Seems they had to pay "thousands more" for oil leases than they'd planned. I suppose that's going to have serious impact on their billions in profits. From TPM, I found these bits wonderful:
"He's tainted the entire auction," said Kent Hoffman, deputy state director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Utah.
Hoffman said buyers will have 10 days to reconsider and withdraw their bids if they think they paid too much.
"Tainted" the auction? How do you taint something that's already highly suspect?
Digby had some comments on this one:
Huh? Paid TOO MUCH? If a buyer is paying millions of dollars for oil-rich land, they obviously think it's worth it. What DeChristopher did was prove that the BLM was giving away federal land, basically owned by the taxpayers, to noncompetitive interests at obscenely low rates, and that the bidders would clearly pay more if forced. I thought these capitalists believed in the free market?
One slightly misleading statement: I work it out to less than $50 per acre, plus fees. Where in the hell can you buy land for less than $50 per acre these days? Giveaway? Absolutely.
And this gives a hint about the relationship between the oil companies and BLM:
Other bidders at the auction had complained about DeChristopher as unfamiliar and bidding in an unconventional fashion, which raised suspicions. . . .
"Unfamiliar." Sounds like a nice clubby sort of thing, doesn't it?
I think the Obama administration needs to take a long hard look at oil leasing practices. I don't expect them to, but they need to.
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