TOLD YOU SO
TOLD YOU SO
As you read this article I want you to remember back a couple of years ago when are government was buying Gas and Oil for or Federal Reserve. Also I could not find in this article where they had collected the hundreds of millions of dollars still being owed! Look carefully at the excuses they are trying to pan you out with, then ask the question, Where is the money owed and where is it going? Has there ever been an audit pf the DOI and I mean an independent audit. I will say one thing, after reading this article it backs up what I have been bloging about the past 4 years. Thanks guys for add the credibility to my work. So as you wipe the egg off of your face, pull your head out of that dark space, get your balls back from where you hid them and stand up straight, for once in your life!
U.S. Ending Oil-Royalty Program After Scandal
By JOHN M. BRODER and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: September 16, 2009
WASHINGTON — The Interior Department announced on Wednesday that it was ending an oil and gas royalty program that ignited a scandal last year when it was disclosed that federal employees had engaged in corruption, drug use and sexual misconduct with oil industry officials.
Ken Salazar, the interior secretary, told a House committee that he was phasing out the royalty-in-kind program, which is administered by the department’s Minerals Management Service. It allows oil companies to pay the government in oil and gas rather than in cash for the right to drill on federal lands. Recent audits have shown that the government has failed to collect tens of millions of dollars worth of royalties owed it under the program.
Mr. Salazar called the program “a blemish on the department” in testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee. “Clearly, the department’s energy leasing and royalty programs have not been working as they should, and the American people have not been receiving the full benefits from these valuable assets,” he added.
The Minerals Management Service, based in Denver, was found to do a poor job of tracking drilling revenue and assuring that compensation was paid to the government, according to the Government Accountability Office. A report issued by the office this week found that the royalty-in-kind program had failed to collect at least $21 million in fees last year. A separate report found that oil companies might have misreported drilling revenue and underpaid $160 million in royalties to the government in 2006 and 2007.
The royalty program has been a large source of government revenue in recent years, collecting about $6.6 billion in deliveries of natural gas and oil in 2008.
The oil and gas industry criticized the decision to kill the program, saying it would be burdensome and costly for both the government and the companies.
“The companies and government will have to hire armies of accountants,” said Obie O’Brien, vice president for government affairs at the Apache Corporation, a big producer in the Gulf of Mexico. “You will have to perform a lot more audits and there will be a lot more disputes over whether a company got the best price that it could.”
Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement that “terminating this straightforward method of handling royalty payments runs the risk of raising administrative costs and adding additional layers of paperwork required to determine the value of oil and gas production.”
But some energy experts welcomed the change in policy as a logical move to enhance public confidence in the energy industry and bolster government finances.
“It’s a great idea to stop taking the oil and gas in kind because the federal Treasury needs dollars and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is very filled,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy analyst at Rice University. “We’ve added a lot in recent years.”
Mr. Salazar’s announcement appeared to be only a minor setback for the industry. Oil prices have stabilized in recent months after falling sharply from record prices last summer when the financial crisis curbed demand. In recent days, natural gas prices have also begun to recover. Oil and gas company stock prices rose during the day, along with the rest of the market.
Interior Department investigators said last year that the Minerals Management Service was riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and ethical breaches.
The report from the department’s inspector general said officials in the royalty program had accepted gifts from energy companies whose value exceeded limits set by ethics rules — including golf, ski and paintball outings; meals and drinks; and tickets to concerts and sports events.
The investigation also concluded that several of the officials had “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.”
Mr. Salazar announced soon after taking office in January that he would enforce strict new codes of ethics, and one of his first trips as secretary was to the Denver headquarters of the Minerals Management Service to emphasize the new policy.
So one more question is on my lips, where is the money they said they spent for gas and oil to go to the Federal Oil Reserve go to? Kind of makes you wonder huh! It sure as hell makes me wonder, oh and this scandal has been going on unchecked even after they were told about it. During the 2 terms in office of our Bush/Cheney tag team.
Yeah you got it with full knowledge and telling the DOI not to do any thing about the monies. I say lets pressure congress to find out,
1. Why he did nothing about it and told DOI to do nothing
2. Where has this money been going to
3. How much is really owed to the American public! That’s right folks , we are the land owners, it’s your money we are talking about.
4. And where was our Oversight Committee at when this was brought to there attention?
These are just a few questions you should be asking to your elected officials that sort of represent you in congress.
Richard
richmartinphotographer@yahoo.com