Salazar leads US charge on oil ‘transparency’

Secretary Salazar and his staff will work with industry and civil society to develop a sensible plan to disclose relevant information about revenues from oil, gas, and mining assets, and to enhance the accountability and transparency of our revenue collection efforts.  Under Secretary Salazar’s leadership, the Department of Interior has a strong record of partnering with industry and citizens to make important strides in reforming the management of our natural resources, and EITI is just the latest in a long series of steps designed to make the U.S. government more open and more accountable to the American people. 

The U.S. collects about $10 billion annually in revenues from oil-and-gas and mining projects on public lands and in public waters offshore.

EITI is part of wider efforts to reverse the “resource curse,” in which some energy- and mineral-rich nations in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere are plagued by corruption, conflict, and poverty as the benefits of their natural resources don’t accrue to the public.

Ian Gary of Oxfam America said last month that the U.S. decision to formally implement EITI will give the U.S. leverage to encourage nations such as Angola to sign on.