Alby Modiano
GGL
AI Overview
Albert L. Modiano worked at the Minerals Management Service (MMS) as Deputy Director from 1999 to 2002, before later becoming the president of the U.S. Oil & Gas Association. The MMS itself was established by the Department of the Interior in 1982. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Career Timeline Highlights
- 1982: The Minerals Management Service is created to manage offshore and federal mineral resources.
- 1999–2002: Albert Modiano serves as Deputy Director of the MMS.
- 2002–2004+: Modiano transitions to lead the U.S. Oil & Gas Association. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
AI Overview
Albert L. "Alby" Modiano served as the President of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association from the mid-1990s through mid-2020. Prior to his long tenure leading the association, he built an extensive career in federal energy and natural resource policy, notably serving as the Deputy Director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) within the U.S. Department of the Interior. [1, 2, 3]
His background includes a blend of high-level policy, industry advocacy, and government service: [1, 2]
- Association Leadership: He officially served as President and Secretary-Treasurer for the U.S. Oil and Gas Association until the summer of 2020. [1]
- Government Service: Before his time at the USOGA, Mr. Modiano was the Deputy Director of the Minerals Management Service, an agency under the Department of the Interior responsible for managing the nation's natural gas, oil, and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf. [1]
- Energy Policy Roles: He also served as the Office Director of Oil Policy at the Department of Energy, and held key roles within the International Energy Agency and the American Petroleum Institute. [1]
- Advisory Committees: He contributed to the Royalty Policy Advisory Committee and the Ultra-Deepwater OCS Advisory Committee. [1]
Following his transition in mid-2020, Timothy Stewart assumed the presidency of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association. [1]
AI Overview
Yes, Albert L. "Alby" Modiano served as the President of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association (USOGA) for nearly three decades, leading the organization from 1993 through mid-2020. 
Oregon Public Broadcasting - OPB +1
Prior to his long tenure with USOGA, Modiano held key government energy and policy roles, including Deputy Director of the Minerals Management Service at the U.S. Department of Interior. You can review his full career background and prior roles on the Department of the Interior archive or view his compensation and historical leadership dates via the ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer.
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IND RES
https://www.doi.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/17-01162ce.pdf
albert L. Modiano is President of US Oil & Gas Association in Washington, DC. The Association has over 4,500 members with Divisions in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi.
Prior to joining the US Oil & Gas Association, Mr. Modiano served as Deputy Director of the Minerals Management Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Mr. Modiano also served as an Office Director Oil Policy in the U.S. Department of Energy. His prior experience includes positions with the American Petroleum Institute, International Energy Agency, and Federal Energy Administration and as an energy legislative assistant to Senator Howard Metzenbaum.
Mr. Modiano received several awards and commendations while serving at the Department of the Interior, including the Secretary’s Silver Medal. Mr. Modiano has served on the Secretary of the Interior’s Royalty Policy Advisory Committee and the Secretary of Energy’s Ultra-Deepwater OCS Advisory Committee.
Mr. Modiano’s publications include Energy Data of Developing Countries for IEA and “Energy Conservation in US Refineries” in Hydrocarbon Processing. For several years he penned a monthly “Washington Report “ in publication published by and for the Texas oil and gas industry. Mr. Modiano graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Cum Laude from Hobart College. He was a Hillman Fellow at the University of Chicago and also attended Harvard University.
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Dark money group targets Oregon swing districts with new mailers, ads
- Julia Shumway - Oregon Capital Chronicle
- February 16, 2024
The Coalition for Safe, Healthy and Prosperous Communities send new ads to voters praising Republicans and criticizing Democrats. (Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle and submitted photo)
A dark money group founded by a national Republican political operative and oil industry lobbyists stepped up its efforts to influence Oregon voters this week, sending mailers and buying ad space in seven competitive state House districts.
Voters in the four Republican-held districts received glossy pieces of mail asking them to thank their representatives for sponsoring a bill to make drug possession a misdemeanor punishable by a year in jail, while voters in three swing districts held by Democrats were told their representatives “failed to protect Oregonians.” Some voters saw television ads.
The ads and mailers were paid for by the Coalition for Safe, Healthy and Prosperous Communities, a dark money group that has been involved in Oregon politics since 2022. That summer, the Capital Chronicle detailed how the coalition managed to avoid campaign finance laws by carefully wording its missives: Groups that do issue advocacy, or spend to support a cause that isn’t directly tied to an election, don’t have to file as political action committees or report their campaign spending or fundraising.
Nearly two years later, details about the organization remain scarce, though voters throughout the state have continued to see mail, web ads and even billboards paid for by the secretive group. Documents the group filed with the Internal Revenue Service last fall show it spent nearly $550,000 in 2022, with no data yet available for 2023 or 2024.
The organization didn’t respond to an attempt to reach it through the “contact us” tab on its website and has no other available contact information.
The coalition paid for a billboard last fall above the Lucky Thai Elephant Restaurant in Newport, thanking Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, for “leading our district toward a brighter future.” Last April, constituents of Rep. Hoa Nguyen, D-Portland, received text messages claiming she sponsored a bill she didn’t actually sponsor that would have allowed cities to ban fossil fuels in new construction. Republican Rep. Cyrus Javadi’s constituents received mail last spring praising him for supporting police funding, and online ads urged voters to email Rep. Ricki Ruiz, D-Gresham, to demand to know why he wanted to “put tampons in boys’ bathrooms,” based on a bill he introduced that would loosen an existing state law requiring free tampons in student bathrooms.
Most of the bills the coalition targeted in the 2023 legislative session had missed key deadlines and were already dead by the time voters saw the ads. That, combined with the latest batch of ads targeting specific candidates in swing districts, raised suspicions among political observers that the group is skirting state campaign finance laws to hide its donors and influence elections.
Under state law, any political communication that supports or opposes a clearly identified candidate must disclose the name of the person or group that paid for it. Most ads or mailers also must disclose the top five contributors to the campaign, and anonymous donations of $1,000 or more can’t be used for communications supporting or opposing a candidate.
Failing to include that information can result in a fine of up to 150% of the cost of printing or broadcasting an ad if an Oregon voter files a written complaint and the secretary of state’s office investigates it. The agency has a backlog of hundreds of election complaints dating back years.
A spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office didn’t immediately respond to a phone call or email.
Documents show big spending with Republican groups
The Coalition for Safe, Healthy and Prosperous Communities hasn’t registered as a business in Oregon. The Internal Revenue Service approved it as a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization, exempt from paying taxes, in March 2022.
That type of nonprofit organization is allowed to advocate issues, but not for or against candidates. It doesn’t have to report its donors, but it does have to file annual Form 990 returns with the IRS each year. It filed two so far: a 2021 notice that the group had less than $50,000 and a 2022 return that shows it received close to $900,000 and spent nearly $550,000.
It didn’t disclose its donors, and it claimed it didn’t engage in “direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf or in opposition to candidates for public office” in 2022. It has no employees but has three unpaid directors. President Marc Himmelstein is a longtime lobbyist for the energy industry. Secretary Jeff Berkowitz was formerly the chief researcher for the Republican National Committee. And treasurer Alby Modiano was the president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association from 1993 until at least 2018. None of the men have clear ties to Oregon.
Nonprofit organizations have to report the names of their five highest-paid contractors that receive more than $100,000 in a year, and the coalition’s form shows ties with prominent Republican firms.
The group paid more than $200,000 to Salt Lake City-based Arena LLC for advertising. The mail and digital ad company works with the Republican National Committee and U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Oregon, along with hundreds of other Republican campaigns. The Oregon Right to Life PAC, Republican state Reps. Kevin Mannix, Javadi and Tracy Cramer, as well as state Sen. Suzanne Weber, used the company for their 2022 campaigns, paying nearly $400,000 combined, according to state campaign finance records.
The coalition also spent close to $175,000 on consulting from Colorado-based Ascent Media, a firm founded by the former Republican leader in the Colorado Senate. That company worked to elect Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan in 2022, and state campaign finance records show a Republican candidate from southern Oregon paid it more than $565,000 in his failed attempt to replace Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland.
None of the coalition’s spending is visible on ORESTAR, the state’s campaign finance system.
Traci Bean, a Democratic voter in Javadi’s district, started hunting for information when she received mail praising Javadi last year. She’s more familiar with the state’s campaign finance system than many voters, having served as a treasurer for two different political action committees, but she couldn’t find anything on ORESTAR or when she tried to contact the coalition directly. When she got in touch with Javadi’s office, his staff told her they didn’t know anything about it.
“I am disturbed every time I run into these black holes where you can’t find anything,” Bean said. “Because as a voter and as a citizen, I want to be informed.”
Cole Avery, executive director of the House Republican Caucus’s Evergreen Political Action Committee, said Republican lawmakers didn’t know about the ads.
“To my knowledge, our candidates have had no coordination with this organization and had no knowledge of the mailers,” Avery said. “The law allows for advocacy in the political space. Whether or not this organization’s advocacy is in compliance with the law is a question for the organization.”
Ads target swing districts
The latest round of mailers and ads are targeted at seven competitive House districts, four represented by Republicans and three by Democrats. All are held by representatives elected in 2022 for the first time or after a break in legislative service, and they’re all top priorities for both parties as Democrats seek to protect and expand their majority in the House and Republicans try to make inroads. Democrats now hold 35 districts; Republicans, 25.
Mannix and Cramer flipped two Marion County legislative districts formerly represented by Democrats, who outnumber Republicans in both districts. Their opponents’ personal issues – Mannix’s opponent spent time in prison for selling marijuana and Cramer’s opponent visited a spa where he later reported experiencing unwanted sexual advances – and low turnout among Democratic-leaning voters contributed to their victories.
Democrats also outnumber Republicans in Javadi’s coastal district, where Democrat Logan Laity is looking for a rematch after losing by fewer than 850 votes in a 2022 contest that saw nearly 35,000 votes cast. And Republican Rep. Jeff Helfrich, R-Hood River, won his district in the Columbia River Gorge by just more than 1,600 votes after narrowly losing in a similar district in 2018 and 2020.
The coalition’s mailers and 15-second ads praise the four Republicans for sponsoring House Bill 4036, which would create penalties for drug possession as part of the Republican response to the state’s addiction crisis. They include phone numbers that provide a patch-through line to the legislators’ offices.
The ads targeting Democratic Reps. Annessa Hartman, Emerson Levy and Hoa Nguyen, meanwhile, ask where the representatives are as Oregonians die from dangerous drugs. They also include a number.
Hartman, Levy and Nguyen all narrowly won their races in 2022 in districts based in Oregon City, Bend and southeast Portland, respectively.
Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.
STORY TIP OR IDEA? Send an email to Salem Reporter’s news team: info@salemreporter.com.
Julia Shumway - Oregon Capital Chronicle
Julia Shumway is editor of Oregon Capital Chronicle and has reported on government and politics in Iowa and Nebraska, spent time at the Bend Bulletin and most recently was a legislative reporter for the Arizona Capitol Times in Phoenix. An award-winning journalist, Julia most recently reported on the tangled efforts to audit the presidential results in Arizona.
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politco
By Talia Buford10/11/2011
It was a rebranding of the largest order.
In the wake of a sex, drugs and oil-permitting scandal, the BP spill and long-standing controversies over revenue collection, the Interior Department had to do some major shop cleaning in how it managed offshore drilling.
The Minerals Management Service — the nearly 2,000-employee agency charged with the missions of permitting, inspecting and collecting royalties from oil and gas exploration on federal lands — was too close to the industry it was charged with regulating.
“For a decade or more, the cozy relationship between the oil companies and the federal agency was allowed to go unchecked,” President Barack Obama said last year. “That allowed drilling permits to be issued in exchange not for safety plans but assurances of safety from oil companies. That cannot and will not happen anymore.”
MMS begat the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement — a transitional agency meant to bridge the gap, and separate the conflicts of interest — while Interior undertook a more intensive restructuring. BOEMRE handled regulation and enforcement of oil and gas permits, while a new organization — the Office of Natural Resources Revenue — was created solely to handle the money collected from oil and natural gas leases.
This month, Interior completed the nearly 18-month reorganization when it officially established the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement as successor agencies to MMS. BSEE will oversee permitting, inspections, enforcement and safety of offshore oil and gas operations, while BOEM will handle energy leasing and planning in federal waters. BOEMRE’s chief, Michael Bromwich, will stay on as head of BSEE until a permanent director is found. (See a graphic about the reorganization here.)
Some environmentalists and industry officials are leery that the reorganization will fall flat and either be plagued with the same problems as MMS or choke industry development with red tape and bureaucracy.
“We’re concerned that there hasn’t been enough independence established for the regulatory and enforcement agency,” said Regan Nelson, senior oceans advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We’ve been saying all along, we feel like to ensure independence, there needs to be a separate line of reporting up through the chain of command. Right now, the way that the leasing agency and the regulators simply report to the same person within the agency doesn’t do enough to ensure the independence of the process.”
Currently, BSEE and BOEM both report to the assistant secretary of land minerals management, which, Nelson said, could make it hard for the inspectors to exercise their autonomy.
Industry officials are anxious about what the changes will mean and whether there will be a logjam in the permitting process, said Andy Radford, senior policy adviser for offshore drilling at the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group.
“We’re a bit anxious in terms of getting the work done in the Gulf and getting permits approved and plans approved to make sure the process is efficient and the agencies have the resources needed to get things done,” Radford said.
Interior has already hired 120 new people to fill slots in BSEE and BOEM, and Bromwich expects that budget requests for BSEE will call for an additional 200 people to fill inspector and engineering positions.
“They’ve worked hard on this, and they deserve the opportunity to make it work before we come out too hard without any evidence that it’s not working,” Radford said. “Let’s give it a chance.”
ONRR was established to handle the revenue collection duties of MMS, essentially taking in the money when oil and gas companies secure a lease to drill on federally owned land or offshore, as well as the royalties for the resources extracted. ONRR managed payments from oil and gas companies at a rate of about $1 billion per month, and it disbursed more than $9.1 billion during fiscal year 2010, according to the agency’s website.
Once processed, a portion of the money goes to the state in which drilling occurred with the remainder going to finance federal water reclamation projects in the Western United States and to the Treasury. The agency returns all of the money collected from leases on Native American lands to the tribes and landowners.
BOEM, led by former BOEMRE senior adviser Tommy P. Beaudreau, is responsible for managing offshore leases, environmental evaluation, review and administration of oil and gas exploration and development plans, and development of renewable energy projects. The office will also conduct environmental studies and analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act.
BSEE is tasked with ensuring offshore gas and oil development is done safely, from both the environmental and staffing aspects. BSEE will conduct inspections and permit gas exploration sites, and it is responsible for formulating and enforcing safety and environmental regulations. Oil spill response, training and environmental compliance programs also fall under BSEE’s purview.
Albert Modiano, president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association and a former deputy at MMS, said the reorganization makes good moves toward eliminating conflicts of interest.
“In the end, the most important measure of a reorganization’s success is if it works as intended — and as the industry relies so much on the actions of the [Interior] Department for access, leasing and permit review, it is critical that a new bureaucracy make things better, not worse,” he said.
It’s hard to imagine that anything can be worse than MMS. For years, as documented in a series of inspector general reports, the agency had a tawdry relationship with the oil industry it was tasked with regulating.
One report found that 19 employees in the royalty-in-kind program routinely accepted gifts from and socialized with companies it was tasked with regulating. The IG detailed incidents of employees having sex and getting drunk with industry officials, accepting hunting trips and sporting event tickets from companies, viewing pornography at work and coming to work under the influence of drugs.
The IG also found that at least one inspector was negotiating a position at an oil company while he was responsible for inspecting its offshore platforms.
The fraternizing and potential missteps were only magnified in the wake of the BP oil spill. MMS shortcomings were too big to be ignored.
First, the royalty-in-kind program was abolished, with the existing leases phased out within months of the spill. MMS got a new name and a new director, Bromwich, a former Clinton administration inspector with a reputation for rooting out misconduct in organizations.
During its short life, BOEMRE formed an investigative team to root out malfeasance within the agency, while Bromwich became a fixture on Capitol Hill fielding questions during hearings on the BP oil spill.
Simultaneously, BOEMRE launched what it characterized as “the most aggressive and comprehensive reforms to offshore oil and gas regulation and oversight in U.S. history.” The reforms implemented stronger controls for well design, casing and cementing, inspection and certification and introduced workplace safety and environmental-safeguard programs for offshore operators.
New rules require inspectors to recuse themselves from inspecting the facilities of former employers, and the reporting of industry attempts to unduly influence inspectors. Browmich told the House Natural Resources Committee in July that the new reforms were already bearing fruit: An internal review showed more than 50 instances in which inspectors in the Gulf of Mexico recused themselves in compliance with the new policy between September 2010 and April 2011.
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GLL 7 26
Albert L. Modiano
U.S. Department of the Interior (.gov)
https://www.doi.gov › default › files › uploads
May 1, 2017 — Albert L. Modiano is President of US Oil & Gas Association in Washington, DC. The Association has over 4,500 members with Divisions in Texas, ...Read more
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Dark money group targets Oregon swing districts with new ...
Oregon Public Broadcasting - OPB
https://www.opb.org › article › 2024/02/16 › oregon-s...
Feb 16, 2024 — A dark money group founded by a national Republican political operative and oil industry lobbyists stepped up its efforts to influence Oregon voters this week.Read more
Mystery group sending anti-Democrat mailers, prepping ...
https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com › 2022/07/25 › myst...
Jul 25, 2022 — Earlier this month, some Oregon voters began receiving glossy mailers blaming Gov. Kate Brown and the “Democrat-controlled state Legislature” ...Read more
Dark money group takes aim at Democratic majority in ...
https://www.oregonlive.com › politics › 2022/07 › dark-...
Jul 27, 2022 — The mailers, the website and the ads were all paid for by a new dark money group, the Coalition for Safe, Healthy and Prosperous ...
Detectives Investigating Suspicious Death in White City ...
https://roguevalleymagazine.com › 2022/07/27 › rogue-...
Jul 27, 2022 — Rogue Valley News, Wednesday 7/27 – Detectives Investigating Suspicious Death in White City, Court Affidavit Shows Timeline For Kendra Hanks ...Read more
U.S. Oil and Gas Association
https://www.legistorm.com › organization › summary
LegiStorm's information on U.S. Oil and Gas Association including any related organizations, trips sponsored, lobbying information, earmarks and more.
Missing: until least
Us Oil & Gas Association - Nonprofit Explorer
https://projects.propublica.org › organizations
Since 2013, the IRS has released data culled from millions of nonprofit tax filings. Use this database to find organizations and see details like their ...
Missing: 1993 until least
Trades-Comments-CBP-Jones-Act-Rulings-Notice- ...
Independent Petroleum Association of America
https://www.ipaa.org › uploads › 2017/05 › Trad...
4, 2017). 3 Attachment B: “Economic Impacts of Proposed Modification and Revocation of Jones Act Ruling Letters Related to Offshore Oil and ...Read more.,Oil%20and%20Natural%20Gas%20Activities.)
132 pages
I. Introduction
U.S. Department of the Interior (.gov)
https://www.doi.gov › default › files › uploads › r...
Oct 4, 2017 — Secretary Zinke highlighted the importance of the RPC, particularly for. Page 3. Royalty Policy Committee – October 2017 Meeting. 3 simplifying ...Read more
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