New federal agency devoted to collecting oil royalties and fines

• Office of Natural Resources Revenues with 600 employees will collect fines and royalties.
  

11/23/10, "Oil producers bullied," FrontPage.com, T. Trussell

"Department of Interior officials seem to take sadistic pleasure in badgering oil companies. The latest example involves

• a new agency created to levy untold millions of dollars in fines if companies don’t kowtow to the new bureaucracy. The agency’s head gave the tasteless warning: “If they cut corners they could end up paying enough to quickly take care of the federal deficit.”

The oil industry now pays $37 million a day in royalties. That’s over $13 billion a year for our near empty U.S. Treasury and other state and special accounts. The comment about collecting royalties enough to pay off the federal deficit might have been said in jest. But petroleum officials aren’t laughing....

The sadistic jokester at Interior is Gregory J. Gould, new director of the

• new Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR).
  

It is one of three agencies that will replace the Minerals Management Service (MMS), which was blamed for being too chummy with the energy industry in its royalty collection operation.

• The new ONRR will collect and disburse energy-produced revenue from federal and American Indian lands onshore and from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf offshore.

In announcing the new agency, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called it “a major step in our overall reorganization.”

• Just to make sure there’s enough bureaucracy, three agencies will replace one.

The Office of Natural Resources Revenue opened its Denver office Oct. 1

where it will use new computer facilities to assure that government gets what it’s owed, Director Gould commented. Energy royalties are collected like income taxes. Companies self-report what they owe....

• But to be sure government gets every dime owed, Gould has hired 19 more auditors, bring the total to 164. Previously, only the big companies faced audits.
  

The total ONNR employees will number 600.

The disdain for oil companies, of course, comes from the top. Obama has made clear he can’t stand profit-making, especially by oil companies.

• It’s a case of trickle-down hate.
  

It dripped down to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar during the Gulf oil spill last spring. That’s when Salazar promised that

• the Administration would “keep its boot on the throat” of energy giant British Petroleum until the oil gusher stopped and the spill was cleaned up.

In the period during which Salazar had imposed a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the Interior Secretary continued his brazen talk.

• “We will only lift the moratorium when I, as Secretary of Interior, am comfortable that we have significantly reduced those risks. So the moratorium dragged on–hurting jobs, drilling, and tourism."

At least 4 deepwater oil drilling rigs have moved from the American Gulf to Africa due to Obama's moratorium. A court has said the moratorium is illegal and ordered drilling to resume, but companies continue to act like it's Obama's decision. ed.

• 5/19/10, Three new agencies to replace MMS:
  

"The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement will be supervised by Wilma Lewis, the assistant secretary of land and minerals management. The two bureaus will be responsible for developing offshore oil, gas and renewable energy and enforcing safety and environmental rules.

Rhea Suh, assistant secretary of policy management and budget, will be in charge of the Office of Natural Resources Revenue and will oversee fee collections."...

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via Lucianne.com