Last of a series

Last of a series



Among the mission statements of the University of North Dakota Department of Geology and Geological Engineering is that it "strives to develop in its engineering graduates keen insight and abilities to design an environmentally sound and sustainable future for humanity."



The department is one of the better ones in the country, especially in training students to work in areas of gas and oil exploration and processing. However, their training, and faculty research, may be tainted by an industry bias, fueled by a $14 million gift. The department is now the Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Science. Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources, the ninth largest oil producer in the United States, provided $5 million to the renamed school; his company provided an additional $5 million. The other $4 million came from the Industrial Commission/Oil and Gas Research Program, a merger of the state of North Dakota and several gas and oil corporations.



Other colleges benefit from the oil and gas industry. Against student and community opposition, the University of Tennessee opened its 8,000-acre Cumberland Research Forest to the natural gas industry. The 20-year lease includes a $300,000-a-year payment plus at least 10 percent royalties. The university stated it was entering into the agreement in order to "conduct unbiased, scientifically sound research." However, the research is funded by the natural gas industry. How impartial can that research be?



Politicians who take substantial contributions from oil and gas lobbyists tend to be the ones who vote against human services and education budget increases. By dangling possible income from mineral rights leases, they blur the distinction between professors and corporate shills.



Drs. Charles G. Groat and Thomas W. Grimshaw at the University of Texas placed the primary problem of methane in well water with the construction problems in both natural gas wells and drinking water wells rather than the process itself. Groat's study supported the industry's claims that fracking doesn't cause health and pollution problems.



However, the Public Accountability Initiative revealed that Groat was a member of the board of Plains Exploration and Production Co., which conducts fracking operations, and received an annual fee. Since November 2007, Groat received about $1.6 million in stock from Plains. The Initiative noted that the research by Groat and his team was distinguished by "... industry-friendly claims ... not supported by the underlying report; evidence of poor scholarship and industry bias; and dubious and inaccurate claims of peer review," leading media to report there was no relationship between fracking and health and pollution problems. An independent investigation initiated by the University of Texas found "failures and inadequacies in several procedural areas," and that the study "fell short of contemporary standards for scientific work."



Another University of Texas study concluded there were minimal leaks of methane from fracked wells. Physicians Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy determined that study was "fatally flawed."



Horizontal fracking to extract shale gas "is a wonderful gift that has arrived just in time," say Dr. Richard Muller, professor of physics at the University of California, and his daughter, Elizabeth Muller, executive director of Berkeley Earth. The Mullers are principals of the China Shale Fund, which is trying to get China to develop shale gas drilling; they would get financial compensation if China moves from coal to shale gas technology.



The natural gas industry needs to "seek out academic studies and champion with universities — because that again provides tremendous credibility to the overall process," said S. Dennis Holbrook, a member of the board of directors of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA). IOGA helped direct academic research by its connection to SUNY's Shale Resources and Society Institute, which sponsored lectures, workshops and professional studies. Among those research studies was one paper where "[A]ll four co-authors had ties to the oil and gas industry, as did four of five of its peer reviewers," according to Steve Horn of DeSmogBlog.



An informal group of faculty, students, alumni and citizens stated that the institute and the research emanating from it were not only "fatally compromised," but that it represented "not the independent search for knowledge proper to a university but a frantic and servile willingness to sell academic legitimacy to a public relations campaign for the gas industry." The Public Accountability Project agreed. In November 2012, six months after the institute was created, SUNY/Buffalo closed it.



Several other research studies conducted at American universities and funded by either gas/oil companies or their front organizations allowed Barry Russell, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, to falsely claim that "no evidence directly connects injection of fracking fluid into shale with aquifer contamination."



It makes little difference if the Community College of Philadelphia accepted "only" $15,000, Lackawanna College accepted $2.5 million, or the University of North Dakota accepted $14 million. It's a matter of deciding how much a tainted body of knowledge is worth.



Dr. Brasch is author of "Fracking Pennsylvania," an investigation of the process and effects of hydraulic horizontal fracturing throughout the country.