Big Oil advocate and Baker Botts attorney, Gregory Copeland has just been nominated to serve as General Counsel for the Department of Energy. A brief look at his bio on the Baker Botts web site confirms that he has spent his career defending the interests of Big Oil. You'll note his representation of Marathon Oil in multiple cases. It's ironic that, having defended Marathon against charges that they systematically underpaid royalties owed to the Department of Interior/Minerals Management Service (MMS), he is now seen fit by George Bush to perform "public service".

Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley spoke out about the cozy connections between the oil companies and those government officials who are supposed to enforce the laws and ensure oil companies pay for drilling on public lands:

Not to mention that the "cost" our government charges the oil companies for oil taken from public lands is far from the true cost of that oil, as Darksyde wrote on DailyKos:

When the U.S. Government prices oil for sale it's already dramatically undervalued, making the systemic failure to collect what the oil companies owe doubly bad. Bringing another big oil company lawyer to the table -- to represent "We the People" of all things -- is certainly not going to tip the scales to the side of justice.

And in case you forgot, Copeland's firm, Baker Botts, are the people who represented Bush in Bush v Gore, the case that stole the Presidency from the American people.