WASHINGTON -- Staff members at an agency that oversees offshore drilling accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography, according to an Interior Department report alleging a culture of cronyism between regulators and the industry.
In at least one case, an inspector for the Minerals Management Service admitted using crystal methamphetamine and said he might have been under the influence of the drug the next day at work, according to the report by the acting inspector general of the Interior Department.
The report cites a variety of violations of federal regulations and ethics rules at the agency's Louisiana office. Previous inspector general investigations have focused on inappropriate behavior by the royalty-collection staff in the agency's Denver office.
I'm guessing the Obama Administration's answer to this will be to hire more inspectors to look at porn, accept gifts from the people they're supposed to regulate and report for work high on methamphetamines. Somehow more government always seems to be the answer.
Elsewhere, a memorial for the 11 Deepwater Horizon workers killed was held in Jackson, MS earlier today. At the end of the ceremony, a ship bell chimed 11 times and the families were given 11 symbolic hard hats. Transocean has set up a condolences page for visitors to leave a message. The missing and presumed dead include:
Roy Wyatt Kemp, Blair Manuel, Dewey Revette, Shane Roshto, Jason Anderson, Aaron Dale Burkeen, Donald Clark, Stephen Curtis, Karl Kleppinger, Adam Weise and Gordon Jones.
[hat tip: Eat it or Wear it]
Did you like how Liz Birnbaum blamed the mess she inherited for the problems at MMS? Fucking bunch of amatuers.
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