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Wide-Ranging Ethics Scandal Emerges at Interior Dept
Charlie Savage, The New York Times
September 10, 2008 by
As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal - including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.

In three reports delivered to Congress on Wednesday, the department's inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a dozen current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service, which collects about $10 billion in royalties annually and is one of the government's largest sources of revenue other than taxes.

"A culture of ethical failure" besets the agency, Mr. Devaney wrote in a cover memo.

The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration's watch.
(10 September 2008)

Gov't officials investigated for sex, gifts (oil royalties)
Dina Cappiello, Associated Press
Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties improperly engaged in sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday.
(10 September 2008)

Top analyst: Reduced Dominance Is Predicted for U.S.
Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus, Washington Post
An intelligence forecast being prepared for the next president on future global risks envisions a steady decline in U.S. dominance in the coming decades, as the world is reshaped by globalization, battered by climate change, and destabilized by regional upheavals over shortages of food, water and energy.

The report, previewed in a speech by Thomas Fingar, the U.S. intelligence community's top analyst, also concludes that the one key area of continued U.S. superiority -- military power -- will "be the least significant" asset in the increasingly competitive world of the future, because "nobody is going to attack us with massive conventional force."

... In the new intelligence forecast, it is not just the United States that loses clout. Fingar predicts plummeting influence for the United Nations, the World Bank and a host of other international organizations that have helped maintain political and economic stability since World War II. It is unclear what new institutions can fill the void, he said.

In the years ahead, Washington will no longer be in a position to dictate what new global structures will look like. Nor will any other country, Fingar said. "There is no nobody in a position . . . to take the lead and institute the changes that almost certainly must be made in the international system," he said.

The predicted shift toward a less U.S.-centric world will come at a time when the planet is facing a growing environmental crisis, caused largely by climate change, Fingar said. By 2025, droughts, food shortages and scarcity of fresh water will plague large swaths of the globe, from northern China to the Horn of Africa.

For poorer countries, climate change "could be the straw that breaks the camel's back," Fingar said, while the United States will face "Dust Bowl" conditions in the parched Southwest. He said U.S. intelligence agencies accepted the consensual scientific view of global warming, including the conclusion that it is too late to avert significant disruption over the next two decades. The conclusions are in line with an intelligence assessment produced this summer that characterized global warming as a serious security threat for the coming decades.

Floods and droughts will trigger mass migrations and political upheaval in many parts of the developing world.
(10 September 2008)

Dems' Offshore Drilling Plan Comes With Catch
Zachary Coile, San Francisco Chronicle
Just three years ago Richard Pombo, the cowboy boot-wearing Tracy Republican lawmaker, faced an outcry from Democrats for pushing a bill to lift the 27-year-old ban on drilling off the East and West coasts and let states choose whether to allow oil rigs off their shores.

In a sign of how much the energy debate has shifted in an era of nearly $4-a-gallon gasoline, virtually the same proposal that Pombo floated will be introduced on the House floor this month - by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

But Republicans aren't exactly cheering the new Pelosi proposal. She plans to tie new offshore drilling to measures that are loathed by the GOP - such as revoking billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies and forcing utilities to get more of their energy from wind and solar.

As Congress returns this week for a three-week legislative sprint, the two parties will face off in a chess match over energy with high stakes for both the November elections and the nation's energy future.
(9 September 2008)

Energy political reporter takes an in-depth look at the White House race
Monica Trauzzi, OnPoint, E&E News
With less than two months to go before the 2008 elections, energy remains a hot topic on the campaign trail for both presidential candidates.

During today's OnPoint, E&E political reporter Alex Kaplun discusses the energy and climate messages coming out of the Obama and McCain campaigns.

Kaplun explains how John McCain's vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin, could affect decisions on ANWR drilling and climate in a future McCain administration. He also discusses Obama's push for green jobs and how it may shape the candidate's energy and climate policy.
(10 September 2008)