Frackademia: Controversial SUNY Buffalo Shale Institute's Reputation Unraveling

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A storm is brewing in Buffalo and it’s not theย record snow stormย typically associated with upstate New York. Rather, it’s taking place in theย ivory towerย of academia and revolves around hydraulic fracturing, or โ€œfracking,โ€ for unconventional gas in theย Marcellus Shale basin.ย 

Public funding has beenย cut to the tune of overย $1.4 billionย over the past five years in the State University of New York (SUNY) public university system under the watch of current Democratic Party governor andย 2016 presidential hopefulย Andrew Cuomo and his predecessor, Davidย Paterson.

These cuts have created new opportunities for the shale gas industry to fill a funding vacuum, with the SUNY system’s coffers hollowed out and starved forย cash.ย 

โ€œItโ€™s a growing problem across academia,โ€ Mark Partridge, a professor of rural-urban policy at the Ohio State University, said in an interview with Bloomberg. โ€œUniversities are so short of money, professors are under a lot of pressure to raise research funding in any mannerย possible.โ€

The oil industry’s eagerness to fill the void for its personal gain can be seen through the case study of what we at DeSmog have coined the ongoing โ€œShill Gasโ€ study scandal at the State University at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo).

Among other findings, a DeSmog investigation reveals that one of the lesser-known offshoots of the Scaife family foundations, key bankrollers of the climate change denial machine, may potentially sootheย SUNY Buffalo’s budget woesย with funding for the university-connected Shale Resources and Societyย Institute.

The Prelude to theย Storm

A prelude for what’s now transpiring occurred in Spring 2011, when SUNY Buffalo played host to theย Marcellus Shale Lecture Series. Throughout the eight-part series,ย not a single speaker was a university-based scholarย and all speakers but one wereย employed by some element of the oil and gas industry. Theย Shale Resources and Society Instituteย (SRSI)ย arose out of the series, as Daniel Robison ofย WBFOย in Buffaloย wrote in a recent article:

The decision to greenlight SRSI came after SUNY Buffalo hosted the Marcellus Shale Lecture Series in mid-2011โ€ฆLast fall, enthusiasm stemming from the lecture series grew into informal discussions among the speakers, natural gas industry representatives and members of SUNY Buffaloโ€™s geologyย department.

On Sept. 21, almost a year and a half after the completion of the Lecture Series, theย UB Spectrumย revealed the Series was also funded in large part by the gas industry, whichย gave SUNY Buffalo over $12,900ย to host it. $5,000 of that cash came fromย the coffers of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA).
ย 

โ€œIf the talk series is not part of the institute โ€“ if itโ€™s just an independent talk series โ€“ then it is unlike any such series I have ever organized or attended in that it fails to acknowledge the moneys that paid for it,โ€ย Jim Holstun, Professor of English at SUNY Buffalo and the Chair of SUNY Buffalo Coalition for Leading Ethically in Academic Research,ย told theย UB Spectrum.ย 

Speaking at aย gas industry public relations conferenceย thought to beย exclusively โ€œamong friendsโ€ย in Houston on Oct 31-Nov. 1, 2011 – the same conference where it was revealed theย gas industry is employing psychological warfareย tactics on U.S. citizens – S. Dennis Holbrook of IOGA of NY confirmed the SUNY Buffalo relationship.ย Holbrook statedย that it’s crucial for industry to โ€œseek out academic studies and champion with universitiesโ€”because that again provides tremendous credibility to the overallย process.โ€

Explaining that the gas industry is viewed โ€œvery skepticallyโ€ by the public, Holbrookย saidย that to gain credibility, IOGA of NY has โ€œaligned with the University at Buffalo (aka SUNY Buffalo)โ€”weโ€™ve done a variety of other activities where weโ€™ve gotten the academics to sponsor programs and bring in people for public sessions to educate them on a variety of differentย topics.โ€

Shady SUNY Buffalo Study Opens Backlashย Floodgates

SRSIย produced a study in May 2012 titled, โ€œEnvironmental Impacts During Shale Gas Drilling: Causes, Impacts and Remedies.โ€ Calling the final product a โ€œstudyโ€ is a generous way of putting it,ย as we reported: all four co-authors had ties to the oil and gas industry, as did four of five of its peer reviewers. The study didn’t contain any acknowledgement of theseย ties.

John Martin, one of the study’s co-authors and one of the speakers on the spring 2011ย Marcellus Shale Lecture Series, serves as the Director of the SRSI, aย quarter-time gig earning him $60,000/year. He also currently serves as a Consultant atย JPMartin Energy Strategy LLC, where โ€œhe has spent decades working in various sectors of the oil and gas industry,โ€ and wrote one of the first scholarly papers on the drilling potential of Ohio’s Utica Shale basin. The paper helped โ€œstimulate significant industry investment in this resource,โ€ in itsย early days of production, according toย his JPMartin bio page.

JPMartin recently served as theย peer reviewer of the just released Inglewood, CA hydraulic fracturing study, which found โ€œno harm from the method,โ€ paving the way for a forthcoming fracking boom in theย Monterrey Shale basin.

In announcing the SRSI‘s launch,ย Martinย told theย Elmiraย Star Gazette,ย โ€œWe’re really trying to provide fact-based, objective information. We’re guided byย science.โ€ย 

Martin’s โ€œguided by scienceโ€ myth was put to rest roughly a week after the SRSI‘s release of its premier study, when the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI) released a report of its own.ย PAI‘s reportย pointed to seriously – and likely purposefully – flawed methodology,ย writing:

[We] conducted an analysis of the report and identified a number of problems that undermine its conclusion: data in the report shows that the likelihood of major environmental events has actually gone up, contradicting the reportโ€™s central claim; entire passages were lifted from an explicitly pro-fracking Manhattan Institute report; and reportโ€™s authors and reviewers have extensive ties to the natural gasย industry.

What’s followed the PAI report has been nothing short of a mainstream media monsoon of stories covering the influence the oil and gas industry has over academia – pejoratively referred to by some as โ€œfrackademiaโ€ – with stories published in outlets ranging fromย Bloomberg, theย Associated Press,ย The New York Times,ย Wired,ย Inside Higher Education,ย theย Texas Observer, and inย many others.

SUNY Buffalo Professors, SUNY Board of Trustees Call for Probe of Institute’sย Origins

Fast-forward to August 23, 2012, whenย 83 SUNY Buffalo faculty and staff membersย signed aย letterย calling for an independent investigation delving into the origins of the SRSI.ย 

Weeks later, on September 12, 2012, the SUNY System’s Board of Trustees backed up the demand of these 83 SUNY Buffalo faculty and staff members, passing a unanimous resolution of their own calling for SUNY Buffalo to look into all of the details of the origins of the SRSI.ย 

SUNY Buffalo’s Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Charlesย Zukoski, offered a retort of both the SUNY Buffalo letter and the SUNY System resolution,ย stating, โ€œNo policies were broken in the establishmentโ€ of the SRSI and that SUNY Buffalo โ€œreceived no industry fundingโ€ for the SRSI.

FOIL Documents Show Deep Ties to Oil and Gas Industry, Climate Change Deniers, Rebuttingย Zukoskiย 

Two key details raise serious immediate red flags about Zukoski’s claims of recieving โ€œno industryย funding.โ€

The first: in itsย initial call out for funding, the SRSI stated it was seeking three-year $1.14 millionย corporate memberships โ€œto create a dynamic and impactful program.โ€ Corporate members also are given a spot on the SRSI‘s Advisory Board, โ€œensuring focused alignment of purpose and deliverables,โ€ according to theย funding request form. Put another way, three-year corporate memberships would yield some sort of deliverable goods for oil and gas corporations – a quid pro quo, if youย will.

The second: on Sept. 13, Buffalo’sย ArtVoiceย released the fruits of a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request.ย One of the documents, dated Aug. 7, 2011, read that a โ€œfunding plan for alumni and large corporations has been in the works for two years. A pitch to alumni and corporate interests in Houston is planned for October, following on two earlier meetings there in Spring, 2011.โ€ Houston serves as the headquarters forย numerousย oil and gas corporations, and is a great place to go in search of funding for โ€œfrackademics.โ€ย ย 

Thatย same documentย also showed that the SRSI, as of Aug. 7, 2011, had already received money from IOGA of NY. It also states that SRSI has โ€œgood contacts with National Fuel, their wholly owned subsidiary Seneca Resources, and other resource companies involved in the [Marcellus Shale].โ€ Beyond merely offering to fund the SRSI, IOGA of NY has also provided โ€œorganizational help,โ€ย according to the document.ย 

IOGA‘sย Board of Directorsย has representatives from Shell, Chesapeake Energy, and many other players in the unconventional gas sphere. National Fuel/Seneca โ€œoperates approximately 2,500 wells located in western New York and northwestern Pennsylvaniaโ€ฆ[and currently] owns approximately 730,000 acres of fee minerals, 260,000 acres of leased minerals and 100,000 acres of surface and timber rights throughout the region,โ€ย according to its website.ย 

Theย documentย also reveals that the SRSI solicited funding from the Colcom Foundation, anย outfit started in 1996 byย Cordelia Scaife May, the late sister ofย Richard Mellon Scaife. She passed away in 2005 but the Foundation livesย on.

The Scaife family foundations areย majorย fundersย of the climate change denial machine, founded by Richard Mellon Scaife, whom theย Washington Postย dubbed the โ€œfunding father of the rightโ€ in a 1999 two-part investigativeย series.

Holstun, in an interview with DeSmogBlog, said of this set ofย circumstances:

In sending out the corporate appeal, the Institute promised industry contributors a helping hand in running the institute and defining its priorities, an egregious violation of academic integrity.ย The UB Administration are stewards of the universityโ€™s reputation. They must come clean immediately with full information about the founding, funding, and governance of the Institute. Otherwise, they are not doing their jobs, and our reputation will suffer evenย more.

High Stakes Game in Buffaloย for Future of Integrity of Higher Educationย Research

The SUNY Buffalo tale is merely aย sequel to the controversial 2009 Marcellus Shale Coalition-funded scientific studyย published by Penn State University, a relationshipย recently terminated by PSU. The Coalition’sย membership listย includes nearly every company involved in the fracking process in the Marcellus Shaleย basin.

As budgets continue to be slashed by governors in statehouses nationwide for public higher education, we can expect to see more stories like SUNY Buffalo’s unfold at increasingly privatized universities nationwide. PAI demonstrated as much in aย follow-up report, revealing University of Texas-Austin also serves as a โ€œfrackademiaโ€ epicenter.ย Mother Jonesย similarly revealedย that the gas industry has set up shop in Ohio’sย universities.

Theย original Aug. 23 letterย penned by the 83 professors raised the key question cutting to the heart of this saga, closing where this article began: โ€œWill cash-strapped public universities, eager to curry favor with potential corporate funders who may stand to gain from certain research, surrender their historic independence in return for possible corporate financialย support?โ€ย 

Time willย tell.

But asย Jennifer Washburn, author of the book โ€œUniversity, Inc.โ€ stated in aย Jan. 2011 article, today’sย โ€œuniversity looks and behaves more and more like a for-profit commercialย entity.โ€ย 

Photo Credit:ย Suzanne Tuckerย |ย Shutterstock.com

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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