Dear Mr. Chairman:

On April 11, 2012, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) received a subpoena from the House Committee on Natural Resources (Committee) commanding production of:

Unredacted and complete copies of:

1. All documents identified on the enclosure (Bates number 00032227 SOL-WDC-B01-00001-00000I) to the Department of the Interior's October 13, 2011 letter to the Committee relating to the May 27, 2010 Department report entitled, "Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf."

These documents were created or obtained by the Department of the Interior (DOI or Department) relative to the May 27, 2010 report and Executive Summary to the reprt. In the Executive Summary, the Secretary of the Interior recommended a six-month moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Despite requests by the Committee, followed by a subpoena, the Department has declined to provide these documents to the Committee, saying that they "implicate important Executive Branch confidentially interest."

For the reasons we have conveyed to Committee staff multiple times, and describe in detail below, I respectfully r fer the Committee back to the Department for production of the subject documents.

Read the entire letter HERE.