$50 oil is here to stay if OPEC sticks to its deal
After starting the year around $30 a barrel, prices plunged to $26 in February -- the lowest since 2003 -- before climbing back above $50 this month. So what does 2017 hold? Leading industry experts say prices should stay above $50 if oil producing nations stick to their guns and cut supply by nearly 1.8 million barrels per day.

Court Sets Timeline for Overtime Rule Appeal
Three weeks after a federal judge put the brakes on new federal overtime rule, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has filed an appeal.  In November, U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant agreed with 21 states and a coalition of business groups -- including the US Chamber of Commerce -- that the rule is unlawful and granted their motion for a nationwide injunction.  However, in an appellate brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Dec. 15, the DOL said that the judge got it wrong and overlooked controlling precedent when he determined that employers should evaluate job duties alone to decide if an employee is exempt from the nation's overtime laws. In its appeal brief, the DOL argued the updated salary baseline in the new rule is commensurate with previous ones set in the past 75 years.  The Labor Department had estimated the rule change would, if implemented, expand overtime coverage to more than 4.2 million additional workers.  In addition, the DOL argued that the harm caused to employees by Mazzant's preliminary injunction "strongly outweighs" the costs that the plaintiffs who had sought the order argued they would incur if the new overtime rule went into effect.
 
Obama limits offshore oil, as 'Keep it in the Ground' idea rises
President Obama permanently blocked oil and gas drilling in portions of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans that haven’t yet been leased to energy companies for production, a move that aims to secure some of Mr. Obama’s environmental legacy and will likely ignite a legal fight. The move also may reveal how much the idea known as “Keep it in the Ground” – a movement to end reliance on fossil fuels – has gained traction on the political left. The idea has percolated upward through grass-roots activism, and now a president who rode into office with an “all of the above” slogan on energy sources is riding out with some of the most sweeping anti-drilling actions ever taken by a US president.
 
Minimum wage going up in 21 states, 22 cities
The biggest minimum wage raises, percentage wise, will be in Arizona (up 24% to $10), Maine (up 20% to $9) and three Silicon Valley cities (up 20% to $12). In the absence of action from Congress in terms of raising the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 since 2009, states and localities have taken matters into their own hands. The increases were proposed by progressive politicians in state legislatures and on city councils. In instances where those measures failed, worker advocates would then petition to let voters decide directly. Such ballot measures have done remarkably well overall, accounting for the majority of increases taking place in 2017, according to The Fairness Project.
 
Constitutional Amendment Coming on Natural-Resources Damages
With little or no debate, both houses easily approved a resolution that would place a constitutional amendment on the ballot to prevent money from pollution cases being diverted to plug holes in the state budget, as has been done in the past. The practice has long frustrated the environmental community and others, irritation that flared up when hundreds of millions of dollars from two huge pollution cases ended up being diverted by the Legislature and Christie administration in the past couple of state budgets.