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Louisiana's flagship university lets oil firms influence research...for a price
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:00 am
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:00 am
quote:
Louisiana’s flagship university lets oil firms influence research – for a price
The Guardian
This story is co-published with the Lens, a non-profit newsroom in New Orleans
For $5m, Louisiana’s flagship university will let an oil company weigh in on faculty research activities. Or, for $100,000, a corporation can participate in a research study, with “robust” reviewing powers and access to all resulting intellectual property.
Those are the conditions outlined in a boilerplate document that Louisiana State University’s fundraising arm circulated to oil majors and chemical companies affiliated with the Louisiana Chemical Association, an industry lobbying group, according to emails disclosed in response to a public records request by the Lens.
Records show that after Shell donated $25m in 2022 to LSU to create the Institute for Energy Innovation, the university gave the fossil fuel corporation license to influence research and coursework for the university’s new concentration in carbon capture, use and storage.
Afterward, LSU’s fundraising entity, the LSU Foundation, used this partnership as a model to shop around to members of the Louisiana Chemical Association, such as ExxonMobil, Air Products and CF Industries, which have proposed carbon capture projects in Louisiana.
For $2m, Exxon became the institute’s first “strategic partner-level donor”, a position that came with robust review of academic study output and with the ability to focus research activities. Another eight companies have discussed similar deals with LSU, according to a partnership update that LSU sent to Shell last summer.
quote:
Ives of LSU said its Institute for Energy Innovation is no different to similar institutes across the US, including the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, which performs research supported by corporate donors. “I think researchers saying that somehow having corporate funding for research damages the integrity of that research is a little far-fetched,” Ives said.
quote:
Records show that Shell helped to tailor what LSU students would learn in the six courses offered under the institute’s carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) concentration that debuted a couple years ago. The LSU alumnus Lee Stockwell, Shell’s general manager of CCUS, sat on the search committee for the Energy Institute executive director, served on the petroleum engineering advisory board, and was very involved in shaping the carbon capture curriculum.
quote:
LSU is not alone in this practice, Thompson said. At most engineering departments in the country, an active Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC) weighs in on curricula, so that degrees evolve as technology changes, helping students land internships and jobs.
quote:
The fossil fuel industry has made forays into academia beyond Louisiana. ExxonMobil and Shell have both helped fund a similar Energy Initiative at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where the highest-level donors can have an office on MIT’s campus, according to Inside Climate News. In 2021, Exxon funded and co-wrote a research paper with MIT researchers with conclusions that supported the argument for federal subsidies for carbon capture and use.
Disclaimer - this is from a known left wing British rag with a history of partnering with other biased/agenda-driven activists groups to produce news.
If they think energy research is corrupt, they will lose their mind once they realize what went into vaccine, healthcare, and nutrition research in the US.....
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:06 am to member12
so-called "Green Energy" is no different... and supplemented by the government
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:07 am to member12
Well I would hope they wouldn't do it for free.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:09 am to member12
quote:
Louisiana's flagship university lets oil firms influence research...for a price
You mean ULL?
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:09 am to member12
Everything in this piece that was presented as dire examples of corporate censorship over academia is nothing more than corporations using tax write offs to contract out expensive R&D work.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:10 am to member12
Shell is balls deep on climate change religion. They positioned the company's profitability around everyone joining the cult. The lefties should want them influencing research.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:12 am to member12
Only thing I get from that picture is that they can't tear down Middleton fast enough.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:16 am to Turbeauxdog
quote:
Shell is balls deep on climate change religion. They positioned the company's profitability around everyone joining the cult. The lefties should want them influencing research.
Old CEO was. I’m curious how the new CEO will steer the company.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:16 am to member12
innovation in the o&g field to improve emissions is not going to happen without the help of the exxon, chevron, shell, etc’s OR more than likely will be created directly by the exxon, chevron, shell, etc’s.
this article is dumb.
this article is dumb.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:20 am to member12
headline confusing bc article not about UL
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:27 am to Oilfieldbiology
quote:
Old CEO was. I’m curious how the new CEO will steer the company.
The new guy took a pretty hard turn back into the fossil fuels it seems. He could no longer justify to the investors how little money so many of the previous CEO's green energy initiatives was making.
Don't get me wrong, if you read press releases, etc they still do mentioned carbon reduction and green energy stuff a lot, but they have sold and divested out of several things over the past year.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:35 am to member12
I read that piece either yesterday or Saturday and thought of posting it here, but due to what you correctly pointed out about The Guardian, decided against it. That outfit is extremely anti-oil & gas and petrochem. Not sure how they expect the word to keep moving along with the current modern convivences without the fossil fuel industries, but I guess that's another discussion.
I think it's great that these companies and private industry as a whole wants to partner with out universities on research and projects that involve not just faculty, but especially students, giving them some marketable experience and a foot in the door with one of these companies upon graduation, or for an internship.
We're seeing the same recently at UL and McNeese also with the energy industry bringing in new investment. This is great for Louisiana, especially South Louisiana, which the so-called independent Guardian obviously doesn't give two shits about.
Oh, and this bit here in the article, from whiny Bob Mann who immediately resigned from LSU when Jeff Landry was elected Governor, just tops it all off.
Bob Mann is an extreme leftist and as biased as they come, always out front in the media chastising conservative ideology and praising the likes of John Bel Edwards.
I think it's great that these companies and private industry as a whole wants to partner with out universities on research and projects that involve not just faculty, but especially students, giving them some marketable experience and a foot in the door with one of these companies upon graduation, or for an internship.
We're seeing the same recently at UL and McNeese also with the energy industry bringing in new investment. This is great for Louisiana, especially South Louisiana, which the so-called independent Guardian obviously doesn't give two shits about.
Oh, and this bit here in the article, from whiny Bob Mann who immediately resigned from LSU when Jeff Landry was elected Governor, just tops it all off.
quote:
"I have a hard time seeing a faculty member engaged in legitimate research being eager for an oil company … to vote on his or her research agenda"
Robert Mann, political commentator and former LSU journalism professor
Bob Mann is an extreme leftist and as biased as they come, always out front in the media chastising conservative ideology and praising the likes of John Bel Edwards.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:38 am to notiger1997
quote:
Don't get me wrong, if you read press releases, etc they still do mentioned carbon reduction and green energy stuff a lot, but they have sold and divested out of several things over the past year.
Those investments into CCS and lower emissions are across the board with all the larger E&Ps, Exxon, Chevron, Shell, Oxy, Conoco, Talos...and even if the political landscape in the White House turns over, it'll still be topics of discussion and capital deployed on those ventures. The question just is, how much? Will it be drastically scaled back?
This post was edited on 4/22/24 at 8:40 am
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:39 am to ragincajun03
quote:
always out front in the media chastising conservative ideology and praising the likes of John Bel Edwards.
Not exactly a novelty. The Advocate does the same thing this guy is doing, except they are actually getting paid for it.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:48 am to member12
The utter audacity of companies that are putting hundreds of millions of dollars into technology and are the best at what they do think students wanting to work in that field should actually be trained in relevant coursework??
Unreal. Clown world.
Unreal. Clown world.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:48 am to member12
But how does this translate onto the football field?
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:51 am to KamaCausey_LSU
quote:
Only thing I get from that picture is that they can't tear down Middleton fast enough.
I support it because of the new shape of the quad...
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:51 am to member12
quote:
Records show that after Shell donated $25m in 2022 to LSU to create the Institute for Energy Innovation, the university gave the fossil fuel corporation license to influence research and coursework for the university’s new concentration in carbon capture, use and storage.
Shell is actually pretty deep into carbon capture. It's natural that they'd want to invest in research around the topic, as it will be a growing part of their business.
The article is a hack job targeting a university that is actually doing some things right. If the author wanted LSU to research topics more in line with their brand of climate activism, they'd try to fund research programs there too. But they don't.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:57 am to dewster
quote:
If the author wanted LSU to research topics more in line with their brand of climate activism, they'd try to fund research programs there too. But they don't.
Because enviro-communist outfits like Greenpeace, The Guardian, The Advocate, Bucket Brigade, Earth Guardians, etc. don't have any money. They're always having to beg for donations to keep their NGO or publication running.
They'll spout all sorts of stuff about less emissions and the "energy transition" yet they don't have the knowledge, and certainly not the money, to actually be a part of the solution.
Like someone pointed out above, you want to continue to enjoy the convivences of the modern world but hopefully at least slow the rate of increase of greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere? Well then you need to understand that those "evil" fossil fuel companies are the ones with the knowledge, money and ingenuity to actually make it happen.
Posted on 4/22/24 at 8:59 am to member12
So the private company outsources research to academia and keeps the IP and decides what is allowed for publication?
Sounds pretty normal and one reason why single-study, industry-sponsored studies are better when there are groups of them by different organizations coming to very similar conclusions.
Sounds pretty normal and one reason why single-study, industry-sponsored studies are better when there are groups of them by different organizations coming to very similar conclusions.
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