AP: Oversight of Energy Leases Loose (Big Oil and Don Evans)

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON - A single New Mexico family and a dozen big oil companies, including one once headed by Commerce Secretary Don Evans, now control one-quarter of all federal lands leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States despite a law intended to prevent such concentration, federal records show.


Since 1997, mainly as a result of mergers and acquisitions, six companies have exceeded the legal limit of 246,080 acres in lease holdings on public lands in states other than Alaska. But the Bureau of Land Management (news - web sites), in charge of enforcing the 1920 law, has chosen to extend compliance deadlines for years.


In fact, an Associated Press computer analysis found the Interior Department agency permitted companies it knew were in violation of the law in Wyoming to continue to acquire thousands of acres of new oil and gas leases in that state. The bureau has given the companies additional years to comply.


"They should not be purchasing leases," said Tom Lonnie, the bureau's assistant director for minerals, realty and resource protection. Before acquiring a lease, a company must certify that its holdings do not exceed the legal limit.

~snip~
more:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=513&ncid=716&e=9&u=/ap/20040530/ap_on_go_ot/oil_leases

[maddezmom]

1. didn't mean to leave out Dicky boy

~snip~
Companies and individuals that dominate federal oil and gas leasing have been major financial supporters of Bush and the Republican Party. Since the 1999, the top 25 owners of federal oil and gas leases have directed 86 percent of their $8.2 million in political donations to the GOP.


Individuals and companies affiliated with the Yates family of Artesia, N.M., which is by far the biggest lease holder, have given $276,926 to GOP parties and candidates since 1999, and just $11,400 to Democrats.


Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) visited Artesia in March to raise money for a GOP congressional candidate backed by the Yates. A month earlier, he was in Albuquerque for a presidential campaign fund-raiser that took in more than $200,000.


Denver-based Tom Brown Inc. was over the acreage limit in Wyoming from 1997 to 2000, while current Commerce Secretary Evans was the company's chief executive.

~snip~

[w4rma]

2. *These* are the folks running our nation into the ground, imho.

They are consolidating and building their power and wealth at the expense of the rest of us.

I'd like to see more stories about these people in the press. They've been largely in the shadows, in the background, far away from the spotlight. I don't think they want folks to understand how much power they have over this country.

[Dover]

3. Yes, it would be good to keep a list of who is endorsing the fascist

takeover of this country via the neocons.

I think we can include on the list ALL of the major oil companies
and many pharmaceuticals. But it would be nice to put names and faces to the lurkers in the shadows.

They aren't pulling the trigger, but they hired the guns.

[Trillo]

4. Not a simple problem.

With the regulatory environment what it is, how many competitors can there be? Can I, as a U.S. citizen who knows nothing of the regulatory environment in the oil drilling biz, go out, get a lease, and expect to be able to drill and profit?

I think it's unlikely that increased regulation leads to more competition, it's more likely that regulation tends to be anti-competitive, as it enables those who are already experienced with the regulatory process.

[dArKeR]

5. Handful Of Companies, Some With GOP Ties, Control Large Swaths - CBS

Few Hands Drill Public Lands

A single New Mexico family and a dozen big oil companies, including one once headed by Commerce Secretary Don Evans, now control one-quarter of all federal lands leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States despite a law intended to prevent such concentration, federal records show.
The lax enforcement coincides with the Bush administration's push to open new public lands for oil and gas development. In March, records showed 40 million acres of federal lands were under lease in the continental United States. That is 5.3 million more acres than when President Bush took office.

Since 1997, mainly as a result of mergers and acquisitions, six companies have exceeded the legal limit of 246,080 acres in lease holdings on public lands in states other than Alaska. But the Bureau of Land Management, in charge of enforcing the 1920 law, has chosen to extend compliance deadlines for years.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/30/national/main620337.shtml