Washington, D.C. (JusticeNewsFlash.com – News Report) – It was recently discovered that U.S. Interior Department employee in charge of supervising and managing various oil drilling on federal lands have been involved in illicit sex and illegal drugs; but not simply amongst themselves. They have been committing these acts with workers at energy companies – companies with which official business was being conducted. The oil companies named in the internal government report were Chevron, Shell Oil, Hess Corporation and Gary Williams Energy Corporation.
The report documents that during the years of 2002 and 2006, there were 19 former and current workers at the Minerals Management Service’s offices in Denver and Washington. According to a Reuter’s article, “the workers were involved in the “royalty-in-kind” program that collects and sells oil and gas turned over by energy companies as royalties for drilling on federal lands.” There is around $4 billion a year in royalty-in-kind oil and gas collected and sold by the department, this is not a toy to be played around with.
Senator Jeff Bingaman, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee summed these findings up in the best way, “American taxpayers deserve to have confidence that their interests are being protected when it comes to collecting royalties from the production of public oil and gas resources, especially given the potential for expanded domestic drilling,” It should be black and white to these employed by the government, but they seemed to take it lightly and assert that they were entitled to these actions, since they were in the ‘gray area’ where some rules apply and some do not; but this cannot be the case. Why wouldn’t federal government ethics standards and department policies apply to them? How are they above the law? How do they not have the public’s best interest at heart? This is shocking information to be revealed and now that the secret is out, there must be consequences. It is a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity – what kind of example is that to our younger generations of Americans?