The Washington Post front-paged its story today on Monday’s announcement from the Department of Interior about oil and gas development in U.S. coastal waters. Seems like reasonable news judgment, especially given the anticipated impact on drilling off Virginia.

But if you want an example of how a story slowly slants and slants and slants until it topples over into bias, “U.S. Proposal Would Allow Oil Drilling Off Virginia,” is a good one.

Here are the citations and a brief description of the point of view expressed toward the proposal, or rather, what they expect it to be.

Critical.

Critical.

Neutral, descriptive.

Critical.

And as is often the case, advocates of accessing OCS energy resources are not quoted, but have their views paraphrased by the reporters.

Many drilling advocates say that the oil industry has had a good environmental record in the Gulf of Mexico and that the nation needs to develop domestic oil and gas reserves to bring down prices and reduce reliance on foreign oil.

Compare the Post’s version to that of the Houston Chronicle’s, “Proposal would expand offshore drilling.” The Chronicle cites the Interior’s media advisory more fully, providing the Administration’s rationale for the plan.

“The multiyear program would significantly increase the nation’s domestic energy supplies, while protecting the coastal and marine environments and provide a major economic stimulus to the nation and participating coastal states.”

And here are the sources quoted by the Chronicle.

Supportive.

Supportive.

Critical.

Critical.

Really, if the Chronicle can find someone to say something positive about energy development, why can’t the Post?

The Department of Interior on Monday will release a new five-year plan for offshore energy development, and news stories anticipate that the plan will acknowledge the U.S. need to access the abundant domestic oil and natural gas reserves on the Outer Continental Shelf. Interior’s media advisory states:

On Monday, April 30, 2007, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne will announce a major proposal for expanded oil and natural gas development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. The multi-year program would significantly increase the nation’s domestic energy supplies while protecting the coastal and marine environments, and provide a major economic stimulus to the nation and participating coastal states.

Steve Allred, Interior’s assistant secretary for Land and Minerals Management, and Johnnie Burton, director of the Minerals Management Service, will join Secretary Kempthorne for the announcement.

Without knowing the specifics, this appears to be a tremendously positive step for U.S. energy security and global competitiveness. The high cost of energy, especially natural gas, is a major obstacle to the manufacturing in America.

The NAM has produced a white paper and accompanying legislative proposal on the subject, “Energy Security for American Competitiveness.” We commend it for reading prior to Monday’s announcement; it provides essential context to balance what are sure to be screams of outrage from the anti-prosperity special interests. Two key paragraphs:

During roughly the last three decades, the U.S. population grew by 40 percent while energy requirements grew 47 percent. Today, imports account for fully 60 percent of our petroleum consumption, and 34 percent of our total energy consumption. The U.S. energy trade deficit is more than 25 percent of our total balance of payments. In the next twenty-five years this imbalance will worsen, as our energy consumption is forecast to grow by 34 percent, while production will only increase by 27 percent.

With domestic demand further outstripping domestic supply, energy prices can be expected to take a further toll on America’s competitiveness. Already, higher energy prices have cost the U.S. economy some 3 million jobs. In only the last ten years, the U.S. chemical industry has gone from a trade surplus of $20.3 billion to a trade deficit of more than $9 billion. The forest products industry has seen more than 200 mills closed and nearly 200,000 jobs lost in the last six years, with much of those closures and layoffs due to soaring energy costs, especially for natural gas. Unlike oil, which is priced globally, the price of natural gas varies significantly from
region to region because of the relative difficulty of shipping it overseas. In the U.S., for example, federal policies have mandated increased use of clean burning natural gas while simultaneously limiting access to domestic supplies, creating a market imbalance that imposes a significant burden on U.S. industry.

You can measure an elected official or candidate’s seriousness about the nation’s energy security by their attitude toward developing America’s domestic energy potential. We look forward to Monday’s announcement by Secretary Kempthorne with great anticipation and to the response from legislators and presidential candidates with great curiousity.

last week that the NAM staff does an annual tour of a manufacturing facility somewhere near NAM HQ in Washington, DC. A few years back we went out to Virginia to tour the White House applesauce plant. It was really something to see, a process some might expect would be “old economy” but in fact was filled with some of the most high-tech machines and processes we’ve ever seen, including an optical reader that spies apples slices with bruises and shoots them out of the lot, all while they move at warp speed.

Well, thanks again to our friends at PCN Tours, we have a one-hour video of the Knouse Foods Cooperative plant in Pennsylvania where Musselman Applesauce (among other brands) is made. The tour is courtesy of Knouse VP of Technical Services Bob Binkley and traces the apples from shipment, classification, weighing, through coring, peeling (at a rate of about 120 per minute) to canning and shipping. By the way, did you know that apples give off carbon dioxide? Guess we can expect Al Gore to get after them, since they, too, must be causing global warming — but they taste so good!

Oh, well. If God gives you apples, we say, make applesauce. It made us a bit hungry just watching this, we’ll admit. Here’s another every day item that is a manufactured product and comes right from the plant to your table.

Click here to see this week’s video of Cool Stuff Being Made, pass the applesauce and feel the manufacturing vibe.

“America’s Business” spans the manufacturing world from Brazil to Mississippi this week, as host Mike Hambrick tackles trade, Toyota, energy and the manufacturing economy.

Hambrick reports on the recent visit of an NAM-led delegation of U.S. manufacturers to Sao Paulo, where they met with their Brazilian counterparts and government leaders to discuss ways of furthering the Doha Round of global trade talks. NAM President John Engler recounts the discussions; Whirlpool’s vice president, Tom Catania, who chairs the U.S.-Brazil Trade Council, adds perspective; and Tom Murphy of Dow-Jones Newswires in Sao Paulo summarizes the news.

From northern Mississippi, Mike covers the groundbreaking of Toyota’s new $1.3 billion SUV plant. He interviews Jim Wiseman, vice president of external affairs for Toyota North America, Mississippi Governor Harley Barbour and Senator Trent Lott, R-MS.

John Byrd, president of the Association for Manufacturing Technology, provides his views on today’s manufacturing economy.

And in the first segment of a far-reaching interview, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich examines energy security and environmentalist excesses, putting in a plug for nuclear energy at the same time.

In our regular segments, Drew Greenblatt reports from “The Factory Floor” of Marlin Steel Wire Products in Baltimore; Jean Ann Harcourt of Harcourt Industries in Indiana mounts the “Soap Box” to protest the death tax; the NAM’s Hank Cox recalls “The Way it Was”; and NAM President John Engler closes with his “The Last Word” commentary on applying duties to counter China’s industrial subsidies.

For more on “America’s Business” and to listen to the show on-line, please click here.

NAM President John Engler had a letter to the editor published in today’s Daily Oklahoman, urging Governor Brad Henry to sign S.B. 507, the civil justice reform package. Here’s the text (free registration required):

Gov. Henry should seize opportunity

The Oklahoma Legislature has passed a bill that would put the state at the forefront of a growing civil justice reform movement — but only if Gov. Brad Henry signs it.

As a former governor, I know that a state’s legal climate is as critical to attracting business investment and jobs as tax incentives or any other pro-growth initiative. Oklahoma, ranked a low 38th last year on the Tort Liability Index by the Pacific Research Institute, has a chance to challenge higher-ranking Texas, a prime economic competitor.

Henry asked for some of these measures in a 2004 news release, calling for “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 listed 28 “key areas” of reform. Eighteen of those are now on his desk.

Despite his advocacy of legal reform, Gov. Henry is now under tremendous pressure to change his mind. A small band of politically influential trial bar millionaires wants him to find any excuse to veto the bill. For the sake of Oklahoma’s economy, Gov. Henry would be wise ignore these special interests.

Oklahoma’s Legislature set an example by calling for the return of common sense to our courts. Oklahoma’s governor should seize this opportunity to be a leader in the legal reform movement.

John Engler, Washington, D.C.

The Enid News also carries a strong editorial endorsement of the legislation in today’s paper. So do the Tecumsah County and Shawnee newspapers appearing on the Pottawatomie Online website (here), concluding:

We believe Brad Henry now and always wants to do what’s best for Oklahoma and Oklahomans. As far as we’re concerned, making Oklahoma “Texas Plus” in its attitude toward business is Job One. It remains to be seen whether this tort reform bill really goes too far but if it does, that can be fixed. It may be hard for a lawyer from a family of lawyers to see, but our state really does have “Jackpot Justice” in a “Let’s Make A Deal” legal atmosphere and thinking, truly progressive Oklahomans have waited a long time to see that fixed.

Sign the bill, governor.

UPDATE (5:20 p.m.) The Oklahoman’s Capitol Bureau blog reports that Governor Henry has problems with several provisions. In a letter to a Republican legislator, Henry wrote, “Although I have not completed my review of the 130-page bill, I have identified several additional areas of concern in my initial examination.”

Deadline for acting on the bill is Saturday.

Following up on this earlier post about California’s policymakers acknowledging the value of career and technical education, we note the legislative progress of two bills supported by the California Manufacturers and Technology Association and its coalition members in GetREAL. From the CMTA’s news release:

SACRAMENTO — The first two in a series of GetREAL-sponsored bills aimed at increasing career technical education (CTE) opportunities for California students passed their first tests today, moving through the Senate and Assembly education Committees with votes of 5-2 and 8- 0 respectively. SB 672 (Torlakson) would require every high school student to take two foundational courses in career technical education as a graduation requirement and AB 1414 (Hancock) provides $250 million in funding for career tech teachers, programs and support services.

“Our coalition is extremely pleased with the results of these two hearings and are looking forward to the passage of these bills in order to restore and increase career technical education’s vital role in high school curriculum,” said Get REAL Co-Chair and California Manufacturers & Technology Association President Jack Stewart. “These bills will help prepare students to succeed in today’s changing workforce and get them excited about the many career opportunities available to them.”

“As a student, I view any opportunity to expand my skills as a good one, especially if it helps increase my chances for success later in life,” said Christy Liebig, who participates in Future Farmers of America (FFA) at her school in Galt. “I have FFA — but not everyone does. SB 672 and AB 1414 will help make career technical education available to all students. And that’s a beautiful thing.”

Stewart co-wrote an excellent column the other day about the alternatives to four-year college educations, that is, training for highly compensated jobs in technical fields, including manufacturing: “4-Year College Not the Only Way To Win: 6.5 Million Retiring Baby Boomers to Pass Along High-Paying CTE Jobs to CA Youth.” You can read it here.

Quite a list of energy-related policy and spending initiatives passed into law by the just-completed session of the North Dakota Legislature, acting on a raft of proposals made by Governor John Hoeven.

One isn’t surprised to see renewable and alternative fuels get a boost; that’s more or less SOP these days, especially in ag states. And these do seem to be major incentives:

But what’s especially impressive is the whole-scale support for the traditional sources of energy — coal, oil and natural gas — without which this nation’s economy grinds to a halt. To wit:

The Legislature also authorized the Governor to negotiate a tax-sharing and regulatory agreement to encourage oil development on the potentially energy-rich Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, bringing a measure of legal confidence for investors there.

At a time when so many states and local governments (like Boston, for example) are shortsightedly discouraging energy development, it’s a remarkably positive story coming out of North Dakota. And, it’s worth noting that these spending initiatives were made by possible by a healthy state budget, thanks in great part to oil revenues.

North Dakota, by the way, with an unemployment rate of 4 percent is the only state to have increased its number of manufacturing jobs since 1990. A welcoming attitude toward energy development is surely one reason why.

For those of you who haven’t already seen this one, it’s priceless. We of a certain age remember the rock anthem by The Who, “My Generation.” The mood, the angst of the entire generation was summed up in one famous line: “Hope I die before I get old.”

Well, now a British, uh, rock group called The Zimmers — featuring 90-year-old lead singer Alf Caretta — has recorded a cover of that famous anthem in no less holy a place than Abbey Road Studios in London. They are to be featured in a BBC documentary by Tim Samuels due out next month. The average age of the band members (there are about 40 of them) is 78, which means they must have some real young ‘uns, to offset ol’ Alf.

In any event, for those of you who remember Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle and Moon, this will really entertain you, put a whole new spin on the song. Hey wait — maybe that is Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle and Moon….

Click here to watch this week’s Friday Follies. The kids are alright.

Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization, stated the plain facts in a news conference yesterday with U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab: Congressional reauthorization of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) is essential if the Doha Round of the WTO talks are to succeed.

“We’re nearing crunch time in the Doha Round,” Lamy said he told members of Congress, since January led by opposition Democrats who may refuse to extend the TPA to a Republican president.

“We need Congress to be aware that activity, motion, determination, progress in a renewal of Trade Promotion Authority is important for the momentum in the negotiations.”

In this account, Lamy reports on a measure of congressional receptence toward the trade deals, which a little encouraging.

A successful completion to Doha would bring down tariffs and other barriers to U.S. exports worldwide, and the President needs TPA to move ahead with Doha and other bilateral agreements. (NAM fact sheet here.) Otherwise, Europe will just move ahead, cutting its own advantageous trade deals while the United States sits and ….sits. Look at this headline: EU sees talks with ASEAN, India, SKorea on free-trade pacts in months. Can we really afford to surrender U.S. leadership?

More trouble for Al Gore’s “Live Earth” seven-continent concert series to promote carbon depletion. Concert headliner Snoop Dogg, the convicted felon and rapper who celebrates gang violence and sexual degredation of women, has been blocked from entering Australia.

Snoop Dogg has been barred from entering Australia after failing a “character test,” Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said on Thursday, according to a Reuters report. Snoop’s visa was canceled after he pleaded no contest to gun and drug charges in the United States earlier this month. “He doesn’t seem the sort of bloke we want in this country,” Andrews told a local radio station. Snoop was scheduled to attend the MTV Australia Video Music Awards on Sunday. …

Well, there’s always Antarctica.