Salazar asks the department’s inspector general to look at amendments, potentially worth billions to shale leaseholders, finalized during the final days of the Bush administration.

By Jim Tankersley and Josh Meyer/L.A. Times

Reporting from Washington -

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today that he has asked the department’s inspector general to investigate a controversial set of contract amendments, finalized
in the waning days of the Bush administration, that locked in industry-favorable royalty rates and environmental regulations for a series of oil shale leases on federal land in Colorado and Utah.

Interior officials previously told The Times’ Washington Bureau they were reviewing the highly unusual amendments, which could be worth billions to shale leaseholders, including Royal Dutch Shell, which holds three of the six leases.

“There are serious questions about whether those lease addenda are in fact legal,” Salazar said in a conference call with reporters, “and in fact whether or not they should be rescinded.”

“Taxpayers deserve answers to serious questions about why these lease addenda were granted at the eleventh hour, under what circumstances, and at what potential expense to the federal treasury,” Salazar added in a news release. “We must reform our nation’s oil-shale program and ensure that the American people have the promise of a fair return from their resources.”