Richard Pombo: Big Oil's Best Friend

Richard Pombo is in hot water again, this time over his failure to conduct oversight hearings on corruption in the Interior Department and looking the other way while oil royalties go uncollected.

The beneficiary of Pombo's neglect as Chair of the House Resources Committee? Big Oil, of course.

As the Oakland Tribune reported yesterday:

The New York Times reported Thursday that four government auditors who monitor leases for oil and gas on federal property have sued, claiming the Interior Department quashed their efforts to recover money due the public. This news came atop lawmakers' previous concerns over royalty-free contracts and oil companies' short payments.

Seven House Democrats including Resources Committee member George Miller, D-Martinez, wrote to Pombo, R-Tracy, on Thursday complaining he'd ignored calls for oversight hearings on royalty-free leases.

Pombo wrote back to the seven Democrats on Friday, citing a Feb. 15 New York Times article which noted he'd begun an inquiry into oil companies' royalty-free drilling leases. This inquiry, he wrote, revealed the Clinton administration had signed these contracts back in 1988 and 1989, costing taxpayers up to $13 billion.

The Resources Committee and the House then passed a bill in June to recoup that $13 billion by forcing oil companies either to renegotiate their leases or to face fees equivalent to royalty payments, he noted. The Senate has not yet acted on this legislation.

The Democrats who signed Thursday's letter voted against that bill, Pombo noted. "Pardon me if I am not impressed with your sincerity, as I provided you a solution to this problem, and you voted against it. Sometimes actions speak louder than words."

But Pombo deliberately placed the royalty-recoup provision in a larger oil-drilling bill he knew Democrats would oppose, Miller's chief of staff, Daniel Weiss, said Friday. Had the provision moved alone, Democrats would've passed it in a heartbeat, but Pombo "failed to show the proper kind of leadership by simply moving the royalty provision."

That's not all...

Also, despite long-standing allegations about Interior Department corruption, Pombo has yet to convene an oversight hearing. A House Government Affairs subcommittee held one last week, wherein Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney told lawmakers that "short of crime, anything goes" at the department's top levels.

Pombo is "the only chairman I know of who cedes jurisdiction to other committees," Weiss said Friday. "His answer to everything is 'Someone else is holding a hearing' ... so he doesn't have to."

Simply put, it's time to replace Big Oil's best friend with a renewable energy expert committed to honesty, integrity and accountability.

Comments

[Jeff in CA]

"This inquiry, he wrote, revealed the Clinton administration had signed these contracts back in 1988 and 1989, costing taxpayers up to $13 billion."

Excuse me, but Bill Clinton was not in office in 1989. George HW Bush was. Pombo's pulling a Pombo: blame Clinton and just make stuff up.