{"id":248,"date":"2012-12-20T11:50:03","date_gmt":"2012-12-20T16:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/fake-fracking-reports-professor-and-institute-head-quit-other-institute-disbanded.html"},"modified":"2012-12-20T11:50:03","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T16:50:03","slug":"fake-fracking-reports-professor-and-institute-head-quit-other-institute-disbanded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/fake-fracking-reports-professor-and-institute-head-quit-other-institute-disbanded.html","title":{"rendered":"Fake fracking reports: professor and institute head quit, other institute disbanded"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nFrom Austin to Buffalo, fake science for fracking is increasingly being exposed,\n\n\"Frack<\/a>\nwith academic consequences: lead professor resigns,\ninstitute head quits, another institute disbanded.\nThe image on the right (Frack U) is not a reputation any university wants to see.\nAt least academia takes conflicts of interest seriously;\nnow if government and the voters would do the same….\nOr energy companies.\nRemember, shale gas (plus nuclear) is what Georgia Power and\nSouthern Company are shifting to from coal,\nwhile shading us from the finances that would enable solar power\nfor jobs and energy independence in south Georgia.\n<\/p>\n

\nTerrence Henry\nwrote for NPR 6 December 2012,\n\nReview of UT Fracking Study Finds Failure to Disclose Conflict of Interest (Updated)<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nThe original report by UT Austin’s Energy Institute,\n\n<\/a>\n\u2018Fact-Based Regulation for Environmental Protection in the Shale Gas\nDevelopment,\u2019\nwas released early this year, and claimed that there\nwas no link between fracking and water contamination. But this\nsummer, the\n\nPublic Accountability Initiative<\/a>, a watchdog group,\nreported that the head of the study, UT professor Chip Groat, had\nbeen sitting on the board of a drilling company the entire time. His\ncompensation totaled over $1.5 million over the last five years.\nThat prompted the University to announce an independent review of\nthe study a month later, which was released today.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe review finds many problems with the original study, chief among\nthem that Groat did not disclose what it calls a \u201cclear\nconflict of interest,\u201d which \u201cseverely diminished\u201d\nthe study. The study was originally commissioned as a way to correct\nwhat it called \u201ccontroversies\u201d over fracking because of\nmedia reports, but ironically ended up as a lightning rod itself for\nfailing to disclose conflicts of interest and for lacking scientific\nrigor.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nUnrepentant\nas recently as July<\/a>,\nProfessor Groat resigned in November.\nPlus this:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nRaymond Orbach of UT’s Energy Institute has resigned after the group\nbecame engulfed in controversy over a study of fracking.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAnd elsewhere even more drastic results have ensued:\n<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

\n\n<\/a>\nAfter similar issues at the University at Buffalo over a report on\nfracking that also lacked scientific backing and failed to disclose\nindustry ties, the Univeristy\n\nshuttered its Shale Resources and Society Institute,<\/a>\nwhich released the study, last month.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAs WGRZ.com put it:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nWEB EXTRA:\n\nRead the Public Accountability Initiative’s scolding\nreview of the Institute’s findings<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat PAI report is:\n<\/p>\n

\n\nThe UB Shale Play: Distorting the Facts about Fracking<\/a>:\nA Review of the University at Buffalo Shale Resources and Society Institute’s Report on\n\u201cEnvironmental Impacts During Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling\u201d\nby public accountability initiative, May 2012.\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nYou probably get the gist from the title, but there’s plenty more inside.\nHere’s\n\nPAI’s summary<\/a>,\nincluding these points:\n<\/p>\n

\n