| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
23 Jan 2006 09:42:14 AM |
| Object: |
Energy companies, with Bush's help, rip off American taxpayers |
From The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/politics/23leases.html?hp&ex=1138078800&en=01638062a5dc8e2b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
As Profits Soar, Companies Pay U.S. Less for Gas Rights
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
WASHINGTON -
At a time when energy prices and industry profits are soaring, the
federal government collected little more money last year than it did
five years ago from the companies that extracted more than $60 billion
in oil and gas from publicly owned lands and coastal waters.
If royalty payments in fiscal 2005 for natural gas had risen in step
with market prices, the government would have received about $700
million more than it actually did, a three-month investigation by The
New York Times has found.
But an often byzantine set of federal regulations, largely shaped and
fiercely defended by the energy industry itself, allowed companies
producing natural gas to provide the Interior Department with much
lower sale prices - the crucial determinant for calculating government
royalties - than they reported to their shareholders.
As a result, the nation's taxpayers, collectively, the biggest owner
of American oil and gas reserves, have missed much of the recent
energy bonanza.
The disparities in gas prices parallel those uncovered just five years
ago in a wave of scandals involving royalty payments for oil.
From 1998 to 2001, a dozen major companies, while admitting no
wrongdoing, paid a total of $438 million to settle charges that they
had fraudulently understated their sale prices for oil.
Since then, the government has tightened its rules for oil payments.
But with natural gas, the Bush administration recently loosened the
rules and eased its audits intended to uncover cheating.
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Really? Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Harry
.
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