Washington, DC: Today, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce and Resources Committees, released the following statement on developments at the Department of the Interior regarding their Inspector General’s investigations and the Mineral Management Service’s (MMS) negotiations with oil and gas companies to recoup lost royalties from drilling on public lands. Rep. Markey has been a harsh critic of the inability of the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress to protect taxpayers’ money from oil and gas revenues. He is also concerned that of the 56 companies holding these leases without price thresholds from 98-99, MMS is only anticipated to announce deals with a small handful of them.
Regarding the OIG briefing and criminal referrals, Rep. Markey said, “The two criminal referrals by the Department of Interior’s Inspector General to the FBI and Justice Department are proof positive that the conflicts of interest between Bush Administration regulators and those they regulate in the oil and gas industry are costing the American taxpayers billions in royalty revenues. While Inspector General Devaney has previously said that short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of Interior, it now appears that some actions may have crossed the line into criminal behavior. I am sure that the American people will be shocked by this inexcusable undermining of the public trust.” “Devaney and his team at the Inspector General’s office are a profile in courage as they vigilantly continue their investigations into waste, fraud, and abuse by the Bush Administration to save taxpayers billions in lost revenues and save the Interior Department from its own mismanagement. At the same time, we need to have aggressive oversight in the next Congress to fully examine responsibility for the Interior Department's refusal to guard billions in drilling revenues that belong to the American taxpayers,” Rep. Markey continued. And in response to the anticipated MMS announcement that they’ve reached new royalties agreements with a handful of companies including British Petroleum and Shell oil companies, Rep. Markey stated, “The Bush Administration’s Interior Department and the big oil and gas companies that have cheated taxpayers out of billions in revenues for drilling on public lands have run out of time. Their too little, too late efforts to recoup only a small percentage of the billions of dollars of oil and gas royalties that the American people are rightfully owed is pitiful. When the new Democratic Congress takes office in January, there will be a new cop on the beat to force every big oil company that is currently lining its pockets with taxpayer dollars come back to the negotiating table.” # # # CONTACT: Israel Klein
The Interior Office of the Inspector General briefed Markey’s staff this week on the audit report from last week and also informed staff that there are a number of other reports to come. In particular, the OIG said that there were two criminal referrals stemming from their investigations thus far that tangentially involve royalties. The details of these two referrals involving the regulators at MMS are not public at this time. Additionally, in mid-January, the OIG is going to put out a report on the thresholds in the 1998 and 1999 leases; at the end of January, they will issue a report on the whistleblower cases.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 14, 2006
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