GAO: US Gives Oil Firms Good Deals

[cal04]

When it comes to taking oil and natural gas from government land and waters, the oil companies are getting a good deal, says a congressional report.

The Government Accountability Office said Friday that the U.S. government gets less for letting private companies take oil and gas from its land and coastal waters than a half dozen states and many foreign countries.

The GAO said five studies it examined showed the U.S. government consistently is near the bottom when compared with other countries and energy-producing states such as Alaska and Louisiana in the revenue cut it gets from oil or gas pumped under government leases.

A study, for example, by the federal Minerals Management Service last year showed the government's take from Gulf of Mexico deep-water production was 29th among 31 ``fiscal entities'' examined, said the GAO. It fared only a little better, at 26th, when examining production in the Gulf's shallow waters.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6677858,00.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Of course they do.

Gawd, we need a full congressional investigation of oil companies and their ties to the maladministration. Special Prosecutor, too.

[bemildred]

2. The thing that annoys me most about Congress is not that they are bought and paid for,

it's that they are bought so cheaply, the political money Congress gets is like NOTHING compared to the resulting profits extorted from the public purse.