The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Interior Department" ...
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Royalty-In-Kind Invesgation
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has been investigating federal royalty collections since 1995. Oil and gas royalty collections make up the second largest source or government revenue, but throughout POGO's investigations, there have been many concerns as to whether the federal government is collecting all of the money that oil and gas companies owe to taxpayers for drilling on federal lands. Based upon talking to insiders with the Department of the Interior (DOI), POGO conducted the first study to link the management problems that plague the agency with the structural design of the Royalty-in-Kind (RIK) program, as advocated by the oil and gas industry. This series of stories investigated royalty collection at DOI, with a sharp focus on the Minerals Management Service (MMS) and their management of Royalty-In-Kind program. The series found that not only did MMS have an overly close relationship with the industry that they were supposed to be overseeing, but that industry influence had been pervasive and could be traced from the program's inception through its expansion into the full-blown program that exists today. Additionally, the series of stories found that there are extensive inappropriate auditing of royalty payments between MMS employees and the oil and gas industry, insufficient auditing of royalty payments, serious mismanagement of the RIK program, and a debilitating lack of transparency in the program. These findings call the legitimacy of the RIK program into question, and particularly raise questions as to whether this program can effectively pursue royalty collection on behalf of taxpayers.
Tags: Department of the Interior; Minerals Management Service; corruption; royalty-in-kind program; government oversight; federal royalty payments
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Windfall
The Department of the Interior, "particularly under the Bush Administration," has let energy companies neglect paying billions of dollars to the government "for oil and natural gas they pump on federal land and federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico." Over the course of a year, the Times reported the various aspects of this story, resulting in five investigations by the inspector general, including two inquiries involving the Justice Department.
Tags: Oil; natural gas; energy; royalty relief; Interior Department; gas pumped on federal land
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A Changing Landscape
"These stories provide a portrait of the Bush environmental policies and the largely hidden political process that produced them. They also provide a window into the secretive administration's domestic-policymaking and its impact in the West and elsewhere. The reporters penetrated the federal bureaucracy to show how the White House and political appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department manipulated science, circumvented the law and marginalized or steamrolled career employees. These reports detail how, in the process, the administration adopted regulations or policies that benefited its corporate patrons at the expense of public health and the environment." Also included is an update from February, 2005, that relates the results of a study done by Nikki Tinsley, the EPA's inspector general, at the request of seven senators who read the LA Times original series. Tinsley's report confirmed the LA Times findings.
Tags: environment; pollution; mercury; national Forrest; oil drilling; Halliburton; Clean Air Act; Clear Skies initiative; EPA
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Big Cypress Buyout
New Times reports on the buyout of mineral rights by the Department of the Interior from the wealthy Collier family. The story finds that although the government proclaimed commitment to conservation and environmental practices, the buyout was only a card played to help the re-election of Gov. Jeb Bush in November 2002. "The preserve's regulations already strictly limit most future drilling, and the buyout does nothing to curtail the Collier's drilling regulations now in place." Another issue reported in the story is whether the price paid for Collier's rights was not unreasonably high.
Tags: politics; George W. Bush; environment; land; drilling; mineral resources
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The Last Indian Fighter; Slade Gorton is American Indians' Public Enemy No. 1
Former Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA), who supported natural resource industries such as timber and mining companies, was frequently at odds with the Native American community. This article is a good first step to learning more about Gorton's positions and issues facing Native Americans.
Tags: Department of the Interior; National Congress of American Indians; Boldt decision; fishing rights; salmon; Non-indian negotiating group; Endangered Species Act; ESA; timber; oil; gas; mining; campaign contributions; lobbying; Citizen's Equal Rights Alliance; CERA; Wise Use; Lummi tribe; casinos; treaties
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Fragile
Florida Trend Magazine reports on the $8 billion restoration deal for the Everglades-" how it will work and how it could fall apart. . . Nearly 2 billion gallons of water that once flowed through the ecosystem each day are now diverted to the ocean or Gulf. The plan proposes to capture most of this water in more than 217,000 acres of reservoirs and wetlands-based treatment areas and 330 underground aquifer storage and recovery wells." The article details the politics, science, bureaucrats, interest groups, natural issues and the interested parties involved in the plan and how their actions could result in its success or failure
Tags: environment; Everglades; Everglades National Park; restoration; Water Resources Development Acts; U.S. Department of Interior; South Florida Management District; Everglades Forever Act
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Giving the West away
The Progressive looks at land exchange programs that the Clinton administration has administered in favor of private parties. The report reveals that "in the past five years, more than 1.5 million acres have been traded away in hundreds of swaps ... and some of the deals have been particularly lopsided." The investigation reports on a GAO investigation which has found that "the accounting system [of the Bureau of Land Management] didn't keep track of the value of the land exchanges, making it impossible to determine whether the deal were legal." The story exposes how several firms close to "one of the land exchange program's biggest boosters ... Clinton's Interior Secretary, Bruce Babbitt, ... have been on the receiving end of federal land swaps."
Tags: Forest Service; James Watt; environment; conflicts of interest; land; Interior Department
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Proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump: How it's effecting breast cancer politics
This article investigates the repercussions on politics concerning breast cancer on the proposal to house a nuclear waste dump in California.
Tags: cancer; nuclear waste dump U.S. Ecology U.S. Department of the Interior Native Americans protest
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Another Broken Trust
The ABA Journal "tells the inside story of government mismanagement of the most significant American Indian case ever filed. The government's bungling in the 1996 case came on top of allegations in the lawsuit that it for more than a century already had mismanaged billions of dollars held in trust for at least 300,000 Indians, some of the nation's most impoverished citizens."
Tags: Justice Department Interior Department Bruce Babbitt Kevin Grover Robert Rubin Indian trust accounts
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Dark Days on Black Mesa A People Betrayed
Traditional Hopi settlements are threatened as their groundwater reserves are rapidly depleted by a multi-national coal company. A 1966 lease agreement between the tribe and Peabody Coal Co. was negotiated by an attorney many Hopi revered, John Boyden. Records and interviews now reveal that Boyden was representing Peabody at the same time he negotiated the coal lease on the Hopi's behalf. Many Hopi want Peabody to find another water source and have asked the U.S. Department of the Interior to intervene. Former Interior Secretary Stuart Udall is among those demanding that the federal government stop Peabody from using the groundwater.