Defense Department

Boosted By Jordan, Oil Company Overcharged U.S. Military For Fuel In Iraq

Ryan J. Reilly | September 27, 2011, 6:00AM

A soldier helps guard the Rumelia Oil Field in southern Iraq on April 2, 2003.

An oil company supplying the U.S. military with gas in Iraq was able to overcharge the government because they were the only company authorized by Jordan to transport through their country, according to a Defense Department Inspector General report obtained by TPM via Freedom of Information Request.

The International Oil Trading Company (IOTC) was paid "about $160 to $204 million (or 6 to 7 percent) more for fuel than could be supported by price or cost analysis," according to the report. Investigators also found that Kellogg, Brown, and Root performed an "inherently
governmental function" by accepting fuel on behalf of the government.

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BP

Feds Sue Nine Companies Over Gulf Oil Spill, Won't Rule Out Criminal Charges

Ryan J. Reilly | December 15, 2010, 3:52PM

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig

Federal officials filed a civil lawsuit on Wednesday against BP and eight other companies that the government says committed environmental violations that caused or contributed to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

The lawsuit seeks for eight companies to be held liable without limitation for both removal costs and damages caused by the oil spill (including natural resource damages) and seeks civil penalties under the Clean Water Act.

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Gulf Coast Oil Spill

TPM's Tour Of The Oil Spill Flack Universe -- Who's On Damage Control?

Christina Bellantoni | May 5, 2010, 12:25PM

Clockwise, from top left: Workers organize for oil cleanup efforts in Venice, LA, the U.S. Capitol, the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling platform sinks, and API President and CEO Jack Gerard

As the oil industry went into full damage control mode following the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico, their corporate public relations went into overdrive too, with firms across Washington jumping in to help British Petroleum and BP firing up its Facebook page and Twitter feed. The universe of flacks Americans might be seeing on television and quoted in news stories has widened, with BP executives making the rounds, hosting journalists for explainer sessions and corporate PR folks helping craft an image of a company doing everything it can to help.

The industry already had an army of lobbyists and PR hands deployed in Washington to influence the negotiations over climate change legislation (which may be in dire straits thanks to the spill), and BP brought in the international consulting firm the Brunswick Group.

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Tony Hayward

BP Chief Claims Oil Spill 'Wasn't Our Accident' Despite BP Role In Running Rig (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | May 4, 2010, 9:26AM

BP Group CEO Tony Hayward

The CEO of BP is trying to get out in front of potential lawsuits by casting the blame for the Gulf oil spill squarely on the owner of the rig: Transocean. But in doing so in media interviews Monday, BP's Tony Hayward appears to have also gotten out in front of the known facts.

"It wasn't our accident," he told the Today Show on Monday. Pressed by anchor Meredith Vieira, Hayward claimed: "the drilling rig was a Transocean drilling rig. It was their rig and their equipment that failed, run by their people, their processes."

But oil industry experts tell TPMmuckraker that BP, as the lease operator on the Deepwater Horizon rig, most likely did have a role in decision-making aboard the drilling vessel. And six BP employees were on the rig when it exploded April 20.

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Don Young

Don Young To GOP: Earmark Ban Schmearmark Ban

Zachary Roth | March 16, 2010, 2:53PM

Rep. Don Young (R-AK)

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) praising earmarks is hardly news. After all, the Alaska lawmaker, whose "generous appetite for legislative pork," was once noted by the New Republic, is a co-sponsor of the Bridge to Nowhere, and bragged of an appropriations bill that he had "stuffed it like a turkey" with homestate spending items.

But these days, Young's pro-earmark position isn't jibing too well with the image the GOP caucus wants to project. Eager to present themselves as more restrained than House Democrats and the Obama administration, House Republicans last week announced a one-year earmark hiatus.

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Oil Business

CREW Calls On State Dept. To Probe Galbraith Over Kurdish Oil Dealings

Justin Elliott | November 19, 2009, 6:30PM

Peter Galbraith

A good government group is calling on the State Department to investigate the role of former ambassador Peter Galbraith in drafting Iraq's constitution in 2005 while he held a lucrative stake in a Kurdish oil field.

The letter from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to the State Dept. Inspector General asks whether State approved Galbraith's activities, and cites a recent New York Times exposé that built off work of the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv.

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