Wasn't this the oil field of the Teapot Dome Scandal?
So, BJ Clinton and Al Gore sell off oil already underground in order to buy other oil somebody pumped out to above ground and pay somebody else to pump it back underground?
Even if the MSM was trying to cover for BJC, there's just too much headline material here to not have printed it as a crime scandal at the time. You'd get to slam Big Oil, and make a fool out of Al Gore; both are great fun.
There is just something about this event that reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes line about the dog that didn't bark in the night. Not even the Republican dogs.
Ray Irani, CEO of Oxy, was a frequent visitor to the White House. He had overnights in the Lincoln Bedroom and his donations to Clinton and Democrat causes probably exceeded $1 million. This was a Gore payback to Oxy for giving Al's old man a sinecure for life.
It was part of it.
Teapot Dome, in U.S. history, oil reserve scandal that began during the administration of President Harding. In 1921, by executive order of the President, control of naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyo., and at Elk Hills, Calif., was transferred from the Navy Dept. to the Dept. of the Interior. The oil reserves had been set aside for the navy by President Wilson. In 1922, Albert B. Fall, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, leased, without competitive bidding, the Teapot Dome fields to Harry F. Sinclair, an oil operator, and the field at Elk Hills, Calif., to Edward L. Doheny. These transactions became (1922–23) the subject of a Senate investigation conducted by Sen. Thomas J. Walsh. It was found that in 1921, Doheny had lent Fall $100,000, interest-free, and that upon Fall's retirement as Secretary of the Interior (Mar., 1923) Sinclair also “loaned” him a large amount of money. The investigation led to criminal prosecutions. Fall was indicted for conspiracy and for accepting bribes. Convicted of the latter charge, he was sentenced to a year in prison and fined $100,000. In another trial for bribery Doheny and Sinclair were acquitted, although Sinclair was subsequently sentenced to prison for contempt of the Senate and for employing detectives to shadow members of the jury in his case. The oil fields were restored to the U.S. government through a Supreme Court decision in 1927.