Department of Interior
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House holds hearing on MMS scandal; Kempthorne recommends ethics training
On Thursday the House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the MMS scandal currently providing humorists with so many drilling puns. Pelosi’s blog has an account of the hearing. (See also E&E News, $ub req’d.) The most amusing part was the righteous performance from Rep. George Miller, particularly this exchange with Interior Secretary Dirk […]
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Sex and drug scandal at Interior could affect the offshore-drilling debate in Congress
Yesterday’s revelation that 13 Interior Department employees who handle oil royalties are under investigation for allegedly engaging in illicit sex with and accepting gifts from employees of oil companies may affect the debate over drilling currently underway in Congress. An Inspector General’s report describes a “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” at the agency, which […]
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Interior Department employees under investigation for sex, drugs, and bribe scandal
Thirteen government officials are under investigation for allegedly engaging in illicit sex with and accepting a number of gifts from employees of energy companies, according to federal investigators. The probe involves Interior Department employees in the Denver and Washington offices, who handle billions of dollars in oil royalties. At the Denver Minerals Management Service, the […]
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Industry groups sue Interior over polar bear
The U.S. Interior Department has been sued yet again over polar bears, this time by five industry groups that say the agency’s regulations for protecting bears unfairly single out Alaska businesses’ contribution to climate change. When the polar bear was declared a threatened species because of climate change, Interior went to great lengths to note […]
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EPA administrator Stephen Johnson neglects his federal oath
This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.
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Some of us had high hopes for Stephen Johnson when President Bush appointed him in March 2005 as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Johnson was not a former oil-industry lobbyist or Halliburton executive. He was a career civil servant who had been with the federal government for 24 years. He was a scientist, not a political hack, and he had served under both Democrat and Republican presidents.
I could relate, although my federal career was the reverse of Johnson's.
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Bush admin’s effort to spur oil shale production won’t do much for consumers in short run
New regulations proposed by the Bush administration are aimed at tapping the country’s huge reserves of oil shale, steps Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said are intended to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil in the short term. But one man’s short term might feel like eternity to consumers paying $4.50 a gallon, as it would […]
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Alaska will sue over polar-bear listing
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) will sue the Interior Department over its decision to list the polar bear as a threatened species. “We believe that the listing was unwarranted and that it’s unprecedented to list a currently healthy population based on uncertain climate models,” says Alaska Assistant Attorney General Steven Daugherty. To green groups, that […]
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Green groups sue over polar bear listing
In entirely expected news, green groups have sued over the Interior Department’s listing of the polar bear as a threatened species — or, more accurately, over Interior’s caveats that the listing not be used as a means to fight global warming. The Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and NRDC say the bears should be listed […]
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Polar bear is endangered, but ‘Rule will allow continuation of vital energy production in Alaska’
The Department of Interior suffers from a rare form of bipolar disorder called bye-polar disorder. There is one major symptom of this disorder: You list the polar bear as "threatened" because of its melting polar sea ice habitat, but then do nothing to actually protect that polar habitat from its primary threat, greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
The disorder is accompanied by an occasional burst of logic, as when the DOI noted: