While BushCo is upping the scrutiny on the working poor, it turns a blind eye to corporate America. Companies that pump natural gas from federal lands are supposed to pay the government royalties based on the value of the gas they extract. The New York Times reports some funny business going on.

The Interior Department, using the numbers given by companies paying royalties, said the average sale price of natural gas on federal leases was $5.62 per thousand cubic feet in fiscal 2005, which ended Sept. 30.

By contrast, Exxon told shareholders that it received about $6.88 per thousand cubic feet in the nine months that ended Sept. 30. Chevron said its average price in that period was $6.49. Kerr-McGee, which suffered huge losses from hedging against a drop in prices, nonetheless said it still received an average price of $6.59.

Johnnie M. Burton, director of the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, explained the lack of audits this way,

"I can't answer because I don't know," she said in an interview. "We don't look at S.E.C. filings. We don't have enough staff to do all of that. If we were to do that, then we would have to have more staff and more budget. You know, there is such a thing as budget constraint, and it's been real tough, let me tell you."

That is unless you're the IRS auditing the working poor. We're borrowing billions of dollars from foreign investors, yet BushCo is letting millions, if not billions of dollars slip away while oil and gas companies laugh all the way to the bank.
posted by Idle Crank at 1/23/2006 12:54:00 AM