The Billion Dollar Bush Giveaway
According to an article in the New York Times, the US Department of the Interior has dropped a suit that claimed that Chevron Oil was systematically underpaying Royalty fees on their oil drilling leases located on federal land. The timing of this is just too coincidental and one has to wonder how much of the savings are going into Republican campaign coffers at the direction of the Bush Administration, to bolster their efforts to hold onto their Republican majority. This is what the NYT had to say:
But the Bush administration has come under fire on Capitol Hill for its record on collecting payments. While the Interior Department has sweetened incentives for exploration and pushed to open wilderness areas for drilling, it has also cut back on full-scale audits of companies intended to make sure they are paying their full share.Administration officials knew that dozens of companies had incorrectly claimed exemptions from royalties since 2003, but they waited until December 2005 to send letters demanding about $500 million in repayments.
In February, the Interior Department acknowledged that oil companies could escape more than $7 billion in payments because of mistakes in leases signed in the 1990s. Top officials are trying to renegotiate those deals, but some Republicans and Democrats have complained that the administration is dragging its feet.
In addition, four government auditors last month publicly accused the Interior Department of blocking their efforts to recover more than $30 million from the Shell Oil Corporation, the Kerr-McGee Corporation and other major companies.
“This latest revelation proves that the Bush administration is incapable of preventing big oil companies from cheating taxpayers,� said Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, a senior Democrat on the House Committee on Resources. “The public has been systematically fleeced out of royalties that these companies owe for the privilege of drilling for oil and gas on lands belonging to all of us.�
Technorati Tags: Chevron, Department of the Interior, Bush Administration, Oil Leases
