Who: Department of Interior
What: A new Government Accountability Office study found that the department’s Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) system for granting oil and gas leases and collecting $10 billion a year in royalties has not been reviewed for at least 25 years. GAO says the agency’s inability to adapt its royalty rates to current market conditions has cost federal taxpayers billions of dollars in lost revenue.
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Why it’s an outrage: A third of MMS’s staff – 19 employees – were recently accused of accepting gifts from industry insiders such as food, drink, lodging, golf and ski trips – even doing drugs and having sex with energy company executives.
Where to vent: Email Interior Sec. Dirk Kempthorne at [email protected].
Sound Bite
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think this bill was written by OPEC.”
— Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Marlo Lewis on the House energy bill.
Dim Bulb
Who: Chris Zimmerman
What: The federal Highway Trust Fund is drying up and state revenues are down dramatically, but the chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority still doesn’t have a list of the most important transportation priorities in highly congested Northern Virginia. NVTA also refuses to compare the cost and effectiveness of various road, transit and trail projects.
Cure: The General Assembly should step in and force NVTA to come up with some performance-based options pronto.
