Interior Department Launches Investigation

On Monday, the Secretary of the Interior formally requested that the Department's Inspector General investigate addenda to existing oil-shale leases made on January 15, 2009--five days before former President Bush left office--lowering the royalty rate the U.S. receives to just 5%. (This compares to, e.g., 16% royalty rates for oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.) Secretary Salazar's letter is here, and NRDC's take on the investigation here.

This is just one among many examples of the Bush Administration giving away the store while in office, but also an example of the sort of thing lurking in the regulatory record that DOJ lawyers will be defending, and EPA and Interior officials amending, for some time.