Conservative Supreme Court Gives Big Oil a Windfall

If there's one thing we can say with certainty is that the 5-4 conservative majority favors business as usual and it favors privilege. Here's a story on how the Supreme Court may have just handed the oil industry $19 billion:

The Supreme Court rejected on Monday an Interior Department appeal of a ruling that the government says will likely cost it at least $19 billion in lost oil royalties from energy companies.

The justices declined to review a ruling by a U.S. appeals court that Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC.N) did not have to pay about $350 million in royalties for drilling on federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico issued between 1996 and 2000.

Maybe the bankers who received their $10 million bonuses despite the economic meltdown are in the wrong business.