“The criminal investigation centers on the Interior Department’s 2006 decision to award three lucrative oil shale leases on federal land in Colorado to a Shell subsidiary. Over the years it would take to extract the oil, according to calculations from Shell and a Rand Corp. expert, the deal could net the company hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Paging Albert Fall: Former Dubya Interior Secretary Gale Norton, whose office was heavily implicated in the Abramoff scandals, is now facing a Justice Department inquiry into a sweetheart deal with Big Oil. “The investigation’s main focus is whether Norton violated a law that prohibits federal employees from discussing employment with a company if they are involved in dealings with the government that could benefit the firm, law enforcement and Interior officials said.“