A new report says that Big Oil enticed U.S. government employees with sex, drugs, and other “improper” gifts.

If any doubt was left about the complicit corruption of current U.S. energy policy, a report released earlier today by the Interior Department’s inspector general stated that U.S. government employees received what they politely called “improper gifts” from 4 major oil and gas companies.

The $5.3 million dollar investigation found “recreational marijuana and cocaine use” by “a handful” of Interior Department staff and that two federal employees “engaged in brief sexual relationships with representatives from companies doing business” with the department.



Two Interior Department employees “received combined gifts and gratuities on at least 135 occasions from four major oil and gas companies with whom they were doing business — a textbook example of improperly receiving gifts from prohibited sources,” Inspector General Earl Devaney says in a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne accompanying the report.

Two of the companies mentioned in the report, Shell and Chevron, have declined to comment, saying they need time to review the report.

Allegedly, about 1/3 of the Interior department (19 members) were involved in “inappropriate” behavior, but its unclear what disciplinary action may follow. The Department of Justice has declined to prosecute two of the employees listed in the report (one of whom has pleaded guilty to a criminal charge) but would not say why.

Final words from Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-New York and chairwoman of the House Rules Committee:

“The Bush administration put an ‘America for Sale’ sign on the White House lawn from day one and has been courting Big Oil ever since. . .This administration is literally in bed with Big Oil. Little did we know they were such a cheap date.”

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