The Political Page, T+46 -- March 7, 2017

Democrat as much as admits that Trump was likely "bugged." This explains why FBI Comey does not want Justice Department to undertake a probe -- things are going to lead right back to him. 

NOKO: the new "acronym" making the rounds. This will not be a good day for humanity if we ever see this headline in the British tabloids: NOKO NUKES SOKO. 

Growing gap between jobless claims and job losses. Wall Street Journal.  The comments may have exposed the "real" problem.

Water, water everywhere: it is being reported that California is running out of storage for all that water. Also in the The Wall Street Journal.

Governor Cuomo "cover up." New York regulators -- "at urging of Governor Cuomo" -- shot down plans to list on utility bills how much extra customers will pay under the state’s new Clean Energy Standard (CES). Link here.  The total cost of the new green standard will be about $360 million during 2017 rising to $500 million the next year. New York State population, 20 million. The real question is how much more could utility prices come down if efforts were made to bring utility prices as low as possible. Electric rate comparison among states show New York around 41st, maybe dropping further, previously reported --

Nebraska.gov, data for 2015, all states; least expensive to most expensive, some examples:

• Washington, #1: 7.41
• Wyoming, #4: 7.95
• Iowa, #8: 8.47
• Texas, #10: 8.63
• North Dakota, #13: 8.85
• Nevada, #22: 9.48
• Minnesota, #26: 9.69
• National average, between #31 and #32: 10.42
• New York, #41: 15.28
• California, #42: 15.50 (all that free solar and wind energy helping to keep prices down)
• Massachusetts, #44: 16.86 (wow)
• Connecticut, #46: 17.76 (wow)
• Hawaii, #48 (dead last -- due to some ties among states, on 48 positions): 26.17

EIA: average retail price, by state, January 17, 2017 (in the lower 48, only four states more expensive, including California which has no excuse):

• US average: 10.41 cents
• North Dakota: 8.75
• California: 15.42
• Minnesota: 9.53
• Iowa: 8.35
• Arkansas: 8.19
• Louisiana: 7.65
• New York: 15.28 
• California: 15.42 
• New Hampshire: 16.02 
• Rhode Island: 17.01 
• Connecticut: 17.77

More taxes: by the way, Governor Cuomo could soon be signing a bill to tax purchases made on the internet even if seller not physically located in the state. Will affect Amazon, eBay. Of course, New Jersey would likely follow. It will be interesting to see if New Yorkers have enough fight in them to stop it.