Salazar opens probe into oil shale revision

摘要

Washington-US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said October 20 he has asked his inspector general to investigate a move by department officials in the waning days of the Bush administration to add "lucrative" terms and low royalty rates to six oil shale research, development and deployment leases once they were converted to commercial leases. The changes to the existing leases, granted in 2007, were offered by Interior officials on January 15, just five days before Bush left office.