Draft Resources bill overhauls Interior's leasing, royalties, ethics rules

Interior would see a major restructuring of its energy agencies under the draft Natural Resources Committee staff bill. All federal energy and mineral leasing programs would be consolidated within one bureau in Interior that would handle lease sales, inspection, enforcement and revenue collection. Specifically, the energy portions of the Minerals Management Service and the Bureau of Land Management -- including oil and gas, wind, wave and solar programs -- would be combined into one new agency called the "Office of Federal Energy and Minerals Leasing." That agency would be responsible for all aspects of leasing both onshore and offshore, including siting, development, regulation and collection of royalties. The director of the office would require Senate confirmation, unlike the head of MMS, which currently is the only major bureau within Interior whose top official does not require confirmation. Other royalty-related changes include elimination of the royalty-in-kind program, which allows industry to provide petroleum directly to Interior in lieu of royalty payments. An Interior inspector general report last year found that 19 employees, nearly one-third of the entire staff of the royalty-in-kind program, socialized with and received a wide array of gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies with which the agency was conducting official business. The bill also contains numerous ethics reforms aimed at correcting a host of problems at Interior, including the MMS scandal and numerous deficiencies outlined in a series of scathing reports by government watchdog agencies on how royalties are collected...NYTimes