Please read this unbelievable tale of corruption and pass it on to your friends. Big Oil wants more drilling – but this is the agency we're expected to entrust with our public lands and coastlines? Are they kidding?! Click here now to tell lawmakers: "We deserve better." Congress will be making the hard choices this week about our nation's energy future. Yet some Big Oil allies are still proposing the same drill-it-all approach to energy of the past. Make sure your lawmakers are on the right side. It's now official; our government really is in bed with Big Oil. We're not talking fancy rhetoric here or overzealous propaganda. According to a report by the Inspector General of the Department of Interior, a group of public servants entrusted with collecting $4.3 billion in in-kind royalty payments from oil companies operating on our public lands, were actually bedding down, doing drugs and accepting gifts from oil company employees. Between 2002 and 2006, fully one-third of the In-Kind Royalty Division, based outside Denver, Colorado, had improper relations with and received a wide array of gifts and gratuities from Big Oil. Two of the 19 employees cited received gifts on more than 135 occasions from Shell, Chevron, Hess and Denver-based Gary Williams Energy Corp, the LA Times reported. In return, the MMS employees shared key information, helped fix contracts and worked part-time as oil consultants – blatantly shunning the ethics rules that govern all federal workers. This week's bombshell is the latest in a series of reports about MMS. "During the past year, in September and again in May, inspector-general reports have portrayed MMS as a nest of conflict, lapsed controls and potential criminal conduct," reported the Denver Post. Despite these ongoing revelations, the Bush administration is using MMS to give Big Oil access to as much of our nation's public land as possible before a new administration moves into the White House. Just this week, Big Oil's friends in Congress are gearing up to introduce legislation that would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other special places to oil drilling. And, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has decided that MMS will develop a new five-year plan – the government's map to oil and gas leasing over the next five years – a few years early in order to streamline Big Oil's access to millions of acres of sensitive offshore area. In Alaska, key marine habitat in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas is already available for leasing. Kempthorne hopes to use the new five-year plan to ensure that nothing – like the future of the beleaguered polar bear and other endangered marine species – stands in Big Oil's way. For Big Oil, MMS is the Bush administration's gift that keeps on giving. - ShameOnBigOil.org, September 12, 2008 Click here to tell lawmakers to vote against Rep. Boehner and Sen. McConnell's attempts to ram through drilling everywhere including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – both plan to introduce their bogus bills soon. We must demand that Congress leads us toward a future based on clean, renewable energy. Pass it on! Thanks for your help to keep Alaska and our public lands and waters across the country wild! ____________________________________________________________ Click here to find the satellite television package that meets your needs. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3mzvza7PpkVY5QHLK2ue6gNpq611P9CnPSQSj5SESDKszycp/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask] Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/