We recently coined a new term: Frackademia: noun – An academic aligned with frackers.
Frackademia in the news today:
Bloomberg: Frackers Fund University Research That Proves Their Case
By Jim Efstathiou Jr. – Jul 22, 2012 11:00 PM CTPublic Accountability: Contaminated Inquiry: How a University of Texas Fracking Study Led by a Gas Industry Insider Spun the Facts and Misled the Public
July 23, 2012
Read a hilarious post about a serious subject: Frackademia
Frackademia is in the news AGAIN today.
To redeem its reputation, the University of Texas chose a Frackademic for the panel to decide about the Frackademic’s fracking study that I like to call the Fracking is not the worst thing about fracking study.
Public Accountability exposes Texas Frackademia
Below is my statement regarding the panel of experts that the University of Texas at Austin named to review its fracking report. (UT’s press release)
regards,
Kevin Connor
Public Accountability InitiativeThe University of Texas at Austin has taken an important step in initiating a review of its fracking report. The report misled the public about the environmental risks associated with fracking and was led by a professor who failed to disclose his energy industry ties. The university’s proactive approach to addressing this breach of the public trust should be commended.
There are, however, serious questions about the independence of the expert panel the university has named. Given the conflict of interest at the root of this report’s problems, it is extremely troubling that the university chose an energy industry insider to chair the panel. Norman Augustine served for nearly 20 years on the board of oil and gas company ConocoPhillips and its predecessor company, Phillips Petroleum. During that time, he was awarded millions of dollars in stock and cash compensation, some of which he continues to receive in retirement in the form of annual payments of deferred compensation.* Mr. Augustine’s relationship to the gas industry is strikingly similar to that of the original study’s author, Chip Groat, who has earned close to $2 million as a director of drilling company Plains Exploration and Production (PXP).
ConocoPhillips is also one of the University of Texas Energy Institute’s top publicly-named named donors, having given a five-year, $1.5 million grant for energy research in 2010.
Unfortunately, the university’s choice of Mr. Augustine throws the independence of this review into question before it has even begun.
* Note: It appears that Augustine continues to receive annual deferred stock awards from ConocoPhillips to this day. ConocoPhillips’s 2009 proxy states that Mr. Augustine elected to defer $3.1 million in stock awards to a Vanguard account, which was to be paid out in ten annual installments beginning in July 2009 – meaning that he is still receiving these payments. See the footnote on page 62 of ConocoPhillips’ 2009 proxy: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1163165/000119312509067954/ddef14a.htm
More from ScienceInsider.
Paying for science is what the Big Tobacco industry did. This is just another reminder that Big Oil & Gas is using the Big Tobacco playbook.
Crossposted from TexasSharon
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The fracking fox guarding the hen house . . .
UT has to do a cover up fast - and this is how they are going to do it . . . with the biggest shills they can find
The University of Texas shows how you pick a chair for your frackademic investigating team: find someone who has sat on the boards of Conoco Philips and Philips Petroleum, making millions in the process:
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/08/can-university-of-texas-dispel-c.html?ref=hp
http://public-accountability.org/2012/08/ut-austin-chooses-oil-gas-industry-insider-to-review-fracking-report/
Jim Holstun
They also believe in ‘creationism’ in Texas, and want to force THAT down our throats too!
Not all Texans are cut from the same cloth.
I’m a Texan. I’m NOT a “Creationist.”
I’m a “Pepper.” (Just remember, it’s harder to be a “Pepper” in Texas.)
http://fishcreekmonitor.blogspot.com/2012/08/im-pepper-are-you-pepper.html