Johnnie Burton to head Minerals Management Service

Johnnie Burton, head of the Wyoming Department of Revenue since 1998, will be the new director of the US Minerals Management Service, government and industry sources said Tuesday. MMS did not immediately comment on the position. Burton is expected to take the post in March, sources said.

Jan. 8, 2002

Maureen Lorenzetti
OGJ Online

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 8 -- R.M. "Johnnie" Burton, head of the Wyoming Department of Revenue since 1998, will be the new director of the US Minerals Management Service, government and industry sources said Tuesday.

MMS did not immediately comment on the position, which does not require Senate confirmation.

Burton is expected to take over the position in March from Acting Director Lucy Querques Denett, a 20-year MMS veteran, who has held that office for about 3 months.

Burton first ran the Wyoming department from January 1995 through April 1997, according to a release issued by the state in September 1998, when she returned.

In the Clinton administration, the agency director first was Cynthia Quarterman, a private tax attorney. Then the post was held by Walter Rosenbusch, a former Interior Department aide in the Clinton administration. Rosenbusch was previously an industry analyst with Ernst & Young in Houston.

MMS is the Department of Interior branch that collects, accounts for, and distributes nearly $7 billion/year in revenues from mineral production on federal and Indian leases.

Contact Maureen Lorenzetti at [email protected]