Keeping Promises
Last month, I posted on some Justice Department investigations into the way the Department of the Interior was doing its business. I concluded with the following:
Still, it's nice to see that at least some in the Justice Department haven't gotten the message to lay off big oil. Now, with a new Congress, perhaps the Justice Department will get the support it needs to clean up the mess in Interior.
It appears that the new Democratic led Congress intends to do just that. From today's NY Times.
As director of the Minerals Management Service, Ms. Burton has faced widespread complaints from Congress for months that her agency is mismanaged, unaccountable and on the verge of losing billions of dollars owed by oil and gas companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico.
On Thursday, the Interior Department’s inspector general is expected to tell the Senate Energy Committee that Ms. Burton either ignored or remained unacceptably blind to a leasing blunder that will, if left unchanged, let oil companies escape as much as $10 billion in royalties over the next five years.
The Senate hearing comes amid rising bipartisan anger about potentially huge losses to taxpayers that have prompted an investigation by the Justice Department into the agency’s multibillion dollar “royalty in kind” program.
...In July, Republicans the House Government Reform Committee accused her agency of stonewalling their investigation. In September, they accused Ms. Burton of going too far in making concessions to oil companies. That same month, the Interior Department’s chief independent investigator declared that “short of crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior.” [Emphasis added]
The leasing blunder in question is in fact the fault of a contract which issued under the Clinton administration and involves the failure to include an "escape clause." However, the mistake was noticed shortly after the Bush administration began and nothing has been done about it since then. It's the kind of mistake that Ms Burton should have noticed and rectified because her prior job with the state of Wyoming involved the collection of such royalties for her state. She claims that the problem wasn't brought to her attention until just recently. Either she is lying or she is a lousy manager: her staff was well aware of the issue years ago at a time when oil prices were much lower and the government would have been in a better bargaining position to renegotiate the leases in question.
The 110th Congress isn't letting either possibility slide, and there is actually some Republican support for this investigation.
It's about time.
Still, it's nice to see that at least some in the Justice Department haven't gotten the message to lay off big oil. Now, with a new Congress, perhaps the Justice Department will get the support it needs to clean up the mess in Interior.
It appears that the new Democratic led Congress intends to do just that. From today's NY Times.
As director of the Minerals Management Service, Ms. Burton has faced widespread complaints from Congress for months that her agency is mismanaged, unaccountable and on the verge of losing billions of dollars owed by oil and gas companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico.
On Thursday, the Interior Department’s inspector general is expected to tell the Senate Energy Committee that Ms. Burton either ignored or remained unacceptably blind to a leasing blunder that will, if left unchanged, let oil companies escape as much as $10 billion in royalties over the next five years.
The Senate hearing comes amid rising bipartisan anger about potentially huge losses to taxpayers that have prompted an investigation by the Justice Department into the agency’s multibillion dollar “royalty in kind” program.
...In July, Republicans the House Government Reform Committee accused her agency of stonewalling their investigation. In September, they accused Ms. Burton of going too far in making concessions to oil companies. That same month, the Interior Department’s chief independent investigator declared that “short of crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior.” [Emphasis added]
The leasing blunder in question is in fact the fault of a contract which issued under the Clinton administration and involves the failure to include an "escape clause." However, the mistake was noticed shortly after the Bush administration began and nothing has been done about it since then. It's the kind of mistake that Ms Burton should have noticed and rectified because her prior job with the state of Wyoming involved the collection of such royalties for her state. She claims that the problem wasn't brought to her attention until just recently. Either she is lying or she is a lousy manager: her staff was well aware of the issue years ago at a time when oil prices were much lower and the government would have been in a better bargaining position to renegotiate the leases in question.
The 110th Congress isn't letting either possibility slide, and there is actually some Republican support for this investigation.
It's about time.
Labels: 110th Congress, Interior Department
posted by Diane at 8:50 AM
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