Mark Fiore has done it again, releasing another great send-up of Big Oil’s ridiculous calls for drilling.  “Drill, baby, drill” has been the refrain all summer…  what did we expect from the free-wheeling MMS? Watch the animation here: http://www.markfiore.com/drill_baby_drill_0

MMS Corruption: Lubricating America's Relationship with Big Oil

It’s now official; our government really is in bed with Big Oil. We’re not talking fancy rhetoric here or overzealous propaganda. According to a report by the Inspector General of the Department of Interior, a group of public servants entrusted with collecting $4.3 billion in in-kind royalty payments from oil companies operating on our public lands, were actually bedding down, doing drugs and accepting gifts from oil company employees.

Between 2002 and 2006, fully one-third of the In-Kind Royalty Division, based outside Denver, Colorado, had improper relations with and received a wide array of gifts and gratuities from Big Oil. Two of the 19 employees cited received gifts on more than 135 occasions from Shell, Chevron, Hess and Denver-based Gary Williams Energy Corp, the LA Times reported. In return, the MMS employees shared key information, helped fix contracts and worked part-time as oil consultants – blatantly shunning the ethics rules that govern all federal workers.

This week’s bombshell is the latest in a series of reports about MMS. “During the past year, in September and again in May, inspector-general reports have portrayed MMS as a nest of conflict, lapsed controls and potential criminal conduct,” reported the Denver Post.

Despite these ongoing revelations, the Bush administration is using MMS to give Big Oil access to as much of our nation’s public land as possible before a new administration moves into the White House. Just this week, Big Oil’s friends in Congress are gearing up to introduce legislation that would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other special places to oil drilling. And, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has decided that MMS will develop a new five-year plan – the government’s map to oil and gas leasing over the next five years – a few years early in order to streamline Big Oil’s access to millions of acres of sensitive offshore area.

In Alaska, key marine habitat in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas is already available for leasing. Kempthorne hopes to use the new five-year plan to ensure that nothing – like the future of the beleaguered polar bear and other endangered marine species – stands in Big Oil’s way.

For Big Oil, MMS is the Bush administration’s gift that keeps on giving.

Ever wonder just how far Big Oil’s tentacles reach? A blistering report by Denver Post reporter Miles Moffeit shows that they reach deep inside the federal government’s Minerals Management Service, based in the Mile-High City. Moffeit’s piece previews a report by federal investigators due out soon that details “improper relationships between Interior Department officials who oversee offshore drilling and oil executives, including golf outings, ski trips and romantic liaisons.” Ten MMS employees are implicated in the report, and at least one could face criminal charges. Move over Abramoff. It looks like you’re about to get some competition from a few federal bureaucrats.

Interestingly enough, the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility reported in May that several key MMS employees charged with overseeing oil and gas leasing in Alaska’s Arctic region have found new employment at Shell. “In Alaska, the revolving door between regulator and regulated appears to be swinging at record speed,” PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch said in a press release. “Key officials who were supposed to be representing the public are suddenly turning up on the other side of the table with disturbing regularity.”

As has been the case at many other federal agencies, the doors at MMS have been flung open wide for Big Oil.

A new report by Friends of the Earth has the gory details: While we struggle to pay high gas prices and consequently rising prices for food and other essentials, Bush’s buddies in DC keep handing out the freebies:
Federal dollars continue to flow toward oil companies that are earning record profits and fueling our oil addiction. This analysis of the tax code and federal budget reveals that oil companies are slated to receive more than $32.9 billion in handouts from taxpayers over the next five years. This figure includes tax benefits, royalty relief, research and development subsidies and accounting gimmicks that benefit the oil industry.

The future doesn’t look good either if our leaders don’t realize soon that higher oil profits doesn’t make for good energy policy:
The figure could dramatically increase over the next 25 years if current tax breaks are extended and if oil companies win a lawsuit seeking to avoid paying up to $53 billion in royalty revenue for offshore drilling. Congress should act immediately to end these giveaways to the oil and gas industry.

Beginning on August 4, 2008, a group of legislators hijacked the floor of the House of Representatives to argue for more oil drilling in America’s Arctic, off our nation’s coasts and in other public lands across the country.

They want us to believe they’re fighting high gas prices for American citizens — but the money tells a different story.

Lawmakers speaking on the floor during this rogue session have received over $15 million from Big Oil over the course of their careers and $2 million for the 2008 election alone. The breakdown of donations from the oil & gas industry to each of these Representatives can be found here.

Mark Fiore and NRDC have put together a fantastic online video, check it out!

When House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and a delegation of ten House Republicans visited the North Slope of Alaska last week to push for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, they never set foot in the Arctic Refuge.

Rep. Boehner didn’t even have the courtesy to respond to a request to meet with the Gwich’in people, who regard the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge as the ‘sacred place where life begins.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Even as Americans struggle with the high price of gas, Big Oil continues to get a handout from taxpayers - $18 billion in tax breaks over 10 years. Where does all our money go? Not to developing renewable forms of energy as their ad campaign would suggest. An ad campaign, by the way, that cost $52 million for the first three months of this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Utah Senator Robert Bennett said this to the Washington Post: “The most significant thing you could do to stimulate the economy is convince the world that the United States is going to increase its oil supply.” Read the rest of this entry »

Newt Gingrich’s catchphrase “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” has seduced a purported almost 1.5 million Americans into his web of lies and deceit about the economic and environmental implications of drilling on American soil and off of our beaches. Read the rest of this entry »