.” Hauer told us in an email Thursday that his company “doesn't intend to relinquish ETC designation in any other state.” It's doing so in Minnesota, said Hauer, because MTA and the Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA), supported by Minnesota’s attorney general office and commerce department, “refused to pause” the proceeding to revoke the broadband company's ETC status while LTD challenged the FCC decision at the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. “They did so under the false premise that we were in imminent danger of being awarded RDOF funds without … saying how much they hate competition and how only MTA or MREA members are capable of building broadband networks," he said. "I am not going to let them waste more of our time and money.” If LTD wins against the FCC on appeal, “I expect to aggressively build our RDOF areas in entirety,” the CEO added.
The “almost simultaneous” likely start of new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations and end of a grace period for AD/CVD on Southeast Asian solar cells and panels creates a “complicated situation for importers” with “intersecting risks,” law firm Covington said in a client alert May 1.
Alliance for Automotive Innovation President John Bozzella and CTA CEO Gary Shapiro sharply criticize a draft revised version of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act in written statements ahead of their testimony at a Tuesday Innovation Subcommittee hearing. Conversely, Navajo Nation Washington Office Executive Director Justin Ahasteen and Midway Broadcasting CEO Melody Spann Cooper endorse the updated measure in their written testimony. The revised AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, like earlier version HR-3413/S-1669 (see 2305260034), would mandate that U.S. automakers keep AM radio technology in future domestic-made vehicles. House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., signaled a change in position on the AM radio requirement by leading the revised draft released earlier this month (see 2404160067). Rodgers and other panel Republicans were previously skeptical about enacting a mandate (see 2306060088). The hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn.
The Commerce Department announced new export restrictions April 26 that it says are intended to reduce the risk that firearms end up in the hands of criminals, terrorists or cartels.
No “good cause” exists to shorten time to respond to a petition related to the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) ending, the California Broadband & Video Association (CalBroadband) said Monday in a filing at the California Public Utilities Commission. The Utility Reform Network (TURN) last week asked the CPUC to pause awarding grants and quickly modify grant rules to ensure service remains affordable after ACP ends (see 2404150062). Since TURN’s proposal “would fundamentally change” the CPUC’s 2022 decision adopting Infrastructure Grant Account rules, parties should have the full 30 days to respond that CPUC rules require, CalBroadband said. The cable association foreshadowed that it will ask the CPUC to deny TURN’s petition and move quickly to grant pending infrastructure grant applications.
The Biden administration expects by the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2025 to finish reviewing criteria for approving liquefied natural gas (LNG) export applications, an Energy Department official said last week.
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A group of U.S. solar panel producers is seeking new antidumping and countervailing duty orders on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from the same four Southeast Asian countries that Commerce recently found were circumventing AD/CVD on solar cells from China (see 2308180044).
Former top officials in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during the Trump and Biden administrations said there will be no return to a pre-Trumpian, pro-free trade philosophy, whether Joe Biden wins re-election this fall or Donald Trump returns to the White House in 2025.
Former top officials in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during the Trump and Biden administrations said there will be no return to a pre-Trumpian, pro-free trade philosophy, whether Joe Biden wins re-election this fall or Donald Trump returns to the White House in 2025.