Weatherization Department
The Friday Report Friday September 20,1996
FromWright Energy's
Weatherization Network Since 1984
970-349-0551 fax
970-349-0923 voice Doc@CrestedButte.com email
WebSite
http://WrightEnergy.com
Back copies and more.
Energy: The Interior Department has failed to collect as much as $2
billion, panel finds.
From the LA Times.
House committee said Wednesday that the Interior Department has failed to
collect as much as $2 billion in royalties from oil companies drilling on
government land and waters.
The failure represents "a serious hole
in the federal budget
deficit," says a report by theHouse Government Reform and Oversight
Committee. The $2-billion figure is an estimate for potential underpayments
on a nationwide basis from 1978 to 1993, and the largest total yet in the
growing controversy over royalty collections.
The report, based on hearings earlier
this year dealing with
royalty collections, calls on the federal Minerals Management Service to
aggressively pursue the oil companies to ensure they are paying proper amounts
of money. The minerals agency, a division of the Interior Department, had
announced previously that it hopes to collect $440 million for underpayments
in California alone.
Oil companies for many years "were able
to use complex transactions" to disguise the true value of the crude
oil theypumped from federal leases, and pay insufficient royalties, thecommittee
report says.
In California, where the records of 20 oil
companies are under review, the government has issued subpoenas to Chevron,
Mobil and Shell for refusing to supply the requested records, the minerals
agency disclosed Wednesday. The process of audit and collection may take
a year
or more.
The agency does not have an estimate for
the potential collections on a nationwide basis, and cannot confirm the
$2-billion estimate of the committee report, said Lyn Herdt, the agency's
chief of communications.
Many of the findings and recommendations
of the House committee "are being acted on," she said, noting
that the agency has cooperative audit agreements with 10 states and seven
Indian tribes as part of its nationwide probe of oil prices.
In California, the critics say, the government
should skip the audits and instead use the price of oil from Alaska shipped
to California as a measure of true market values. The government should
calculate the underpayment as the difference between the price of Alaskan
oil and the prices originally posted by the companies, according to the
congressional critics.
California and the city of Long Beach collected
$345 million from six oil companies in 1991 in a settlement of court actions
by the state and city alleging underpayment for oil pumped from state waters.
The federal government should emulate California
and take a more aggressive approach to collecting royalties, according to
Rep. Steve Horn (R-Long Beach), chairman of the Subcommittee on Government
Management and Technology, which held the June hearings. He has urged Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt to accelerate the effort to collect royalties.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the subcommittee's
ranking Democrat, also wants a tougher stance. "We should send out
bills immediately," she said.
The committee report released Wednesday was
welcomed by the Project on Government Oversight, a research organization
that first disclosed confidential reports about royalty underpayments. The
House report "tells it like it is about the ongoing rip-off of the
American
public by big oil," said Danielle Brian, the organization's executive
director.
Mechanical Ventilation Requirements
According to the publication
titles The Building Official and Code Administrator July/August 1996;
"...the future definitely holds a place for passive air to air heat
exchanger technology. Such equipment is currently able to provide outdoor
ventilation air in the heating season with a total energy recovery of approximately
85%."
The reason? Because the 1996 International Mechanical Code which has been
created by a coalition consisting of The Building Officials and Code Administrators,
International Conference of Building Officials and the Southern Building
Code Congress International is intended to be the top dog building reference
code.
Those who won't take a stand for something tend to fall for anything.
"Need
Weatherstrip?
Call Mike
800-832-2992
Return to top of page.
Indoor Air Quality information
Thermax Energy
Recycling Ventilation Systems
Weatherstrip Information
Solar
Powered Ventilation
Sun Tunnel Skylight System