Impaired

Following through on Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne’s pledge last month to take a “fresh look” at the agency’s impaired royalty-collection practices, the department announced Wednesday that it has formed an independent panel to review and offer advice on ways to improve Interior’s mineral revenue collection from federal offshore/onshore and Indian lands. A Democratic congressman quickly denounced Interior’s action, saying he had “no faith” in the ability of the department to police itself.

The Energy Information Administration in its Short-Term Energy Outlook for December projects a speedier recovery for hurricane-impaired Gulf of Mexico natural gas infrastructure, citing the innovative methods producers are employing to reroute their gas around damaged pipelines to reach working processing plants.