From the Minerals Management Service:

WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today announced a major federal initiative to boost oil and natural gas production on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska. The program could produce 10 billion barrels of oil and 45 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over 40 years, generating almost $170 billion, in today’s dollars, in net benefits for the Nation.

“The Outer Continental Shelf is a vital source of domestic oil and natural gas for America, especially in light of sharply rising energy prices and increasing demand for these resources,” Kempthorne said. “This energy production will create jobs, provide greater economic and energy security for America and can be accomplished in a safe and environmentally sound manner.”

Interior’s Minerals Management Service developed the initiative, known as the Five Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, to guide domestic energy leasing on the OCS from 2007 to 2012. The program proposes 21 lease sales in 8 planning areas. Twelve sales are slated for the Gulf of Mexico, 8 off of Alaska and, at the request of the Commonwealth of Virginia, one in the Mid-Atlantic Planning Area, about 50 miles off the coast of southern Virginia.

Kempthorne noted that revenues from OCS energy production are shared with coastal states adjacent to OCS energy production. “This proposal will provide hundreds of millions of dollars of new revenue for states to pay for roads, bridges, environmental restoration and other critical needs,” he said. “Outer Continental Shelf energy revenues also support historic preservation and environmental conservation projects in all states through the Historic Preservation Fund and Land and Water Conservation Fund.”

The full proposal is available here. More on this later.

UPDATE (5:15 p.m.): Later, it is now. From the NAM’s news release:

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 30, 2007 — The National Association of Manufacturers today commended the Department of Interior’s Five Year Lease plan increasing access to domestic energy supplies along portions of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), but warned that more could be done to ensure America’s energy security and competitiveness.

“We cannot fuel our country without sound energy policies, including increasing access to domestic energy supplies in the OCS,” said NAM President John Engler. “Safely developing the abundant supply of oil and natural gas in the OCS is a step in the right direction, but further investment and development in energy efficiency and other energy resources is critical for job growth and price stability.”

UPDATE (5:20 p.m.): Good, straightforward story by Reuters. We note the 50-mile buffer off the coast of Virginia.

The Oklahoma State Chamber has forwarded its response to Governor Brad Henry’s veto of SB507, the civil justice reform package. (Previous posts here and here.) The Chamber’s statement:

Oklahoma’s business community is extremely disappointed in Governor Henry’s veto of lawsuit reform. “Even though small business owners and large Oklahoma corporate citizens came together in their effort to communicate the importance of his signing of the lawsuit reform elements he himself called for, the plain fact is that he chose to listen to his trial lawyer friends,” said Mike Seney, senior vice president of operations for The State Chamber. “This is not the last lawsuit reform bill that will be put on the governor’s desk. We hope that he will eventually realize the frustration Oklahomans have with our current system.”

President & CEO of The State Chamber Richard P. Rush commended the other hundreds of business volunteers and leaders that have worked so hard for this chance to protect our community from self-serving attorneys who have learned to manipulate the system to their own advantage. “Each Oklahoma consumer lost the ability to see lower prices due to the Governor’s actions,” Rush said.

UPDATE (2:45 p.m.) Governor Henry’s office has now posted a news release on his veto. Leaves a lot of question marks.

Every class hour spent indoctrinating students on the politically fashionable topic of the day is an hour less spent on math, science, English — knowledge that would serve them well in an economy that prizes technical skills and the ability to think critically. You’d expect that to be obvious, wouldn’t you? Alas, it isn’t. From Jim Manzi at the National Review’s Planet Gore blog:

A recent article describes a schoolwide presentation on global warming done at the Towanda Senior High School in rural Pennsylvania. For all practical purposes it was political indoctrination. It presented impending disaster created by man-made global warming as a foregone conclusion and, par for the course, ended with “things you can do to help.”

With no apparent irony, the presenters (who by the way “received technical training to become experienced presenters using a computer-based slide show” — I guess this means learning how to hit the forward arrow in PowerPoint) told the students to “act as if they were jurors in deciding their positions on global warming…listen to the evidence, weigh the evidence and make an informed decision.” This, however, was a special kind of trial where only one side gets to present a case.

Now the funny thing is that if you look up the performance of this school in actually, you know, teaching science, it’s pretty striking that 60 percent of 11th-graders fail to perform at even a “proficient” level in math.

Maybe they ought to have a school-wide presentation on algebra II.

In isolation, something like this is probably pretty harmless, but this kind of indoctrination is happening at schools all over the U.S. every day.

According to the NAM’s 2005 survey of small and medium-sized manufacturers, more than 80 percent of manufacturers experiencing an overall shortage of qualified workers, and 46 percent report that skill levels are poor among current employees.

Time for the weekly roundup….

Both Houses of Congress are in session with a vengeance this week, as you’ll see from this hefty lineup of hearings in the Senate. The House, too, will be in for a full week of shenanigans. Some highlights:

Just wanted to wish you all a happy Tax Freedom Day. From this day forward, you will be working for yourself. All prior days went to funding the largess of various levels of government. According to the Tax Foundation, this year’s Tax Freedom Day falls two days later than it did last year, which means we’re working longer to pay for the cost of government. How’s that for incentive…?

Probably good you didn’t know on January 1 that you wouldn’t be working for yourself until April 30, else you might have just called in sick.

The Houston Chronicle profiles the business opportunities offered by the $5.5 billion expansion of the Panama Canal. Bids on the project will be opened in May.

More than 600 people from 222 companies hailing from 31 nations attended a March conference in Panama to learn what contracts will be up for bids for this big dig. And officials from at least a half-dozen Houston companies were among the attendees.

“Any major company out there that deals with this is going to be involved because it’s a huge project,” said Armando Deschamps, business development specialist of Houston-based Innovative Hydraulic Designs. “There’s a lot of money in this.”

His company is interested in providing hydraulics for the canal’s new set of locks. Deschamps and a Colombian co-worker attended the conference, touring the canal and meeting with potential partners interested in bidding for the project.

Jim Wiehage, district manager of piling sales for the Houston office of Pittsburgh-based LB Foster Co., also listened to the presentations. He visits Panama several times a year for other business.

“We’re a supplier of steel, and there’s going to be massive amounts of steel in this project,” he said.

U.S. business prospects in Panama — investments that would create good jobs back here in the United States — would be dramatically improved if Congress were to enact the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement.

More excellent work comes from the Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk on the spuriously named Employee Free Choice Act. While most attention has gone toward the bill’s anti-democratic provisions, i.e., the elimination of employee secret-ballot elections during organizing campaigns, the bill’s requirement for binding arbitration also devastates free association and employee choice. In his latest white paper, “Binding Arbitration Could Force Workers into Underfunded Pension,” Sherk argues that union leaders would be motivated by the desire to bringing new employees — i.e., additional cash flow — into underfunded multiemployer pension funds.

Congress should reject the idea of forcing workers into binding arbitration because it would put millions of American’s retirement security at risk. Unaccountable government arbitrators could force newly organized workers into severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans. Employers’ retirement contributions would shore up union finances, rather than provide for their workers’ retirements. It is understandable that unions support binding arbitration, but Congress should not give into their demands.

As New York attorney Seth Borden notes, the Employee Free Choice Act would seem to be a good topic to explore with Democratic presidential candidates, who have all endorsed the legislation, but the issue did not arise during last week’s debate.

Indeed, advocates actively avoid addressing the bill’s antidemocratic substance. Take a look at the argument in this L.A. Times op-ed by Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at UC Santa Barbara.

(If) a Democrat is elected the next president and signs the bill, the first progressive reform of U.S. labor law in decades may give trade unionists a real shot at organizing millions of workers now consigned to union-free purgatory. The act would greatly diminish opportunities for managerial intimidation during organizing campaigns by allowing workers to join a union simply by signing a card. And the act would impose stiff financial penalties on anti-union employers who break the law. This “card check,” as it is known, may be a viable alternative to the employer-dominated elections currently conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.

But Lichtenstein doesn’t say what the bill does away with, does he? No mention of the loss of secret-ballot elections, insulated from direct coercion. And why is that?

According to a new poll reported by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, nine out of 10 union employees want to protect the private ballot election and 80 percent of union households oppose this legislation.

That’s from Alvin M. Bargas, president of the Pelican Chapter, Associated Builders and Contractors Inc., in Louisiana.

Good rule of thumb: Legislation warrants suspicion when its supporters don’t want to talk about it in honest, open terms.

In reaction to Governor Brad Henry’s veto of SB507 yesterday, the legal reform package, one wonders why any of the objections he raised couldn’t have been resolved beforehand. Henry had made tort reform one of his supposed priorities, and the political makeup of the Legislature maximizes a governor’s leverage (Republicans have a 57-44 majority in the House and Senate is evenly divided, 24 to 24.) Compromise would be possible if you were really serious about legislation to bring a measure of balance to the state’s civil justice system, right?

Anyway, here’s the reaction as reported in the Tulsa World:

Senate Co-President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City, said: “The governor missed a grand opportunity to send a message to the nation that Oklahoma is pro-jobs, pro-doctor and pro-business. Instead, he sent a message that millionaire trial lawyers are still running the show.”

Coffee said Henry’s proposed changes to the bill’s $300,000 limit on damages for pain and suffering and other areas “would have unacceptably gutted the bill’s key provisions.”

And from the Daily Oklahoman (free registration required):

House Speaker Lance Cargill, R-Harrah, said: “It is ridiculous for the governor to claim he is trying to protect businesses. Business owners know the truth, and they wanted this reform.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan, D-Stillwater, praised Henry’s action, saying SB 507 “would have severely limited access to the courts for most Oklahomans, leaving civil justice as a commodity only the wealthy could afford.”

According to the 2006 Tort Liability Index by the Pacific Research Institute, Oklahoma ranked 38th among states:

Oklahoma ranks poorly in the following areas:
Venue reform (none)
Attorney-retention sunshine reform (none)
Junk food/obesity exemption (none)
FDA/FTC defense (none)
Class action reform (none)
Homeowners’ multiple peril [liability portion] insurance losses (rank #48)

With recent reforms, Texas has jumped into the No. 1 ranking for its tort climate, according to the PRI study. It’s usually a bad sign for economic development when your neighboring state is so much more receptive to business, making its legal climate less capricious.

Opportunity missed, Governor.

UPDATE (Monday, 10:58 a.m.): On the plus side, business climatewise, Oklahoma has the earliest Tax Freedom Day in the country.

This past week contained a number of interesting economic statistics, some encouraging and some concerning.

First. Last Tuesday, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence fell by 3.9 percent in April (likely caused in part by the recent rise in gasoline prices).

Also last Tuesday, a report that got little attention in the press that was put out by the Commerce Department on GDP by Industry for 2006 showed that the manufacturing sector maintained its share of GDP last year at 12.1 percent…the same as its share in 2005. This is the first time in a decade (1995) that manufacturing did not become a smaller share of the economy. The reason: in real terms, growth in manufacturing value added (output) matched the rise in the overall GDP last year, 3.3 percent. At the same time, the inflation rate in manufacturing came in at 2.4 percent last year, which was slightly below the 2.9 percent inflation rate for the economy overall last year. This marks the 2nd consecutive year that the inflation rate in manufacturing was positive, this after 9 consecutive years of deflation.

On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that new orders for durable goods rose a strong 3.4 percent in March..the second rise in as many months. Importantly, new orders for non-defense capital goods (excluding aircraft) rose by a stronger 4.7 percent last month..the fastest monthy increase since September 2004. After declining four out of the prior five months, news of a sizable reobound in capital goods orders is a positive omen for business investment in the second quarter.

Finally, last Friday the Commerce Department released its advanced report on first quarter GDP growth, which showed that the economy grew at an annual rate of just 1.3 percent in the first quarter of 2007, marking the slowest quarterly pace in four years. Consumer spending rose a strong 3.8 percent thanks to the recent surge in real wages. Meanwhile, residential investment posted a 17 percent decline, marking the fourth consecutive double digit drop in housing. This downturn in housing continues to have a significant negative impact on some manufacturing sectors, such as wood products, furniture and nonmetallic mineral products, all of which posted falling output in the first quarter.

Business investment grew by a modest 2 percent in the first quarter, which is a reassuring turnaround from the 3.1 percent drop in the fourth quarter, especially for manufacturers who produce capital equipment. At the same time businesses inventory investment moderated for a second consecutive quarter. While this is a negative in GDP accounting, the drawdown in inventories is actually reassuring news. During the latter half of last year, manufacturing accumulated excessive inventories. Today’s report shows that firms are working down their inventories to more reasonable levels, which means that a more problematic inventory correction has been averted.

It is important to note that there will be several revisions to today’s advanced report card on GDP. there is a good chance that subsequent revisions will upgrade the performance of the economy in the first quarter, particularly in the area of trade. One of the more surprising features of today’s report was the 1.2 percent fall in exports in the first quarter, the first decline in exports in 15 quarters. Because March trade data has not yet been published, and the recent Institute for Supply Management report on manufacturing showed that export orders surged to a four-month high in March, export grow has a good chance of being revised upward. This should bring first quarter economic growth closer to 2 percent when all is said and done.

Up on the docket this coming week: construction spending on Monday, the ISM report on Manufacturing on Tuesday, total manufacturing orders on Wednesday, 1st quarter productivity on Thursday and April employment on Friday. Stay tuned!

Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma, despite having campaigned as an advocate of tort reform, vetoed a well-considered and much-debated legislative package to bring reason and balance to the state’s system of civil justice. This is a mistake on his part that will have serious consequences for the state’s business climate. The veto message for SB507 is available on this page. It states:

This is to advise you that on this date, pursuant to the authority vested in me by Section 11 of Article VI of the Oklahoma Constitution to approve or object to legislation presented to me, I have VETOED Senate Bill 507. I have vetoed this bill primarily because several provisions are unconstitutional, and the measure unduly restricts the ability of Oklahomans to seek equal justice through the civil justice system. The measure also makes it virtually impossible for the state to pursue a legal course of action designed to protect its citizens and valuable resources. Finally, the legislation does little to curb frivolous lawsuits.

More on this later.

UPDATE: 5:05 p.m.: THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW:

Governor Henry Announces Comprehensive Tort Reform Initiative
January 30, 2004

Governor Brad Henry is asking state lawmakers to approve a comprehensive tort reform initiative that will stamp out frivolous lawsuits and prevent abuse to make Oklahoma’s civil justice system the “best in the nation.” The governor announced his package Friday after completing an exhaustive review of recent reforms approved by other states around the country, including Texas.

Gov. Henry said he developed the comprehensive initiative in consultation with business leaders, medical representatives and consumer advocates. The plan builds on the strongest reforms adopted by the Lone Star State in addition to addressing specific areas untouched by the Texas reforms.

“This is the most sweeping, comprehensive tort reform package in the nation,” said the governor. “It enacts genuine and meaningful reforms that address the real problems in our civil justice system.”

Not if it’s vetoed, it doesn’t.

UPDATE (5:50 p.m.): The AP broadcast story:

OKLAHOMA CITY Governor Brad Henry today vetoed a sweeping civil justice measure that would have changed the way negligence and medical malpractice lawsuits are filed and litigated in state courts.

Despite his veto of the so-called “tort-reform” bill, Henry says he plans to work with lawmakers on a compromise measure to address what he said were flaws in the bill.

Senate Co-President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee accused Henry of flip-flopping on the issue of civil justice reform, but says he’s willing to continue negotiating with Henry on a revised measure.

Saturday was the deadline for Henry to either sign or veto the bill, which passed the House and Senate earlier this month.