Ben Chavis NPR Interview

As previously mentioned on this blog, the Rio Grande Foundation and Educate New Mexico are hosting a free showing of the new film "Flunked" on July 31 in Albuquerque. Following the showing, Ben Chavis, the former administrator of the American Indian Charter School in Oakland, CA, will be presenting his ideas on education reform. Chavis is a star of the film.

The NPR show "Day to Day" did an excellent story on Chavis's success a few years back. Check out the 5-minute audio clip here.

I hope you'll consider attending this exciting event.

Questioning Mayor Marty's Trolley

Although taxpayer activists managed to beat back previous efforts by the Mayor and many on City Council to put a $28 million a mile streetcar down Central, bad ideas never die. The Albuquerque streetcar is one that has recently resurfaced via a consultants report outlining how the project should, in their minds, move forward. View their presentation here.

Jim Scarantino over at The Alibi, wrote an excellent article on the streetcar in which he questions ridership assumptions and whether it makes sense to spend $28 million a mile for what would be at best marginal gains in ridership.

Thankfully, Scarantino is by no means the only voice of opposition to this crazy proposal. The excellent blog Eye on Albuquerque questioned the project's merits in a recent posting. Mario burgos also has an interesting analysis.

Even the Albuquerque Journal questioned the project's merits in a recent editorial. Hopefully our illustrious representatives on Council and Mayor Marty will abandon this project once and for all due to the widespread and well-reasoned opposition.

Oil and Gas Drilling and More

Today's Albuquerque Journal front page included a silly headline "Oil, Gas Drilling Practices Questioned" that attempted to lead the casual reader to assume that oil and gas drillers are doing something wrong by choosing not to drill on certain leased federal lands. While the article goes on to explain that permitting and the lack of any known oil and gas in some of the leased areas are just two of the many reasons that 68 million acres of federal lands are leased but not currently producing oil and gas.

The Journal is not alone in promoting ignorance of oil and gas. Indeed, there is widespread misunderstanding of oil and gas issues. For example, did you know that now that the President has rescinded the executive order prohibiting oil and gas drilling on the outer continental shelf, Congress must act before the election to keep the ban intact? The following is from the Institute for Energy Research.

American oil and gas leasing has been prohibited on most of the OCS since the 1982. The U.S. is now the only developed nation in the World that restricts access to its offshore energy resources.

The Congressional Moratorium comes in the form of an annual appropriations rider in Congress. It must be renewed annually by a vote in the Congress, which has enacted OCS leasing moratoria every year since 1981.

**Unless Congress approves a new rider - and the President signs into law a bill that includes the rider - the Congressional ban will expire on September 30, the end of the federal FY2008 fiscal year.**

To see if you are knowledgeable on this and other oil and gas issues, take this quiz from the American Petroleum Institute. I scored 70%.

RGF on Energy in the Alibi

The anti-modernity, anti-drilling environmentalists seem to have latched onto two basic strategies in opposing more domestic drilling and innovative energy exploration at home. First is to blame speculators for all of our problems. The other is that additional drilling won't bring oil and gas prices down and therefore won't solve our problems. Laura Sanchez makes the latter argument in the Alibi.

Not surprisingly, we at the Rio Grande Foundation disagree strongly that drilling won't improve our situation. In a letter to the editor I make the following arguments:

Although I disagree with her ultimate point (opposition to drilling), Laura Sanchez makes some good points in her article. Indeed, the days of $1 and perhaps even $2 gas may be over in the United States. As she points out, no amount of drilling, whether here in New Mexico, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or offshore is going to return us to the “good old days” of cheap gas.

Freer markets in China and India have raised living standards for literally billions of people. While we should celebrate this, it is also true that China adds 1,000 new cars to its roads every day.

Oil is a finite resource. Energy independence is a pipe dream, but if we don’t drill here our economy (most particularly, the poor and low-income for whom filling the tank is a larger portion of their family budget) will suffer and prices will continue to spiral upward. Economic progressives should be especially sensitive to this fact.

We also must realize two additional facts: 1) Every source of energy, including politically correct solar and wind, has its drawbacks; 2) Prices will create efficiency and spur innovation.

Energy policy, like most factors in a multitrillion-dollar economy, makes a difference on the margins and over time as adjustments are made. High prices will spur conservation; we should not stand in the way of efforts to increase supply as well.

Coverage of RGF Comments at Arena/Hotel Town Hall

As mentioned in previous postings, I spoke at the New Mexico First town hall on the proposed taxpayer-financed arena and hotel in downtown Albuquerque. The event was covered in both the Albuquerque Journal and on KOB TV (article and video available).

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: This bailout has been years in the making

As most readers of this blog are probably aware, I used to work in Washington with the National Taxpayers Union, which is dedicated to lower taxes, less government spending, and tax reform. For years, my colleagues at NTU and I were voices in the wilderness telling Congress that government-sponsored housing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in need of reform.

To his credit, President Bush has repeatedly attempted to reform Fannie and Freddie to make a bailout less likely and wean these two mortgage giants off the taxpayer teat, but to no avail. After all, Fannie and Freddie toss money around Washington ($200 million over the last decade) like it grew on trees. Of course, when you are implicitly backed by the US Treasury and you are competing against banks that are not, money does grow on trees.

Unfortunately, Washington did not act and now, due to the difficult housing market, the chickens are coming home to roost and taxpayers are on the hook for what could be billions in bad debt owned by Fannie and Freddie. Just the latest reason that government should not get involved in business.