Hammond: Any gain for Pearce ‘purely speculation’

Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Coeur d’Alene, made it clear that he’s not convinced Sen. Monty Pearce had a conflict of interest in oil and gas legislation, despite having signed an oil and gas lease with a company that was a major proponent of the bill. “The gain that he could receive as a result of that bill is purely speculation, and it is a gain that is the same for him as for hundreds of other lessees or possible lessees within that class,” Hammond said. “I am really feeling frustrated at this point, because I’ve been dealing with conflict of interest as a public official for 30 years, I understand conflict of interest.”

Hammond said, “Sen. Pearce would have been well served to have said that, said his conflict sooner. From a personal gain, from a pecuniary gain, I can’t see that he had anything possible to gain greater than anybody else in his class.”

Pearce’s attorney, Chuck Peterson, responded, “I think you’re absolutely right.”  Peterson said Pearce’s lease “was a matter of public record, and it is a form contract that is based on a dollar amount per acre, like so many other Idahoans, hundreds and perhaps up to a thousand Idahoans who have signed similar contracts. Will any of those contracts result in a single dollar outside the value that is in the leasehold interest? Will any one of them? Can anybody answer that question? Of course not. We don’t know. … We have no idea whether any individual well would result in a dollar’s worth of income to any of the thousand Idahoans who have signed similar leases to this.”