Government oil regulators accused of corruption, sex, gifts for rigged contracts
As Captain Renault would have said "Shocked, I'm Shocked!" to learn that government officials involved in regulating the oil industry were being accused of corruption. Thirteen employees of the Department of Interior that handle the money that oil companies pay in royalties for drilling on federal lands are thought to have accepted gifts, consulting jobs and sex in exchange for rigging contracts. The employees working in Denver and Washington were responsible for handling "in-kind" royalty payments. Under this program, energy companies gave the government oil and gas rather than cash. The Interior Department then turns around and either re-sells the oil and gas or adds it to the strategic petroleum reserve. The oil and gas are sold back to energy companies to get the cash. This of course seems like a system that's doomed to be corrupted. If oil companies give petroleum to the government and then buy it back instead of just giving the cash in the first place, the opportunity to skim off the top is created. The Interior Department got $4.3 billion in such payments in 2007. Thanks to Dave for the tip![Source: MSNBC]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt 12:05PM (9/11/2008)
The collusion with big oil starts at the very top of the current administration and has flowed down from there. February can't get here fast enough, regardless of who wins the election.
Reply
SteveCT 12:17PM (9/11/2008)
Are you kidding?! McCain has transformed into a carbon copy of Bush on most major policy issues, including energy, in order to get nominated. He supports more drilling as a solution to gas prices, for Christ's sake! And his $300M battery prize is a joke--whoever invents the battery he's talking about will make tens of billions; it's the R&D that needs funding.
So yeah, February can't come fast enough, no matter who wins the election. But if McCain wins, the February in question will be in 2013.
Reply
Lad 12:48PM (9/11/2008)
Where has everybody been? Big Oil has been buying Washington for years and controlling the market through The American Petroleum Institute, their lobbying group.
The last figures I read include a total of 1,300,000 for McCain's campaign and at least seven oil lobbyists running his Karl Rove lead campaign. Obama's campaign was given $300,000 from oil interest. Ted Steve's (R- Alaska) is in Court for accepting bribes from oil companies. As long as the Oil Companies own Washington, we will continue to be an oil dependent economy.
Reply
gorr 12:51PM (9/11/2008)
Just imagine what it is in the middle east where big money from the oil where there to finance a big war between jewishs and arabs. Im glad that arabs didn't grab it for the war. That was the reason why we were imported so many oil from other states. It's full of oil and natural gas here in north-america. It's been impeded from the consumer, especially compressed natural gas that cost less and pollute less for the same performance then gasoline.
Reply
Dave 12:59PM (9/11/2008)
Sam, thanks for ABG's efforts...you'all do a bang-up job.
As for conspiracy theorists and the like... I blame the consumers who fail to refuse to buy new cars that do not come equipped with plugs. Lots of double negatives in there. So in other words, it's OUR FAULT for not demanding EVs and other alternative vehicles. If you demand it, they will build it.
Still, the article is telling and those officials should be punished to the fullest extent of RICO and corruption charges available.
Steve CT, read something besides the NYT.
Reply
Serge 4:01PM (9/11/2008)
Dave, would you kindly recommend any particular sources?
Joe B 3:13PM (9/11/2008)
McCain=Palin=Bush=Republicans=Big Oil
Reply
GenWaylaid 12:03AM (9/12/2008)
I can see how the regulators could skim some money off the top in this government kickback scheme, but how did they turn oil into gifts and sex? There's a refining process I'd like to learn.
Reply
bill 10:12AM (9/12/2008)
Whoa, JoeB really has it all figured out. If we can just get Barry O'bama elected this fall government oil regulators will be out of business. Barry intends to get us off oil in 10 years so we can be free of the burden of "Big Oil" and all the bad things oil does to us. I can hardly wait.
Reply
Chris 10:57AM (9/12/2008)
A corrupt bureaucracy, what a shock! Where do I fill out an application for this Interior Dept branch the side benefits look ok. The research on batteries has been going on forever, and all we have is promises of certain companies of advances that are always off in the future. Heck ultracapacitors have been promised as the cure all for quite a while now without any real progress. Li Batteries are horribly expensive and not exactly without environmental costs. If the Li battery packs prices could be lowered to even half what they are now then electric cars would be a lot more feasible.Until that happens we are stuck with gas. Not to mention there is not enough infrastructure in the regional grids to power all the batteries if we switched to electrical powered cars. It would take decades for it to reach a point where it was capable to do so.
Reply
Mike 1:37PM (9/12/2008)
Are you kidding? Why isn't this on the news every 10-15 minutes like the rest of CNN or MSNBC's top stories?! Unbelievable. People should be outraged.
Reply