At a time when even former Texas oilman President George Bush points out that oil companies don't need additional financial incentives to drill for oil, the federal government is poised to make a $7 billion gift to oil companies over the next five years.

Despite the fact that some legal observers believe there is little that can be done to prevent what one Republican lawmaker calls "one of the greatest train robberies in history," Congress and the president should step forward to ensure that the unwarranted giveaway doesn't happen.

When the law establishing what is called "royalty relief" was passed in the 1990s, oil prices on the world market were low and the intent of the law was to provide financial incentives to oil companies to continue to drill for oil. Today, with oil selling at $60 a barrel, such artificial incentives are no longer necessary.

To make matters worse, the incentives provided through royalty relief were actually broadened during the Clinton administration.

It's clear that maintaining the royalty relief is wrong. Oil companies should pay the U.S. treasury a royalty for oil and gas taken from land owned by the federal government — in other words, the taxpayers. The oil companies pay royalty payments when oil is extracted from privately owned land that they do not own. There is no reason for eliminating those royalty payments when the land is owned by the government — except that the oil companies expect that they get away with it, because of their influence in Congress.

After the story broke in the New York Times earlier this week, there is legislation being drafted by two Senate Democrats to change the rules on royalty forgiveness. A similar proposal to end the giveaway will also be introduced in the House.

It might be appropriate to offer royalty relief when oil prices are low, say $20 a barrel or less, but not at $60 a barrel. There was, in fact, a provision in the royalty relief law to suspend the benefits when oil prices rose above a certain point, but those price triggers were eliminated by Clinton administration officials in 1998 and 1999. And there is some doubt as to whether Congress can legally make retroactive changes to oil-drilling leases already signed.

But Congress must be able to find some way to prevent oil companies, that have been booking record profits (Exxon/Mobil alone saw profits jump 42 percent to $36 billion in 2005), from benefiting from this government giveaway at a time when drivers are paying high prices for gas and the federal deficit is at record setting levels.

It just doesn't make sense and isn't fair to taxpayers.

Some oil companies are already preparing legal arguments to prevent the elimination of their royalty relief. It is almost unbelievable that oil companies, awash in billions of dollars in profits, are going to court to defend this taxpayer giveaway.

Public outrage over this scandal must motivate Congress to find a way to end this ludicrous giveaway to oil companies.

Beyond the stark reality that this giveaway to big business is indefensible and wrong, it's disturbing to think that without the work of a New York Times reporter, this story might never have come to light. Without the news coverage, the billion-dollar-gift to the world's wealthiest oil companies would have quietly continued.

Only after being asked by reporters have a few members of Congress gone on record saying the billion-dollar giveaway is wrong. This is an example of the dangers of Congress' practice of granting favors to the well-connected few at the expense of the many — average taxpayers and citizens.