Amendments

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today that he has asked the department's inspector general to investigate a controversial set of contract amendments, finalized in the waning days of the Bush administration, that locked in industry-favorable royalty rates and environmental regulations for a series of oil shale leases on federal land in Colorado and Utah. Interior officials previously told The Times' Washington Bureau they were reviewing the highly unusual amendments, which could be worth billions to shale leaseholders, including Royal Dutch Shell, which holds three of the six leases.