Fracking watchdog is linked to oil industry

Norman Augustine was named to chair a three-member panel charged with reviewing the study. Norman Augustine was named to chair a three-member panel charged with reviewing the study. Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, Associated Press Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Fracking watchdog is linked to oil industry 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A retired aerospace executive — appointed to review a controversial study on hydraulic fracturing after it was disclosed the author has strong industry ties — has strong industry ties himself.

On Monday, the University of Texas at Austin appointed Norman Augustine to chair a three-member panel charged by the university with taking “an independent look” at a study that concluded fracking doesn't harm groundwater.

But Augustine “doesn't pass the smell test” because he served on the board of Houston-based ConocoPhillips or its predecessor company from 1989 to 2008, said Kevin Connor, a director of the Public Accountability Initiative, a watchdog group in Buffalo, N.Y.

Augustine still receives payments from ConocoPhillips that he deferred after retiring as a board member on May 14, 2008, according to the company's 2009 proxy.

At the time, he elected to defer more than $3 million to be paid over a 10-year period after retirement, the proxy said.

As a director in 2007, he received stock and cash awards amounting to $545,645, according to the company's 2008 proxy.

“It's an unfortunate choice to pick a longtime oil and gas industry insider to review the study and act as an independent watchdog,” Connor said. “The university's choice of Mr. Augustine throws the independence of this review into question.”

Efforts to reach Augustine at the several residences listed under his name were not successful.

Thursday, UT-Austin executive vice president and provost Steven Leslie said he considered Augustine's board membership before he made the appointment, and disclosed it when the appointment was made earlier this week. He selected Augustine because of his credentials and because three U.S. presidents have chosen him to examine some of the nation's most important issues.

“I have a hard time imagining that anyone would question the impeccable credentials of Norman Augustine. He's the perfect man,” Leslie said.

Last month, the Public Accountability Initiative found similar industry ties to the author of the fracking study, Charles “Chip” Groat.

Groat led the study by the UT Energy Institute, of which he's an associate director.

He also is a director of Houston-based Plains Exploration and Production Co., where he held more than 40,000 shares of stock in May, which were worth more than $1.58 million, according to the company's proxy.

As a result, the university decided to appoint a group of experts to review the study, saying the criticism warranted “an independent look” at the study.

Leslie said it doesn't anger him that the Public Accountability Initiative has criticized Augustine's appointment.

“It's a legitimate concern that there's a worldwide technology (hydraulic fracturing) that could adversely affect our environment,” Leslie said. “What we want is to find the truth so that the public will know.”

Leslie said the results of the review should be ready in a matter of weeks. “We aren't going to drag it out.”

Augustine is a former member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Under the Obama administration, he also chaired a NASA committee that examined possibilities for human space flight after the space shuttle program ended.

The two other members of the panel reviewing the fracking study are James Duderstadt, president emeritus of the University of Michigan, and Rita Colwell, former director of the National Science Foundation and former president of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.

Leslie said none of the three have any direct ties to UT-Austin.

In 2010, ConocoPhillips gave a five-year grant totaling $1.5 million to UT-Austin for energy research to be administered by the Energy Institute — an award noted in a news release from the institute.

Groat's was the second study for which the Public Accountability Initiative examined the backgrounds of authors of fracking studies. Although the group looks at a wide variety of government and business practices, it's critical of fracking and the oil and gas industry.

vvaughan@express-news.net﻿