U.S. Overvalued Everglades Land Rights by $80 Mln, Report Says

[BrklynLiberal]

The Bush administration's offer in 2002 to overpay a prominent Florida family for oil and gas rights on Everglades land by as much as $80 million was ``at best, foolish and, at worst, complicit,'' the Interior Department's inspector general said today.

In a report to the Senate Finance Committee, Inspector General Earl Devaney said the department nearly tripled earlier estimates of the value of the mineral rights. The agreement wasn't completed and lawmakers said today that Devaney's report would scuttle it.

<snip>

President George W. Bush announced in May 2002 that the federal government would pay $120 million in cash plus an undetermined amount in tax deductions to prevent the Collier family's privately held Collier Resources Co. from drilling for oil and gas on 400,000 acres of land it owns in what he called ``critical parts of the Everglades.'' Two previous government assessments valued the rights between $5 million and $68 million.

<snip>

``The intentions behind the attempted acquisition have always appeared to be firmly grounded in the department's righteous desire to protect the environmentally sensitive Everglades from potential harm,'' Devaney said. ``The means by which these intentions were advanced, however, were very troubling.''

<snip>

Devaney's report also says the government may have already owned the mineral rights because the Colliers sold the government surface rights for the same land in 1988. In addition, it finds little evidence the rights had significant value and said Collier Resources never certified what percentage of the rights they owned.

<snip>

Members of the Collier family contributed more than $121,000 to Republican candidates in the last election cycle, including at least $5,000 to Jeb Bush, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign donations.

<snip>

more..

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=ajHcVIgKGoWI&refer=us

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Nothing unusual there.... it's how democracy is done.... Chalabi, take

note. Funny how the Iraqi govt. is laying off around 50% of its workforce ALREADY. This is a sad sad cartoon.

[Moderator]

2. duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1533331