Oil brokers’ sex scandal ahead of key drilling vote

A SCANDAL involving sex, drugs and offshore oil drilling has emerged.

It’s a strange mix, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time for those in Congress, pressing to expand oil and gas development off America’s beaches while trying to stave off an election-year rush by Democrats to impose new taxes and royalties on the oil industry.

An Interior Department investigation, describing a “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” by workers at the agency that issues offshore drilling leases and collects royalties, has hit lawmakers just as they prepared for votes next week on expanding offshore drilling.