The Great Gadfly

Minerals Management Service fiasco

How many minerals can you manage for $10,800,000,000.00?
The only federal agency which collects more than the IRS

$10.8 billion is a lot of money. That is what the United States Department (DOI) of the Interior Minerals Management Service (MMS) reported as its total revenue for 2007. The only federal agency with higher revenues was the IRS. Now we know that at least the Inspector General of DOI believes there was improper and perhaps illegal conduct by MMS staff responsible for oil leases. Here we go again. Is this Julie McDonald and J. Steven Griles all over again? And who were they...for that matter, who is the inspector general for DOI?

A Boston Bulldog to the rescue

Let's start with the inspector general. He is an Irishman from Massachusetts who rose from municipal police officer to a career in the United States Secret Service and after retirement from the Secret Service to the post of Inspector General at DOI. His name is Earl Devaney (on right) and he is large, tough and smart. He detests public officials who betray the public trust.

Devaney forced former Underscretary of the Interior Julie McDonald to resign in 2007, citing her for mutliple violations of federal rules. McDonald apparently had used her position to bully and browbeat staff of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) which is also a part of DOI when they attempted to do proper study of issues arising from the Endangered Species Act concerning a development in California.

McDoanld ordered staff to back off, rewrote their technical comments and moved staff who would not yield to her bullying. It became known that McDonald's husband's family owned a farm which she had succeeded in excluding from the original area under review. Her financial records showed that she had earned as much a million dollars a year from this family farm.

Prior to the McDonald case Devaney built a case against the second highest ranking official at DOI, Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles. Griles was convicted of lying to a Senate committee about activities involving him and well known lobbyist and felon Jack Abramoff.

Don't ask me "How", tell me Who

The Griles case cast a shadow, and still does, over the Bureau of Indian Affairs, another division within DOI. In the fall of 2007 Griles lost his appeal and was ordered to begin serving a ten month federal prison term. Score another point for Devaney. Convicting a federal official of the offense of lying to congress or to a federal official is always an uphill battle. To succeed, such a case must be driven by substantial stamina. Devaney can go the course.

Now Earl Devaney has set his sights on MMS staff who are responsible for oil and other leases on federal land. Once again there is seedy personal behavior, extra marital sex and material enticement by private interests. Chevron is named in the most recent Devaney report to congress as one of the big oil companies involved in a pattern of abuse. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice once served on the board of directors of Chevron.

Gadfly has reason to believe that Devaney and his investigators are close to issuing  more devastating reports about DOI. MMS in particular is under a very powerful microscope. If what appears to be business as usual at MMS continues, consider: MMS has responsibility for mineral leasing rights covering 1.7 BILLION square acres of our nation's coastal waters. How many oil rigs can fit on 1.7 billion square acres? How much profit can be pumped from 1.7 billion square acres and what would big oil and gas interests pay to help 'convince' MMS officals to grant favorable leases?

One thing is for certain, Earl Devaney does not take it lightly when someone lies to federal officials or when those officials cross the line into unethical territory. If we listen closely we can hear the knees knocking in Herndon, Virginia ...headquarters of MMS. No one is safe when Devaney is on the job.