However, the Public Accountability Initiative revealed in July 2012 that Dr. Groat was a member of the board of Plains Exploration and Production Co., which conducts fracking operations. He received an annual fee for being a member of the Board. Since November 2007, when he became a member of the Board, Dr. Groat received about $1.6 million in stock from the company. The Initiative noted that the research by Dr. Groat and his team was distinguished by "bold, definitive, industry-friendly claims highlighted in the press release but not supported by the underlying report; evidence of poor scholarship and industry bias; and dubious and inaccurate claims of peer review" that had led the media to report there was no relationship between fracking and health and pollution problems. In response, Dr. Groat said his role "was to organize [the study], coordinate the activities and report their conclusions." He claimed he did not "alter their conclusions" and his presence on the Pioneer board had "no bearing on the results of the study."
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."
A University of Texas study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in September 2013, concluded there were minimal leaks of methane from fracked wells. However, Sharon Kelly, an attorney, journalist, and long-time environmentalist who analyzed the University of Texas study for DeSmogBlog, noted: "The vast majority of the wells studied used leak-control technology that has yet to be adopted at many, if not most, oil and gas wells, while others were wells that produced very little gas and consequently even serious leaks would produce relatively small emissions." Physicians Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSE) determined the 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 argue, "Environmentalists should recognize the shale gas revolution as beneficial to society and lend their full support to helping it advance." 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, an executive with Norse Energy and a member of the board of directors of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA). One of the ways IOGA helped direct academic research is by its connection to SUNY's Shale Resources and Society Institute (SRSI), 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 analyzed the SUNY/ Buffalo study and "identified a number of problems that undermine its conclusion." 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, "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. We know what they have become--it's just a matter of deciding how much a tainted body of knowledge is worth.
[Dr. Brasch is an award-winning journalist and professor emeritus of mass communications from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. He is author of 20 books, including Fracking Pennsylvania, a critically-acclaimed in-depth investigation of the process and effects of high volume hydraulic horizontal fracturing throughout the country. He looks at the process, health and environmental effects, the economics, and the collusion between politicians and the oil/gas lobby.]
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