Top Interior Official Knew In Early 2004 Of Oil Lease Error, Did Nothing - NYT

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 — A top Interior Department official was told nearly three years ago about a legal blunder that allowed drilling companies to avoid billions of dollars in payments for oil and gas pumped from publicly owned waters, a report by the department’s chief independent investigator has found.

The report, which was sent lawmakers on Tuesday, suggested that Interior officials could have fixed the mistake far more easily if they had taken action when they first recognized it. Oil and gas prices were far lower than they are today.

The report contradicts statements by the official, Johnnie M. Burton, the director of the department’s Minerals Management Service, who told a House hearing last September that she first learned about the royalties problem in January 2006.

Confronted by e-mail messages from subordinates from early 2004, the report said, Ms. Burton conceded that she probably had been told earlier, but “did not remember putting a great deal of thought into the matter.” (emphasis added)

EDIT

Doesn't sound he did, does it now?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/washington/17royalty.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. the new criminal class - the entire administration

amazing

then again, not.

[damntexdem]

2. Didn't remember being told but did remember not thinking.

That might seem odd; but it actually has a simple explanation: not putting much thought into matters is Administration business as usual; learning about errors is not.

[crickets]

3. Oh, it's just a "blunder." A "mistake". Suuuure.

"Investigators calculated that the government could have collected an additional $865 million in the last three years alone if officials had told companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that they owed all the royalties required on oil and coal extracted from federal waters."

Wow. The government's just giving it away. You know, why wouldn't properly fixing the "mistake" mean going back to charge them what they should have been charged?

"On Thursday, House Democrats hope to pass a bill that would put a heavy tax on companies that refuse to change their leases and would repeal several other tax breaks and royalty incentives for companies that drill in deep waters."

Thankyew. Better late than never.