All The Best Schools Are Doing It - MIT, Princeton, Harvard - Taking Millions In OIl & Gas Money, That Is . . .

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“Our intention is to protect scientific integrity,” said Geoffrey Supran, a University of Miami associate professor who studies fossil fuel industry messaging and co-authored the study. “We want to warn scholars and university leaders that they can be pawns in a propaganda scheme.”

BP, for instance, funneled between $2.1m and $2.6m to Princeton University’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative between 2012 and 2017. The initiative produced research on ways to decarbonize the economy. “It’s noteworthy of that the scenarios for decarbonization that the initiative outlined, only one of them didn’t include a serious role to be played by fossil fuels paired with negative emissions technologies,” said Supran. The study highlights an internal 2017 campaign-strategy memo presented by a public relations firm to BP that proposed targeting Princeton as a “partner” that could help authenticate “BP’s commitment to low carbon” despite its commitment to expanding planet-heating fossil fuel production.

In another example, an influential 2011 study from the MIT Energy Initiative called gas “a bridge to a low carbon future” even though it is a planet-heating fossil fuel. Several of the study’s authors had financial ties to, and funding from, major oil and gas companies. “The report helped to situate natural gas, or fossil gas, as part of the climate solution,” said Stephens. “And it seemed to reinforce the Obama administration’s all-of-the-above strategy,” she added, referring to the former president’s commitments to supporting both fossil fuels and renewables. A spokesperson for the MIT Energy Initiative said funders “have no control” over the institute’s reports: “no approval or rejection, no opportunity to accept or reject any findings”. He added that the study in question was “developed and vigorously debated by a multidisciplinary team”.

In an earlier example, the study notes that in 1997, Exxon paid a Harvard Law School professor to write about “why punitive damages awards are inappropriate in today’s civil justice system” as the company was appealing a $5bn punitive damages award following a major oil tanker spill in Alaska. Reached for comment, a spokesperson for the US fossil fuel lobby group American Petroleum Institute said: “America’s oil and natural gas industry will continue to work with experts and organizations committed to advancing solutions that tackle climate change, meet growing demand and ensure continued access to affordable, reliable American energy.” The Guardian also contacted BP, Exxon, Princeton and Harvard ; none were immediately available for comment.

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/05/universities-fossil-fuel-funding-green-energy