Big Oil Pressured Scientists Over Fracking Wastewater's Link to Quakes

[swag]

Source: Bloomberg

by Benjamin Elgin and Matthew Philips

. . .

In November 2013, Austin Holland, Oklahoma’s state seismologist, got a request that made him nervous. It was from David Boren, president of the University of Oklahoma, which houses the Oklahoma Geological Survey where Holland works. Boren, a former U.S. senator, asked Holland to his office for coffee with Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of Continental Resources, one of Oklahoma’s largest oil and gas operators. Boren sits on the board of Continental, and Hamm is a big donor to the university, giving $20 million in 2011 for a new diabetes center. Says Holland: “It was just a little bit intimidating.”

Holland had been studying possible links between a rise in seismic activity in Oklahoma and the rapid increase in oil and gas production, the state’s largest industry. During the meeting, Hamm requested that Holland be careful when publicly discussing the possible connection between oil and gas operations and a big jump in the number of earthquakes, which geological researchers were increasingly tying to the underground disposal of oil and gas wastewater, a byproduct of the fracking boom that Continental has helped pioneer. “It was an expression of concern,” Holland recalls.

Details surrounding that meeting and others have emerged in recent weeks as e-mails from the Oklahoma Geological Survey have been released through public records requests filed by Bloomberg and other media outlets, including EnergyWire, which first reported the Hamm meeting.

The e-mails suggest a steady stream of industry pressure on scientists at the state office. But oil companies say there’s nothing wrong with contact between executives and scientists. “The insinuation that there was something untoward that occurred in those meetings is both offensive and inaccurate,” says Continental Resources spokeswoman Kristin Thomas. “Upon its founding, the Oklahoma Geological Survey had a solid reputation of an agency that was accessible and of service to the community and industry in Oklahoma. We hope that the agency can continue the legacy to provide this service.”

. . . more

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-30/big-oil-pressured-scientists-over-fracking-wastewater-s-link-to-quakes

[Aldo Leopold]

1. "both offensive and inaccurate"

They are masters of projection.

[NoMoreRepugs]

2. the Repuke War on Science isn't a fair fight

Chris Mooney's book "The Republican War on Science" is a fact filled slightly biased account of this conflict between ideology/$$$$$ and facts/Science....

[ctsnowman]

3. Robber Baron

[asiliveandbreathe]

4. So what are they going to say - YA - we are the cause of the OK earthquakes and tremors -

I always laugh at some the reporting and questions - WTF are they going to say????admit it!

So - The e-mails suggest a steady stream of industry pressure on scientists at the state office.

But, we didn't tell Holland to STFU....we were much more subtle....we like the word "Industry pressure" - sounds like STFU to me...

[Sienna86]

5. Censoring science is never a good thing

Good to know FOIA on behalf of news organizations can access this occurrence.

[Octafish]

6. Dick Cheney lives to squeeze the planet dry.

If not much of a ramrod, the perfect ranch hand.

[niyad]

7. nice to have confirmation of what we know.

[Stryst]

8. Yeah....

But oil companies say there’s nothing wrong with contact between executives and scientists.

Well, nothing inherently wrong. But it has the appearance of impropriety, which is enough reason to look at this contact with increased scrutiny. And the louder someone screams not to look behind the curtain, the more I want to.