Mar. 03, 2006 - 21:27 MST

OTHER THINGS

So, in this mornings paper are the headlines: SENATE PASSES PATRIOT ACT . . . . . Sub-head Renewal goes to the House with privacy protections added Article by Laurie Kellman of the Associated Press. A very short quote from the article:

"The second bill -- in effect an amendment to the measure renewing the 16 provisions -- would add protections to the 2001 anti-terror law in three areas." "It would" :

"Give recipients of court-approved subpoenas for information in terrorist investigations the right to challenge a requirement that they refrain from telling anyone."

"Eliminate a requirement that an individual provied the FBI with the name of a lawyer consulted about a National Security Letter, which is a demand for records issued by investigators."

"Clarify that most libraries are not subject to demands in those letters for information about suspected terrorists."

"The renewal package would make 14 of 16 temporary provisions permanent and set four-year expirations on the others."

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I guess we could have come out much worse, but things could have been sorted out in a much better way to my mind. Making those things permanent that we never had before strikes terror in my heart in fear for the welfare of those coming after me.

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In the same paper today, is an article in the business section by Josef Hebert of the Associated Press that brings other things to light --- light --- not solution. In full:

ROYALTIES A LOST CAUSE

WASHINGTON --- "How it happened or who's responsible is a mystery eight years after the fact."

"But what may have been a simple error -- or perhaps something more ominous -- has given a multimillion-dollar windfall to a group of oil and gas companies and could cost the government billions of dollars more in the years to come.

"The Interior Department disclosed Wednesday that a provision was mysteriously deleted from hundreds of federal drilling leases in the late 1990s that would have required producers to pay royalties, once prices reached reached a certain level, on oil or gas taken from deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico."

"In 1995, Congress exempted deep-water oil from royalty payments to spur development. But a price threshold was included in leases issued in 1996 and 1997 and again in leases sold in each year since 2000 that reinstates the royalties if market prices reach a certain level."

"For some reason, the language "was inadvertently dropped" from an addendum attached to more than 1,100 leases the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service issued from 1998 and 1999, Walter Cruicshank, the agency's deputy director, told a House Government Reform subcommittee Wedesday."

"He said officials have not been able to determine who made the change, although he said it had to have been a human act, not a computer glitch."

"It is clear that there is no record telling people to take the language out," he said, and it was widely known that the department wanted the price threshold restriction in any oil and gas leases as a matter of policy."

"In the late 1990s, when oil prices were well below the threshold, the issue may not have attracted attention."

"Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the subcommittee chairman called the whole matter suspicious." "This is a $7 billion word processing error," Issa told reporters. He said some of the leases issued during those two years could remain in effect for as long as 85 years, so the government will be unable to collect royalty payments from oil and gas taken from those leases for decades to come."

"While providing no specific number, Cruickshank said the government already hs lost "several hundred million" dollars in royalty payments from the 1998-99 leases because they lacked the threshold language. If prices remain high, lost royalties "will be in the billions of dollars," he said."

"The price threshold where royalties must be paid changes yearly."

"Most recently it was set at about $34 a barrel for oil and $4.34 per thousand cubic feet for natural gas, according to Interior officials. The price of oil Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange was nearly $62 a barrel, and the estimates it will remain in the $50-a-barrel range for years to come. Natural gas prices have been $9 per thousand cubic feet."

"Issa said he planned to seek more documents from the Minerals Management Service and siad the issure may need to be investigated by the Justice Department."

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It appears that there might be just a teensy improvement in the (snort) Patriot Act (unsnort)Among myriad troubles in our country, things ever favorable to the big oil companies need to be regulated and the regulaters be regulated.

Reminds me also of the royalty payments our Native Americans have been cheated out of for many decades.

I remind myself also, that when things are said to cost the government money, that means that in essence it comes out of our, John Q. Public's pocket, one way or another.

As always, as in family life, there are ever those pesky OTHER THINGS . . . . . . . . . .

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