Jim Hightower

It’s a little-known fact that the United States remains the world’s third-largest oil producer – and one-third of this petroleum is pumped from federal property.  By law, the oil giants must pay royalties on the nationally-owned crude they take, just as they must pay private landowners for oil they take from their property. 

But, thanks largely to the industry’s coziness with the oil-soaked Bush regime, the corporations are cheating on paying billions in royalties, even as they are reaping record levels of windfall profits.

A report by Mr. Bush’s own Interior Department finds that since he has been in office, they have cut the number of auditors in charge of monitoring these payments by nearly 16 percent. In fact, only 20 percent of oil companies’ royalty reports are even being examined. So, basically, the administration is relying on the corporations to tell the government what they owe.

Even though this damning report was finished in 2005, Bush appointees kept it from being released until last November – after the elections.  But, not to worry they say, for they’ve appointed an “independent” advisory panel to review complaints about the missing royalty payments. 

Who heads this “watchdog” panel?  Mr. Bush appointed David Deal, who for nearly 30 years was the top lawyer for the American Petroleum Institute, which is the industry’s chief lobbying group in Washington.

Meanwhile, recognizing Big Oil’s bad image, the lobbying group says it “will spend what’s necessary” to spiff up the image.  To do the job, they’ve hired the same PR firm that developed the “Got Milk?” campaign.  Maybe the theme could be, “Got Royalties?” 

Former Texas Agriculture Secretary Jim Hightower is a best-selling author. His Web site is www.jimhightower.com. Material courtesy of www.MinutemanMedia.org.