Firms Harvesting Energy From Public Land May Owe U.S.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- As soaring prices prompt huge increases in gas and oil drilling on public land, an ad hoc posse of state governments, Indian tribes and individual "bounty hunters" is charging that big energy companies are shortchanging taxpayers by billions of dollars.

They say drilling companies and pipeline operators are understating the amount and the quality of the natural gas they pump on public land, and are paying far less in royalties than required by law.

State and tribal governments rely on Washington -- specifically, the Minerals Management Service in the Department of the Interior -- to determine what royalties are owed and to collect the money. States and tribes then receive their shares from the federal government.

Two organizations -- the Council of Energy Resource Tribes, representing 57 tribes in the nation and Canada, and the State and Tribal Royalty Audit Committee, representing 11 state governments and eight tribes, mainly in the West -- are pressuring the Minerals Management Service and the gas companies for stricter accounting and higher royalty payments.

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Jack Grynberg, a Colorado oil man, charges that the energy extraction industry owes the U.S. government more than $30 billion in unpaid royalties for natural gas alone. He is suing, and Indian tribes are considering lawsuits.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/06/AR2006050600905.html?nav=rss_nation

Stealing from public lands with the government's help has been a national passtime.

resource for their corporate pals.

and they are robbing us blind . . .

where are the Congresscritters who supposedly represent us and safeguard our interests? . . .