Lost in the midst of the "drill baby drill" energy debate is the role of the Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) and just how poorly this troubled department manages federal oil and gas leases--though this isn't news to POGO blog readers. In a press release from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) issued yesterday, Issa criticizes House Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) for failing to continue to investigate MMS, despite the fact that MMS's poor management of leases has cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
We know that Waxman is already investigating many important issues, but Issa's right--MMS does need more oversight. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Oversight Plan for this Congress promised that the Subcommittee on Domestic Policy would "conduct oversight in many long neglected areas of domestic policy" like MMS, but they have yet to conduct a single hearing on the matter. Issa's release also cites past findings that "MMS did not have the ability even to track how much oil was being produced or the revenues due the American taxpayer." The GAO has also repeatedly found that MMS cannot accurately account for its program's costs and benefits--casting some doubt on the profit report MMS released yesterday.
POGO has commended Issa for his tenacious oversight of MMS in the past, and we hope that this Congress will take his release to heart and continue investigating the agency.
-- Mandy Smithberger
UPDATE: It looks like Waxman has heeded our call for an oversight hearing on MMS.
I heard an ex MMS person saying on a public broadcast that MMS should be disbanded and made into a collection Dept like the IRS. Not a good idea. IRS data is secret, and if released can subject people who review the data to criminal charges. The oil companies are not operating on private land, and the royalty is a public resource, that should not be made into a private matter to make, secret.
More sunshine is necessary to have accountability. Currently, the RIK program is such a mess, it is difficult to tell how badly the USA was ripped off to the tune of billions.
RIK the way it was done had means to rip off the USA, The premise of RIK. The USA takes oil/ gas.
But if the delivery point for the taking is set to far upstream(where not the real arms length this imposes extra costs on the USA, short changing the USA. Also, RIK if not done properly eliminates the duty of the oil company to market at no cost to the USA, and the duty to put the oil/ natural gas into a marketable condition cost free to the USA, the land owner. RIK does not do that, the way the mess was executed in MMS. RIk was a ruse to impose more costs on the USA, have less accountability, have no checks and balances, open the program to vast corruption. Who was the wack job who pushed that.
Just look for Congressman and Congresswoman who had tons of PAC $$$ from big oil companies, and the Correlation is there-pushing a RIP of program to hurt the USA, not putting it first but putting the PAC pushers first. The oil companies do not own the federal lands , there merely have a lease. The tail has been wagging the dog. A IRS tax is not a royalty, a royalty is usually a fair return to the land owner. Some say that is a tax... they are flat out wrong.
Under RIK--the USA has been getting ripped off, and hopefully honest Congressman not bough off, by big oil will start putting the USA first, again, and stop the abuses of the USA.
The program to collect royalties needs lots of sunshine and transparence, and checks and balances.
It does not need a SMITTY back office cocaine DEN--in the shade, with cooked books, and shady corrupt dealings, and sex parties, and getting in bed with BIG oil.
The question now is how to put royalty collection back to be accountable to the USA--and not to allow the awful mess that has gone on for so long that God only knows how many billions were rendered: MISSING from being collected, and wired off shore to some secret bank account of the SEXY CLUB
Posted by: [email protected] | Sep 17, 2008 at 01:07 AM
MMS is not the IRS.
Public lands are not private resources.
More sunshie is needed to see how much the RIK program resulted in the USA being ripped off by vast billions
Posted by: [email protected] | Sep 17, 2008 at 12:48 AM