An internal investigation of the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service has uncovered widespread drug use, inappropriate sexual relations, alcohol abuse, and lots of gift giving - all between the Service and the oil and gas industry they're monitoring.

This really can't come as a shock. The Bush administration in general, and the Department of Interior in particular have shown nothing but disdain for the environment for seven years now, so why should we be shocked to learn the Minerals folks who are responsible for collecting royalty money from the oil and gas people are doing blow with them too?

Ok, I can't actually confirm that it was 'blow' and not 'grass' or anything else for that matter, but crickey, how sad is it that the level of political discourse in the current administration is, 'what kind of drugs are the watchdogs doing with the coyotes?

Implicated in the report were Chevron, Shell Oil, Hess Corp and Gary Williams Energy Corp.

Reuters has a good run down of the report <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1043918820080911?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0" target="Blank">here</a>, and we'll keep you posted on where it goes from here.