Public / private partnerships involving academic research teams and big business are, sadly, nothing new. But when public universities release favorable reports for the big corporations who hire them, the public should at least know who commissioned the research.
A recent case involves a study, released by the prestigious Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin last February, which found that fracking doesn't contaminate groundwater. Great, right? Now that a respected public institution did a scientific study, all the noise about the environmental devastation caused by fracking can be discredited and companies like, oh, say the Plains Exploration and Production Company can get back to the important work of growing our economy, with no risk for taxpayers of costly cleanups down the road.
But wait, what's this? The Study's supervisor and leader, Dr. Charles Groat, is on the board of the Plains Exploration and Production Company. According to State Impact Texas, it looks like he was paid almost half a million dollars by the company just last year, and he owns $1.6 million in company stocks. In fact, his total take is about $2 million from the company. Not bad for a university professor, and I'm guessing that with all those stocks he stands to make much more from increased fracking. Actually, one of the sites in his study is being drilled by the Plains Exploration and Production Company right now!
The New York Times reports that UT has promised (in a statement to journalists) to "identify a group of outside experts to review the Energy Institute’s report on the effects of hydraulic fracturing." That's fine, but this is just the latest scandal, and the only reason it's a scandal is because they got caught. Hmmm... wouldn't it be better if there was some kind of law that would force universities to give full disclosure on "research" of this sort?
That was exactly what the Texas legislature tried to do last year. The bill was originally introduced (as SB 1603) in 2009 by former Senator Eliot Shapleigh, in response to a similar case in which the Institute for Policy and Economic Development at the University of Texas at El Paso released a study showing the positive economic effects of the reopening of the ASARCO copper smelter, while ignoring the devastating environmental effects which were then contested. Who commissioned and paid for the report? You guessed it- ASARCO. And they used the study for credibility in a press conference and PR campaign.
The bill "requiring financial disclosure concerning reports prepared by public institutions of higher education for other entities" was reintroduced last year, as SB 1304. Passing both the House and the Senate Committees for Higher Education on zero nays and only one absentee in each, and with no objections from most Texas universities and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, it looked like a sure bet. Until, that is, it mysteriously died before it could be voted on by the House.
There was, however, one dissenting school: the University of Texas at Austin. Did they kill the bill? Who knows, but they were the only ones fighting it. Why would they do such a thing? Well, if you were to ask me, I'd say that if the public knows that certain financial backing creates a conflict of interest, the research is to some extent discredited. If the research doesn't hold sway over the public as being credible, the point of corporations funding university research all but becomes moot. With less corporate backers, UT loses $$ (around 472 million, but who's counting). We have established a motive.
And that brings us back to the fracking Groat scandal. Now UT's in the hot seat, and I think it would be a perfect time to revive SB 1304.
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