NYT: Democrats Plan Oil Royalties Inquiry

Democrats Plan Oil Royalties Inquiry
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: December 9, 2006

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 — House Democratic leaders vowed Friday to pursue a broad overhaul of tax breaks and other subsidies to oil companies in January, saying that their first target would be an investigation of how the government collects billions of dollars in royalties on oil and gas produced on federal property.

“The Interior Department has a background of mismanagement, to put it mildly, in the collection of these royalties,” said Representative Nick J. Rahall II of West Virginia, a Democrat who will become chairman of the House Resources Committee next year.

Mr. Rahall said he planned a sweeping investigation of the Interior Department’s enforcement of royalty payments as well as the possible repeal of a 10-year-old law that allows energy companies drilling in deep coastal waters to avoid billions of dollars in payments.

“The oil and gas royalties system has never worked,” asserts a written summary of the committee’s top goals in the new Congress. “Instead it has proven to be a form of corporate welfare that has enabled oil and gas producers to undercut payments due the American people.”

In an opening slap at the industry, House Democrats tried, but narrowly failed, to pass a measure on Friday that would have pressured oil companies to give up a legal loophole that is expected to allow them to avoid as much as $10 billion in royalties over the next five years....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/09/business/09royalty.html?hp&ex=1165726800&en=3250ba65c7ec11f8&ei=5094&partner=homepage

We could probably put a real good dent in the national debt.