Moniz, E
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">lil sis</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">b<a href="https://news.littlesis.org/2020/11/18/bidens-nightmare-climate-advisor-is-connected-to-energy-transition-team-members/" rel="bookmark" style="letter-spacing: 1.33px; box-sizing: border-box;">iden’s “Nightmare” Climate Advisor is Connected to Energy Transition Team Members</a></font><header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="entry-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; letter-spacing: 0.4px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BY <a href="https://news.littlesis.org/author/rob/" title="Posts by Rob Galbraith" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">ROB GALBRAITH</a> AND <a href="https://news.littlesis.org/author/derek/" title="Posts by Derek Seidman" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">DEREK SEIDMAN</a></font></div> <div class="posted-on" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; letter-spacing: 0.4px;">NOVEMBER 18, 2020</div></div></header><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A quarter of Biden’s energy transition team – including team head Arun Majumdar – have close ties to Ernest Moniz and the energy industry.</font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div><div><a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/joe-biden-climate-fossil-fuel-industry-cedric-richmond">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/joe-biden-climate-fossil-fuel-industry-cedric-richmond</a></div><div>
</div><div>Biden Just Appointed His Climate Movement Liaison. It’s a Fossil-Fuel Industry Ally.</div><div>BY</div><div>DAVID SIROTA JULIA ROCK ANDREW PEREZ</div><div>Joe Biden says confronting climate change is one of his top priorities. But today, he appointed as his liaison to the climate movement a congressman who has raked in big money from the fossil fuel industry while voting to help oil and gas companies.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>...</div><div>following a campaign promising bold climate action, president-elect Joe Biden’s transition team named one of the Democratic Party’s top recipients of fossil fuel industry money to a high-profile White House position focusing in part on climate issues.</div><div>On Tuesday, Politico reported that Biden is appointing US Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) to lead the White House Office of Public Engagement, where he is “expected to serve as a liaison with the business community and climate change activists.”</div><div>
</div><div>During his ten years in Congress, Richmond has received roughly $341,000 from donors in the oil and gas industry — the fifth-highest total among House Democrats, according to previous reporting by Sludge. That includes corporate political action committee donations of $50,000 from Entergy, an electric and natural gas utility; $40,000 from ExxonMobil; and $10,000 apiece from oil companies Chevron, Phillips 66, and Valero Energy.</div><div>
</div><div>Richmond has raked in that money while representing a congressional district that is home to seven of the ten most air-polluted census tracts in the country.</div><div>
</div><div>Richmond has repeatedly broken with his party on major climate and environmental votes. During the climate crisis that has battered his home state of Louisiana, Richmond has joined with Republicans to vote to increase fossil fuel exports and promote pipeline development. He also voted against Democratic legislation to place pollution limits on fracking — and he voted for GOP legislation to limit the Obama administration’s authority to more stringently regulate the practice.</div><div>
</div><div>Overall, Richmond has received a lifetime rating of 76 percent from the League of Conservation Voters, and he scored 46 percent in 2018 — one of the lowest ratings of any Democrat in Congress....Richmond, who served as a co-chair of the Biden campaign, has not committed to supporting a Green New Deal. In a postelection interview with CBS Face the Nation, Richmond said: “When we govern, we will govern with our values but when we can’t pass legislation, we shouldn’t be out there talking about it.”</div><div>
</div><div>“Cedric Richmond has taken big money from the fossil fuel industry, cozied up w/oil and gas, & stayed silent while polluters poisoned his own community,” the Sunrise Movement, a grassroots group pushing for a Green New Deal... “How will young people & frontline communities trust our voices will be heard louder than Big Oil in a...;in a statement: “Today feels like a betrayal, because one of President-Elect Biden’s very first hires for his new administration has taken more donations from the fossil fuel industry during his Congressional career than nearly any other Democrat.”</div><div>
</div><div>Prakash called Richmond’s selection “an affront to young people who made President-Elect Biden’s victory possible.”...$1.7 trillion plan to combat climate change, and has said the cause is one of his top priorities. During the Democratic primary, his campaign was criticized for working with an energy adviser linked to the fossil fuel industry while promoting a “middle ground” climate policy and opposing a ban on fracking. He was also criticized for attending a major fundraiser by a fossil fuel investor, even as he pledged to reject campaign money from fossil fuel industry sources....</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Biden is reportedly considering former Obama energy secretary Ernest Moniz for a cabinet spot or for a new international climate envoy post, according to the New York Times. Climate groups have called on Biden to reject Moniz for any position because he<b> joined the board of directors at the electric utility Southern Company after his time in the Obama administration. Moniz has also been a fracking advocate.</b></span></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">e&e </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who won rare bipartisan support in Congress for some of the Obama administration's energy agenda, is headed back into Washington's policy and persuasion arena to battle for the rest of it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moniz is launching a research think tank and advisory firm, Energy Futures Initiative, that seeks to make a compelling case for low-carbon power and for innovation in energy systems that create jobs and security. It shapes up as a head-on challenge to President Trump's clean energy and climate positions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In EFI, Moniz has reassembled a familiar team, with Melanie Kenderdine and Joseph Hezir. Both are colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative, the academic research project he led before joining Obama's Cabinet in 2013. After taking the helm at DOE, Moniz recruited them both to join him. Moniz is scheduled to outline his new venture today at the National Press Club.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Our special role will be really hard-nosed analysis on key issues for the energy innovation, climate and energy security," Moniz said in an interview with E&E News.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EFI will have a board of advisers, whose chairman will be John Browne, executive chairman of L1 Energy, a global investment firm, and former CEO of BP PLC. An EFI research team of associates includes Ellen Williams, the former chief scientist at BP and former head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, a catalyst for DOE investment in smart grid and clean energy technologies under Moniz.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Key policy directions that Moniz advocates are already spelled out in two voluminous DOE reports, the Quadrennial Energy Review issued in 2015 and in January of this year. The first focused on the U.S. energy sector's transmission, storage and distribution infrastructure. The second covered challenges facing the nation's electricity networks. The reports might have been an energy blueprint for a Hillary Clinton presidency but instead are a kind of manifesto for the Obama DOE in exile.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We hope we're going to be picking up major parts of that [QER] agenda in the evolution of the electricity system," Moniz said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two actions by the Trump administration have injected urgency into Moniz's venture, he said. The first was the decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, one of Moniz's top priorities at DOE. The second is the Trump administration's first budget submission to Congress, which proposed a $3.1 billion, 18 percent reduction in DOE's budget outside of the nuclear security programs. Funding for renewable power, energy efficiency and advanced research projects would be particularly hard hit or eliminated.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"While Paris is a very important step on the road to deep decarbonization, we're going to have [to cut] a lot more emissions after the Paris time horizon goes by," Moniz said. That requires long-term commitments to innovation, he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I do think the Paris Agreement rejection does have other kinds of consequences, like being one more straw on the camel's back — maybe a bale on the camel's back — for the uncertainty created among our allies and friends about our reliability on all kinds of long-standing commitments — NATO, trade, you name it. And I do think the American leadership will be missed on the global scene.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"A lack of federal government support obviously makes things harder and slows some things down," Moniz said of his innovation prescriptions. "But we're going to a low-carbon economy. That's not going to change.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We will be looking to work with mayors, governors, business leaders, university leaders [who] have come out very, very strongly that we are not going to be deflected from staying on the road to the Paris objectives," and from there, "the deep, deep decarbonization needs beyond the Paris time frame," he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We're going to get there. There are lot of reasons to think the momentum will be to a significant extent sustained," Moniz said. He said he doesn't believe Congress will endorse Trump's DOE budget, which has taken fire from some leading Republicans and Democrats. But without federal leadership and consistent DOE program funding, "there will be a gap that will have to be covered somehow."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the achievements from the Paris meeting was the Mission Innovation agreement among the United States and 21 other nations to increase investments in clean energy research, Moniz noted. The U.S. goal was to double its investment to $12.8 billion in 2021. The Trump budget would cut current spending in half, ceding leadership on this front to China and Europe before long, he added.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I do think the Paris Agreement rejection does have other kinds of consequences, like being one more straw on the camel's back — maybe a bale on the camel's back — for the uncertainty created among our allies and friends about our reliability on all kinds of long-standing commitments — NATO, trade, you name it. And I do think the American leadership will be missed on the global scene.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You can't be Pollyanna-ish. There is no way to say there isn't bit of a wrench in the works. We will lose some ground," Moniz said. "It's going to make it more expensive and harder to get back on the track. ... I believe we will do that, and this is just going to cost us some edge in innovation."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moniz's belief in the ability of analysis to affect Washington is a personal conviction, he told an MIT interviewer recently. "God gave you one mouth and two ears for a reason, as opposed to the reverse. So you should use all of those instruments in that proportion. It's very important to listen and understand the positions, whether they're Democrats or Republicans. It doesn't mean you respond in ways necessarily that they like, but it really helps so that you can understand where they're coming from, and where you might be able to find compromise."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moniz said the new venture "is not a lobbying organization. We are an analysis organization," he told E&E News. "We will be happy to walk basically any relevant constituency through the kinds of findings and recommendations we've come up with based on analysis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We are going to push for funding for projects we want to do, and then try to put together the appropriate funding coalition on a project basis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We've put together a very extensive network of distinguished advisers. ... Our model would be to put together project teams drawn from this network, plus ourselves.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This is all contingent, of course, on raising the funds to support the projects," he said, which could come from foundations, companies or individuals.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Banking on relationships</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The full of test of Moniz's impact may be whether he can capitalize on relationships he built in Congress now that he is an academic and private citizen once again.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He was saluted by members from both sides at his final appearance before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power on Sept. 15. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) introduced him as a "rock star."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said he was surprised and impressed that Moniz had volunteered to testify before the committee. He couldn't remember the last time a Cabinet secretary had done that, he said. "Usually, we got to drag you guys kicking and screaming and threatening and all kinds of stuff.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"So you just said, 'Hey, I want to come by and visit,' and we dropped everything we're doing so we could hear you,'" Barton said with a grin.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You've always been available to the members of the committee. You've always been cordial. Our differences have been on policy, not on personality," Barton said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In his prior role at DOE, Moniz came to members of Congress carrying DOE's nearly $29 billion portfolio with all it could do.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the subcommittee hearing, Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) said he greatly appreciated a visit Moniz arranged by senior DOE officials to brief his constituents on coal carbon sequestration technology projects.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's in central Appalachia in the coal fields. They have mountains, trees and lots of good people, and not a whole lot else. That visit was particularly important for the students there in Dickinson County because your team made it clear that there are possibilities in science that can affect the coal industry positively. I think that speaks highly of the work that you're doing."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) said the appreciation was personal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I want to close by saying thank you so very much for your patience, your expertise and your frankness. In Texas, we say you're a straight shooter. That's a very high compliment."</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><div><p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — President Barack Obama and the U.S. Department of Energy are committed to a role for coal in a national energy strategy, and they've backed it up with research spending, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Monday.</font></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a visit to the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown — the only one of the federal government's 17 national labs dedicated to fossil fuels — Moniz said the administration has spent $6 billion on clean-coal technology with an emphasis on the capture, storage and reuse of carbon emissions.</font></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We have an 'all of the above' strategy, and it's real," he said.</font></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the administration also believes the U.S. must prepare for a low-carbon economy, so scientists must help find ways to use coal and gas more cleanly.</font></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moniz spoke to hundreds of federal employees who work at the West Virginia lab, and to those who watched remotely from research sites and small offices in Pennsylvania, Oregon, Alaska and Texas. In all, the national lab employs 1,426 people, about 850 of whom are contractors.</font></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last month, Obama laid out a general plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase both the production of clean energy and energy efficiency.</font></p><p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That worries the coal industry and angers some of the politicians who support it, including U.S. Rep. David McKinley, a West Virginia Republican who has long questioned the science behind global warming. McKinley, who now acknowledges climate change but is not convinced human activity is to blame, accompanied Moniz on a tour of the lab but didn't speak to reporters.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=
</font><div><a href="http://grist.org/news/climate-change-101-with-ernest-moniz-count/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://grist.org/news/climate-change-101-with-ernest-moniz-count/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=
<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/26/energy_nominee_ernest_moniz_criticized_for">http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/26/energy_nominee_ernest_moniz_criticized_for</a>
President Obama’s pick to become the nation’s next secretary of energy
is drawing criticism for his deep ties to the fossil fuel, fracking and
nuclear industries. <span class="caps">MIT</span> nuclear physicist
Ernest Moniz has served on advisory boards for oil giant<b> BP and General
Electric, and was a trustee of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and
Research Center, a Saudi Aramco-backed nonprofit organization.</b> In 2011,
Moniz was the chief author of an influential study for <span class="caps">MIT</span>
on the future of natural gas. According to a new report by the Public
Accountability Initiative, Moniz failed to disclose that he had taken a
lucrative position at a pro-drilling firm called <span class="caps">ICF</span>
International just days before a key natural gas "fracking" study was
released. Reaction to his nomination has split the environmental
community. Advocacy groups such as Public Citizen and Food & Water
Watch are campaigning against Moniz’s nomination, but the Natural
Resources Defense Council has praised his work on advancing clean energy
based on efficiency and renewable power. We speak to Kevin Connor of
the Public Accountability Initiative and ProPublica reporter Justin
Elliott, who have both authored investigations into Moniz’s ties to
industry. [includes rush transcript]
</font><h2 class="section-header"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Transcript</font></h2>
<div id="story-rush-transcript">
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
</font></p>
</div>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong>President Obama’s pick to become the nation’s next energy secretary is
drawing criticism for his deep ties to the fossil fuel, fracking and
nuclear industry. Obama nominated <span class="caps">MIT</span> Professor Ernest Moniz last month to replace outgoing Energy Secretary Steven Chu.</font></p>
<blockquote>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">PRESIDENT</span> <span class="caps">BARACK</span> <span class="caps">OBAMA</span>:</strong>
I could not be more grateful to Steve for the incredible contribution
that he’s made to this country. And now that he’s decided to leave
Washington for sunny California, I’m proud to nominate another brilliant
scientist to take his place, Mr. Ernie Moniz. So, there’s Ernie right
there.</font></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, the good news is that Ernie already knows his way around the
Department of Energy. He is a physicist by training, but he also served
as undersecretary of energy under President Clinton. Since then, he has
directed MIT’s Energy Initiative, which brings together prominent
thinkers and energy companies to develop the technologies that can lead
us to more energy independence and also to new jobs. Most importantly,
Ernie knows that we can produce more energy and grow our economy while
still taking care of our air, our water and our climate.</font></p>
</blockquote>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong>
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to hold a
hearing on Ernest Moniz’s nomination as energy secretary on April 9th.
Reactions to his nomination has split the environmental community.
Advocacy groups such as Public Citizen and Food & Water Watch are
campaigning against his nomination, but the Natural Resources Defense
Council has praised his work on advancing clean energy based on
efficiency and renewable power.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Much of the criticism of Moniz centers on his extensive ties to
industry. He has served on advisory boards for oil giant BP and General
Electric and was a trustee of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and
Research Center, a Saudi Aramco-backed nonprofit organization. In 2011,
Moniz was the chief author of an influential study for <span class="caps">MIT</span>
on the future of natural gas. According to a new report by the Public
Accountability Initiative, Moniz failed to disclose that he had taken a
lucrative position at a pro-drilling firm called <span class="caps">ICF</span> International just days before the study was released.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We’re joined now by two guests. In New York, Justin Elliott, a reporter at ProPublica, he recently wrote a <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/wealth-of-business-connections-ernest-moniz">piece</a>
called "Drilling Deeper: The Wealth of Business Connections for Obama’s
Energy Pick." And in Los Angeles, we’re joined by Kevin Connor,
director of the Public Accountability Initiative, a nonprofit watchdog
group which recently published a <a href="http://public-accountability.org/2013/03/industry-partner-or-industry-puppet/">report</a>
called "Industry Partner or Industry Puppet? How MIT’s Influential
Study of Fracking Was Authored, Funded, and Released by Oil and Gas
Industry Insiders." We invited <span class="caps">MIT</span> to join us on the show or send a comment to read on air, but we did not receive a response.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kevin Connor, Justin Elliott, we welcome you to <em>Democracy Now!</em> Justin, let’s begin with you. Talk about Ernest Moniz’ record.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">JUSTIN</span> <span class="caps">ELLIOTT</span>:</strong>
Right, well, I mean, and to some extent, this is kind of the classic
revolving door situation. As President Obama mentioned when he nominated
him to be energy secretary earlier this month, Moniz was an
undersecretary in the department in President Clinton’s second term.
After, he went back to <span class="caps">MIT</span>, but he also took a
number of positions on boards of large energy companies or advisory
councils, as you mentioned, that includes BP. It included a uranium
enrichment company called <span class="caps">USEC</span>.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And I think there’s sort of two reasons why
this is important. One is, some of these companies do business with the
Energy Department and seek contracts and loan guarantees from the
department. The other is, people in the environmental community think
that this may inform how Ernest Moniz sets research priorities, so
people are concerned that he’s—that he’s going to call for research on
fossil fuels to the detriment of research on renewables, for example.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> BP. Talk about his relationship with BP.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">JUSTIN</span> <span class="caps">ELLIOTT</span>:</strong>
Well, there’s kind of two prongs on that front. One is, personally,
Moniz did a six-year stint—paid, although BP won’t tell me how much—on
BP’s science advisory council. It’s not really clear what he did. They
don’t—BP doesn’t have to reveal much about it in their public <span class="caps">SEC</span> filings. At the same time, BP is one of the main funders of the <span class="caps">MIT</span>
Energy Initiative. I think they have given—given or pledged a total of
$50 million over the past few years. So he’s clearly—he’s clearly close
to that company.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> And how typical is this for a university professor?</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">JUSTIN</span> <span class="caps">ELLIOTT</span>:</strong>
Well, I think, in the science—in sciences and, in particular, in sort
of the energy secretary, it’s increasingly—it’s increasingly common. I
mean, Steven Chu, the outgoing energy secretary, who��s also an academic,
actually also had close ties to BP. BP had given a bunch of money to
Steven Chu’s lab at the University of California, Berkeley, and Chu
picked a BP executive to be one of his undersecretaries. And Chu was
later involved in the government’s response to the Gulf oil spill. So, I
mean, I think this is—this is certainly common if you’re going to be
picking an academic who’s involved in energy, and particularly fossil
fuel research.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> I wanted to turn to comments of the executive director the Natural Resources Defense Council, or <span class="caps">NRDC</span>. Earlier this month, Peter Lehner posted on the <span class="caps">NRDC</span> <a href="http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/to-do_list_for_the_new_secreta.html">blog</a>
a "To-Do List for the New Energy Secretary." In it, he wrote, quote,
"As a scientist, Moniz is obviously a firm believer in the power of
clean energy technology. [MIT’s Energy Initiative] projects under his
tenure included windows that generate electricity, batteries built by
viruses, and a biofuel made from yeast. But he also believes that
technology must be complemented by policy in order to effect real
change. As he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in 2006, in order to
address global warming, we must 'have the will to take more than baby
steps.'" <span class="caps">NRDC</span> is supporting Moniz’s nomination.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">JUSTIN</span> <span class="caps">ELLIOTT</span>:</strong>
Right, Amy, and it’s completely true. Moniz has spoken in favor of
renewable energy. I mean, I think the best way to sort of interpret his
nomination is that he fits in with what Obama has called his
"all-of-the-above" energy policy, which is to embrace things like
fracking, continued use of oil, nuclear energy, but also develop wind
and solar. And I think that that’s where Ernest Moniz is on energy
policy.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Let���s turn to our guest in Los Angeles, Kevin Connor, and what you found in your <a href="http://public-accountability.org/2013/03/industry-partner-or-industry-puppet/">report</a>.
Talk about the report that you did that looks at—well, the title of the
report is "Industry Partner or Industry Puppet? How MIT’s Influential
Study of Fracking Was Authored, Funded, and Released by Oil and Gas
Industry Insiders."</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">KEVIN</span> <span class="caps">CONNOR</span>:</strong> Sure. Moniz’s nomination prompted us at the Public Accountability Initiative to take a closer look at an <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">influential <a href="http://mitei.mit.edu/publications/reports-studies/future-natural-gas">study</a> that <span class="caps">MIT</span>
did on "The Future of Natural Gas," </span>as it was called, in 2011. It was
issued by the Energy Initiative, which Moniz was the director of. And it
gave a very pro-gas—put a very pro-gas spin on fracking and shale gas
extraction, said that natural gas was a bridge or will be a bridge to a
low-carbon future, said that the environmental impacts related to
fracking are challenging but manageable, and also endorsed natural gas
exports, which is a very industry-friendly position to take.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It immediately, you know, prompted some
criticism from people who pointed to the fact that the report was
actually industry-funded, much like the initiative itself. But it was
extremely influential. It was designed to influence policymakers. Moniz
testified before Congress on the report. It had immediate impact, as
well. And it came at a critical time for the industry, which was facing
significant questions about the safety of fracking, the relative
environmental impacts of fracking. And we took a closer look at the
study and found that beyond just the industry funding of the study,
there were significant conflicts of interest that went undisclosed in
the report itself and in presentations of the report, and those involved
Moniz and several other key authors of the study. So, as it turns out,
it was not only just funded by industry, it was also authored by
industry representatives.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Kevin Connor, I wanted to turn to a 2011 press conference at the <span class="caps">MIT</span>
Energy Initiative, where Ernest Moniz introduced the study now under
contention, "The Future of Natural Gas." In his opening remarks,
Professor Moniz emphasized the report’s independent of its sponsors and
advisers.</font></p>
<blockquote class="collapsed-hide">
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">ERNEST</span> <span class="caps">MONIZ</span>:</strong>
I do want to emphasize a disclaimer, if you like, that while their
advice was absolutely critical, they are not responsible for the
recommendations and the findings. We have not asked for endorsement. We
asked for their advice; we received it. But the results, then, are our
responsibility.</font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class="collapsed-hide"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Later in the presentation, co-chair Anthony Meggs introduces the <span class="caps">MIT</span>
report’s findings, saying environmental impacts associated with
fracking are, quote, "challenging but manageable." However, Meggs failed
to disclose he had joined the gas company Talisman Energy prior to the
release of the study.</font></p>
<blockquote class="collapsed-hide">
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">ANTHONY</span> <span class="caps">MEGGS</span>:</strong>
... messages are very simple. First of all, there’s a lot of gas in the
world, at very modest cost. As you will see, gas is still, globally
speaking, a very young industry with a bright future ahead of it.
Secondly, and perhaps obviously at this stage, although not so obvious
when we started three years ago, shale gas is transformative for the
economy of the United States, North America, for the gas industry, in
particular, and potentially on a global scale. Thirdly, the
environmental impacts of shale development, widely discussed and hotly
debated, are—and we use these words carefully—challenging but
manageable.</font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class="collapsed-hide"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Kevin Connor, your response?</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">KEVIN</span> <span class="caps">CONNOR</span>:</strong> It’s absolutely outrageous for the Energy Initiative, for Moniz and <span class="caps">MIT</span>
to pretend this is independent of industry, well, first of all, given
the fact that the sponsors of the report are all, you know, industry
organizations and companies like Chesapeake Energy. Moniz was attempting
to say that it was somehow insulated from the influence of these gas
companies, when in fact authors of the study, such as Moniz and Meggs,
were—had industry positions at the time.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meggs’s quote there is particularly insidious,
the fact that he is saying that fracking is safe for the environment,
when he had actually joined Talisman Energy, a gas company, one of the
most active frackers in the Marcellus Shale, a month before the study
was released. So he is speaking to a roomful of journalists there,
presenting a report designed to influence policy, and not disclosing
that he is on the industry payroll. That is perhaps the last person in
that room who should be presenting that finding or having anything to do
with authoring that kind of report. And yet <span class="caps">MIT</span> and Moniz thought it was appropriate to put that spokesperson forward. So, it just goes to the fact that <span class="caps">MIT</span>
was really sort of presenting an industry brochure here with a lot of
pro-gas, industry advocacy talking points, and not revealing that there
were significant conflicts of interest here.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Justin Elliott, would you like to weigh in?</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">JUSTIN</span> <span class="caps">ELLIOTT</span>:</strong>
Yeah, I mean, one thing to note is, Ernest Moniz is getting a
confirmation hearing next month, and as part of that, he has to release a
personal financial disclosure, and also, at some point later, he’ll
have to—an ethics agreement will become public. So we should actually
learn more about his current and recent involvement in these companies
and possibly also stock holdings and that sort of thing, so it should be
interesting. I think this story isn’t over yet.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong>
We’re going to break and come back to this discussion. Our guests are
Justin Elliott—he’s a reporter with ProPublica—and Kevin Connor, who has
put out a report on—from the Public Accountability Project called
"Industry Partner or Industry Puppet? How MIT’s Influential Study of
Fracking Was Authored, Funded, and Released by Oil and Gas Industry
Insiders." This is <em>Democracy Now!</em> We’ll be back in a minute.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[break]</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> In October of 2009, Obama’s energy secretary nominee, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ernest Moniz, introduced Tony Hayward, <span class="caps">CEO</span> of BP, before he delivered a speech at the <span class="caps">MIT</span> Energy Initiative</span>. This took place six months before the BP Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.</font></p>
<blockquote class="collapsed-hide">
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">ERNEST</span> <span class="caps">MONIZ</span>:</strong>
Tony, I think it’s fair to say, without getting into great details,
faced a significant number of challenges at that time of transition and
is, these days, getting quite good press, I might say, in terms of
having the company operating well, producing and maintaining, I think,
its stance, taken quite early, in terms of recognizing the need and
acting on the need to address climate risk mitigation, for example, with
its diversified portfolio. We are very pleased to have BP here as a
member of the Energy Initiative—in fact, the founding—founding member of
the <span class="caps">MIT</span> Energy Initiative. And in fact, as
President Hockfield said just a few minutes ago to Tony, that that
confidence shown in where we were going here at <span class="caps">MIT</span>,
in terms of our focus on energy and environment, was very, very
important, and we really appreciate that early support and the
continuing relationship. In fact, many of you may know that besides the
Energy Initiative, BP has a major presence in terms of a Projects
Academy and Operations Academy with the Sloan School of Engineering. And
in fact, I just heard, again, in the discussion a few moments ago, that
300 of BP’s 500 senior executives have, one way or another, interacted
with <span class="caps">MIT</span>, so it’s really quite a substantial relationship.</font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class="collapsed-hide"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> That’s energy secretary nominee Ernest Moniz speaking in October 2009, praising BP <span class="caps">CEO</span> Tony Hayward six months before the BP oil spill. Justin Elliott of ProPublica?</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">JUSTIN</span> <span class="caps">ELLIOTT</span>:</strong> I mean, one of the things that surprised me, actually, as I was researching this story, is the extent to which the <span class="caps">MIT</span>
Energy Initiative is working with industry. I mean, it’s well known
that they and other energy research projects get industry funding. But
if you look at their annual reports and even their website, they say, if
you give us money as a company, we will help you achieve specific
business goals. So, I mean, in a lot of the coverage of Moniz, he has
been presented as an academic, which he is, but in some ways I think the
traditional categories are sort of failing us—sort of academic versus
business executive. I mean, this really is a part of—I mean, it’s not
formally part of BP, but they’re working as essentially a subcontractor
for BP. So I think that’s really—and again, I mean, President Obama
specifically praised Ernest Moniz’s ties with business when he
introduced him. So, I mean, it’s up for interpretation whether or not
these ties are a good thing, but I think that��s really the proper way to
see his background and who he is.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Kevin Connor, I wanted to ask you about the broader issue of what some call
"frackademia," gas-industry-funded academic research. In February of
2012, a year ago,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> University of Texas Professor Charles Groat published a
study that suggested fracking did not lead to groundwater
contamination. However, the study did not disclose Groat’s seat on the
board of major Texas fracker Plains Exploration and Production Company,</span>
for which he was reportedly given $400,000 in 2011. That’s more than
double his university salary. I want to go to a clip of Professor Groat
explaining his study’s finding.</font></p>
<blockquote class="collapsed-hide">
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">CHARLES</span> <span class="caps">GROAT</span>:</strong>
The immediate concern with shale gas development and hydraulic
fracturing was that fracturing at several thousand feet below the
surface would put chemicals into groundwater that people drank that
would be very bad for your health, and so people were very much opposed
to hydraulic fracturing from that point of view. So, an important part
of our study was to determine whether or not there is any direct,
verified evidence that hydraulic fracturing itself was producing
contaminated waters that ended up in that process in groundwater. Our
preliminary finding is we have found no demonstrated evidence that
that���demonstration that that has happened.</font></p>
</blockquote>
<p class="collapsed-hide"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Kevin Connor, your response?</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">KEVIN</span> <span class="caps">CONNOR</span>:</strong> Well, as you noted, Groat, when he was saying this, had a serious stake in a gas company called <span class="caps">PXP</span>,
$1.6 million stake, made several hundred thousand dollars a year, over
$400,000 a year in 2011, and was going before the public and saying
fracking is safe, without disclosing any of these related interests. I
mean, there’s some question as to whether someone with that sort of
stake in the industry should be working on this at all, but at the very
least it should be disclosed to the public, to journalists.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And because Groat didn’t disclose it, it
resulted in a lot of blowback in Texas. The journalists were very
concerned that Groat had not highlighted this for them when the report
was released, and it resulted in quite a bit of media coverage. The
University of Texas ended up commissioning an external review of the
study, which concluded that the study should actually be retracted and
noted that Groat’s conflict of interest was quite serious and should
have been disclosed. So, the sorts of transgressions that we see at <span class="caps">MIT</span>
have actually resulted in real accountability at other universities.
Groat actually retired as a result of this episode. And the director of
the Energy Institute at Texas, which is sort of an analog to MIT’s
Energy Initiative—the director actually resigned in the wake of this
external review. So there have been real consequences. There has been
real pushback against this trend at other universities. And there’s some
question as to whether that will happen with <span class="caps">MIT</span>.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong>
Well, going back to Moniz, because you’re talking about Groat here, not
to be confused with the energy secretary nominee of President Obama,
talk about what he makes at <span class="caps">MIT</span>, both as a university professor but also his outside funding.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">KEVIN</span> <span class="caps">CONNOR</span>:</strong> I’m actually not sure of his salary at <span class="caps">MIT</span>.
I don’t believe it’s publicly disclosed there, though it will be
released in his financial disclosures. But as a board member at <span class="caps">ICF</span>
International, which is an oil and gas—well, it’s a consulting firm
with a significant energy practice and significant oil and gas ties��he’s
made over $300,000 in the past two years since joining the board. This
is a position where he attends several meetings a year. It’s certainly
not a full-time position, and yet he’s making over $150,000 a year in
stock and cash compensation. So these are not insignificant financial
ties he has.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong>
And finally, Justin Elliott, Ernest Moniz is a nuclear physicist. Can
you talk about the significance of that for energy policy, if he were to
become the next energy secretary?</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">JUSTIN</span> <span class="caps">ELLIOTT</span>:</strong>
Sure. I mean, actually, the Department of Energy, the majority of its
budget goes to maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, and
also they’re in charge of cleanup of old nuclear waste. He’s been a
strong and public supporter of nuclear power. And that’s actually the
area where some of these business ties get into areas of potential
conflicts. As I mentioned earlier, he was previously on an advisory
council of a uranium enrichment company called <span class="caps">USEC</span>,
one of the—one of the largest, and they’ve been seeking a $2 billion
loan guarantee from the Energy Department to build a centrifuge plant in
Ohio. That’s been on hold for a few years while they look into it
further. So, it will be interesting to see whether Moniz has to recuse
himself from that or whether it gets mentioned in any of the
congressional hearings, but that’s certainly one of the big areas the
Energy Department is active in.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Professor Moniz <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136544/ernest-moniz/why-we-still-need-nuclear-power">wrote</a> in <em>Foreign Affairs</em>
in 2011, "It would be a mistake, however, to let Fukushima cause
governments to abandon nuclear power and its benefits." He wrote,
"Electricity generation emits more carbon dioxide in the United States
than does transportation or industry, and nuclear power is the largest
source of carbon-free electricity in the country."</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">JUSTIN</span> <span class="caps">ELLIOTT</span>:</strong>
Right. And again, I mean, I think this is in keeping with President
Obama’s, quote, "all-of-the-above," unquote, energy policy. I mean, this
is—this is Obama nominating someone as energy secretary who is in
keeping with the administration���s stated policy.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong>
President Obama has long been pro-nuclear power—in fact, is the one who
is restarting nuclear power plants after, what, some 40 years of the
last one being built.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">JUSTIN</span> <span class="caps">ELLIOTT</span>:</strong>
Right. And I think the only reason that effort has stalled is the price
of natural gas, because of fracking, going down so low that nuclear
power plants have become less economically feasible than they were five
years ago.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong>
Final comments, Kevin Connor, as you release your report, director of
Public Accountability Initiative, the report that you did called
"Industry Partner or Industry Puppet?" has <span class="caps">MIT</span> responded? And were you able to speak with Professor Moniz?</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">KEVIN</span> <span class="caps">CONNOR</span>:</strong>
I did call the Energy Initiative but was not able to speak with Dr.
Moniz. And the Energy Initiative did actually respond, through a
spokesperson, with a statement that didn’t really speak to questions I
had raised about how the conflicts of interest surrounding the report
were managed and disclosed. One critical conflict of interest I didn’t
note earlier was that one of the study authors, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">John Deutch, was on the
board of Cheniere Energy, a liquefied natural gas company, <span class="caps">LNG</span>
export company. </span>That wasn’t disclosed in the study. The study actually
endorsed natural gas exports. He has a $1.6 million stake in that
company. <span class="caps">MIT</span> Energy Initiative—</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Central Intelligence Agency?</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">KEVIN</span> <span class="caps">CONNOR</span>:</strong> —basically had no response, just said that the authors aren’t biased, which is hard to believe, given these connections.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong> Kevin, John Deutch, the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency?</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">KEVIN</span> <span class="caps">CONNOR</span>:</strong> Exactly. Former director of the <span class="caps">CIA</span> was actually a study author here and is on the board of the only company in the U.S. to receive permits to export <span class="caps">LNG</span> from the lower 48 states. And again, this study endorsed <span class="caps">LNG</span>
exports on fairly—a fairly thin basis of evidence and didn’t disclose
this connection, which is really, again, quite outrageous.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong><span class="caps">AMY</span> <span class="caps">GOODMAN</span>:</strong>
Well, I want to leave it there; of course, we’ll continue to follow the
nominee. The confirmation hearings will take place on April 9th. Justin
Elliott, ProPublica reporter, and Kevin Connor, I want to thank you
very much for being with us. Justin wrote "Drilling Deeper," looking at
"The Wealth of Business Connections for Obama��s Energy Pick." And Kevin
Connor wrote the study, "Industry Partner or Industry Puppet? How MIT’s
Influential Study of Fracking Was Authored, Funded, and Released by Oil
and Gas Industry Insiders." We will link to it at democracynow.org.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is <em>Democracy Now!</em>, democracynow.org, <em>The War and Peace Report</em>.
And when we come back, we’ll be joined by a well-known anchor here in
New York, Cheryl Wills, who in this month of Women’s History Month—and
we’ve just come out of African-American History Month—we’ll talk about
what she found about her family. She wrote the book, <em>Die Free: A Heroic Family Tale</em>. Stay with us.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
==
</font><h1 class="title-news"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
Ernest Moniz, Considered Fracking Shill By Some Environmentalists, Sparks Concern Amid Energy Department Nomination
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Posted: <span itemprop="datePublished">03/04/2013 10:35 am EST</span> ��| Updated: <span itemprop="dateModified">03/04/2013 10:45 am EST</span>
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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a Monday morning announcement that was long anticipated but not widely welcomed by environmentalists, President Barack Obama
tapped <a href="http://esd.mit.edu/Faculty_Pages/moniz/moniz.htm" target="_hplink">Ernest Moniz</a>,
director of the Energy Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT), as the nominee for the next secretary of energy. </font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Ernie knows that we can produce more energy and grow our economy
while still taking care of our air, our water and our climate," Obama
said during a press conference on Monday morning announcing Moniz's
nomination, along with his other picks, including <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/ernest-moniz-gina-mccarthy_n_2805057.html?utm_hp_ref=green" target="_hplink">Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency</a>.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While some environmental groups cheered the pending nomination,
others have expressed deep concern over Moniz due to his outspoken
support of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas, better known as fracking.
Some critics have gone as far as to call him a <a href="http://www.workers.org/2013/03/01/obamas-energy-choice-shill-for-shale-gas-industry/" target="_hplink">"shill" for the shale gas industry</a>.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A 2011 MIT study led by Moniz hailed natural gas as the "bridge to a
low-carbon future." The research, as The Huffington Post reported last
week, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/fracking-conflicts-of-interest-regulators_n_2776498.html" target="_hplink">received financial support from oil and gas companies</a>. </font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anthony Ingraffea, a professor of civil and environmental engineering
at Cornell University, said that the controversial report was just one
example of what he calls "frackademia" -- pro-fracking studies coming
out of institutions like <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/nyregion/suny-buffalo-will-end-controversial-fracking-institute.html?r=0" target="hplink">SUNY Buffalo</a> and the <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/12/07/why-the-ut-fracking-study-controversy-matters/" target="_hplink">University of Texas at Austin</a>
that are later found to have been supported by industry. But MIT, being
"the best tech institute in the country and the wellspring of many
fantastic people," he said, seems to "get a pass."</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ingraffea's own fracking research comes to a starkly different
conclusion -- that natural gas could be a bigger climate-changer than
coal. It was largely funded by a foundation that has supported
anti-fracking groups.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"No one is alleging that Moniz has personally financially gained
directly from moneys from the oil and gas industry for fracking
studies," said Ingraffea. However, he added, the study does raise
concerns over whether or not any actions were taken that "benefited the
people paying, despite knowing those actions were not in the best
interest of the public, students, his university or the country." </font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's difficult," he added. "How do you determine that?"</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bill Snape of the Center for Biological Diversity shared similar
disapproval with the possibility of a a Moniz-led Energy Department in a
<a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2013/nominations-02-22-2013.html" target="_hplink">February statement</a>.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We're concerned that, as energy secretary, Ernest Moniz may take a
politically expedient view of harmful fracking and divert resources from
solar, geothermal and other renewable energy sources vital to avoiding
climate disaster," said Snape. "We're also concerned that Moniz would be
in a position to delay research into the dangers fracking poses to our
air, water and climate."</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"His appointment to the DOE could set renewable energy development
back years," said a statement released by Food and Water Watch, which
also <a href="http://foodandwaterwatch.org/pressreleases/americans-against-fracking-opposes-dr-ernest-moniz-for-secretary-of-energy/" target="_hplink">circulated a petition opposing Moniz's nomination</a>.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to fracking, Moniz is also an ardent proponent of nuclear
power -- another sticking point among some environmentalists.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) plans to question Moniz on the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/22/hanford-nuclear-reservation_n_2744974.html" target="_hplink">polluted Hanford nuclear site</a>
in Washington State, where waste tanks may be leaking 1,000 gallons of
waste per year, reported The Hill. Moniz wrote in November 2011 that <a href="http://mitei.mit.edu/news/mitei-news/why-we-still-need-nuclear-power" target="_hplink">"it would be a mistake"</a> to let "Fukushima cause governments to abandon nuclear power and its benefits."</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Nuclear power's track record of providing clean and reliable
electricity compares favorably with other energy sources," Moniz wrote.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, many environmental experts and advocates have also highlighted
Moniz's track record of concern for climate change and emphasis on
renewable energy and innovation, and some were hopeful that the
nominee's experience and track record would help him accomplish more in
the secretary of energy position.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Obama said on Monday, Moniz "already knows his way around the Department of Energy."</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The physicist, well-known for his over-the-ears hairstyle, served as
an undersecretary of energy during the Clinton administration. For the
past four years, he has served on the President's Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology (PCAST).</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Ernie is really a big-picture guy," Rosina Bierbaum, a fellow PCAST
member and an environmental-policy expert at the University of Michigan
at Ann Arbor, recently told Nature. "He can talk the details of science
far better than most of us, but he <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/physicist-tipped-for-us-energy-post-1.12500" target="_hplink">never ever gets lost in the weeds</a>."</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Natural Resource Defense Council also welcomed the nomination to
replace Steven Chu, who plans to return to Stanford, as "good news."</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Professor Moniz has the hands-on experience and the expertise needed
to help further the climate and energy goals our country urgently
needs," Frances Beinecke, president of the group, said in a statement on
Monday.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moniz's hands may very well be full, and the pressure on him high, as
the U.S. faces a series of important decisions that could affect the
country's -- and the world's -- future economic, environmental and
energy landscapes.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I have a set of adjectives and nouns to describe the energy business
-- it's a highly capitalized, multi-trillion dollar per year commodity
business in the sense that when we flick the switch on, we don't see
whether it came from a coal plant or solar panel," Moniz told the Switch
Energy Project last year. "It serves every activity in society. It
therefore does, and always will, <a href="http://vimeo.com/album/1877285/page:2/sort:preset/format:thumbnail" target="_hplink">invite extensive regulation and very complex politics</a>."</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/ernest-moniz-fracking-energy-department_n_2805732.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/04/ernest-moniz-fracking-energy-department_n_2805732.html</a>
---
<a href="http://www.icfi.com/about/board-of-directors">
http://www.icfi.com/about/board-of-directors</a>
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/print/environment/what-you-need-know-about-obamas-picks-head-department-energy-and-epa">http://www.alternet.org/print/environment/what-you-need-know-about-obamas-picks-head-department-energy-and-epa</a>
</font><div class="headline">
<h1 class="node-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What You Need to Know About Obama's Picks to Head the Department of Energy and the EPA</font></h1>
</div> <div class="the_body body_environment clearfix">
<div class="story-date"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em><span class="field field-name-field-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" content="2013-03-04T11:37:00-08:00">March 4, 2013</span></span></span></span></em> | </font></div>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As with all Cabinet posts, the Senate must confirm the nominees <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/03/04/remarks-president-personnel-announcements">announced</a> <span class="print-footnote">[3]</span> this morning by President Barack Obama in the East Room of the White House.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The president selected world-renowned MIT physics professor <strong>Ernest Moniz</strong> to replace Steven Chu to head up the Department of Energy. Moniz is chief of the <a href="http://mitei.mit.edu/">MIT Energy Initiative</a> <span class="print-footnote">[4]</span> and
served under Bill Clinton as a science and technology adviser and under
both him and Obama as undersecretary for energy. Four years ago he was
appointed to the president's Science and Technology Advisory Council.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moniz is fully on board with the all-of-the-above energy approach of the Obama administration. He has supported <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YnsMpCI8tA">nuclear power</a> <span class="print-footnote">[5]</span>,
evolutionary designs based on what has built in the past rather than
revolutionary nuclear reactor types that have not yet been tested and
built and would require a "tortuous" vetting and permitting process. He
does, however, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/03/the-new-debate-fukushima-and-small-modular-nuclear-reactors/73084/">support</a> <span class="print-footnote">[6]</span> research and development of new, smaller modular reactors. The disaster at Fukushima <a href="http://mitei.mit.edu/news/mitei-news/why-we-still-need-nuclear-power">did not change</a> <span class="print-footnote">[7]</span> his
mind. He also supports ground-level storage of nuclear waste so that it
can be reprocessed for fuel sometime in the next few decades.
Environmental advocates are divided on whether nuclear power should be
part of the mix of future energy choices.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many such advocates,
however, are worried about Moniz's strong support for natural gas as a
"bridge [fuel] to a low-carbon energy future," something he noted in
MIT's 2010 report, <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/media/2013/130304.asp">The Future of Natural Gas</a> <span class="print-footnote">[8]</span>.
In testimony to Congress, he called natural gas "one of the most
cost-effective means by which to maintain energy supplies while reducing
CO2 emissions." He has made clear, on the other hand, that he does not
see natural gas as a permanent solution, noting that it "has to be a
bridge to somewhere." </font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seth Gladstone and Food & Water Watch <a href="http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/pressreleases/rumored-doe-appointee-would-harm-president-obamas-climate-goals/">stated</a> <span class="print-footnote">[9]</span>��last month:</font></p><blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr.
Moniz is a known cheerleader for exploiting our reserves of natural gas
using a highly controversial and polluting practice known as hydraulic
fracturing (“fracking”). His appointment to the DOE could set renewable
energy development back years. If we pursue our fossil fuel addiction by
expanding fracking, which Mr. Moniz will likely advocate, the oil and
gas industry will thrive while true energy efficiency and renewable
solutions languish. Our water, public health and climate would suffer.</font></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And Michael Brune, Sierra Club's executive director, <a href="http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2013/03/president-makes-nominations-us-secretary-energy-and-epa-administrator">stated</a> <span class="print-footnote">[10]</span>:
</font><blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We
would stress to Mr. Moniz that an "all of the above" energy policy only
means "more of the same," and we urge him to leave dangerous nuclear
energy and toxic fracking behind while focusing on safe, clean energy
sources like wind and solar.</font></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources and Defense Council, <a href="http://www.nrdc.org/media/2013/130304.asp">stated</a> <span class="print-footnote">[8]</span>Monday:
</font><blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This
is good news. [...] His background, coupled with his long history of
constructive engagement with, and at, the Energy Department, will serve
the American people well. We look forward to working with him to advance
a clean energy future based on efficiency and renewable power.</font></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Obama's choice to replace Lisa Jackson as the Environmental Protection Agency is <strong>Gina McCarthy.</strong> McCarthy has served for the past four years as the assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Air and Radiation where she has <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/gina-mccarthy-obama-s-green-quarterback-has-a-history-of-working-with-industry-20130304">been referred to</a> <span class="print-footnote">[11]</span> as Obama's "green quarterback."</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She
previously worked in government environmental posts, including as a
regulator under then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. She also headed
Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection and is seen as a
pioneer in state-based cap-and-trade programs that seek to curtail
greenhouse gas emissions. Eight years ago, McCarthy was instrumental in
putting together<a href="http://www.rggi.org/">Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative</a> <span class="print-footnote">[12]</span> the nation's first mandatory cap-and-trade program.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In
her current post, she has been the point person to curtail air
pollution from power plants, particularly toxic chemicals like mercury
from coal-fired plants. She was also deeply involved in the move to more
strictly control automobile tailpipe emissions. She is widely seen as
more of a fighter than Bob Perciasepe, who has served as interim EPA
chief since Jackson left. At the same time, she is not seen as quite so
much of the in-your-face figure that Jackson was.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coral Davenport <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/gina-mccarthy-obama-s-green-quarterback-has-a-history-of-working-with-industry-20130304">reports</a> <span class="print-footnote">[11]</span>:</font></p><blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If
nominated, she’ll face a fiery confirmation hearing from Republicans on
the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The panel’s ranking
Republican, Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, and senior Republican member
John Barrasso of Wyoming hail from states where oil and coal production
are big parts of the economy—and EPA regulations are viewed as
straight-up job-killers.</font></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The view of most Republicans, those
who won't want to dismantle the EPA altogether, has long been, despite a
Supreme Court ruling to the contrary, that the EPA has no business
trying to control greenhouse gas emissions.</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters <a href="http://www.lcv.org/media/press-releases/LCV-on-Nomination-of-Gina-McCarthy-as-EPA-Director.html">praised</a> <span class="print-footnote">[13]</span> her:</font></p><blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gina
McCarthy cares about progress not partisanship. She��s worked for
administrations from both parties and made extraordinary progress
protecting the air we breathe and defending public health. Republicans
and Democrats easily confirmed Gina McCarthy as head of the EPA’s clean
air division, and we hope they move swiftly to confirm her as head of
the agency. We look forward to working with her to combat the climate
crisis, protect our air and water, and advance chemical policy reform.</font></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The NRDC also backed her, as did Fred Krupp at the Environmental Defense Fund, and Sierra Club's Brune <a href="http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2013/03/president-makes-nominations-us-secretary-energy-and-epa-administrator">said</a> <span class="print-footnote">[10]</span>:</font><blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We
welcome the nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental
Protection Agency. Assistant Administrator McCarthy has a strong record
of protecting the health and safety of millions of Americans by limiting
dangerous pollution in our air and supporting programs that help get
America's kids outside.</font></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One group that has had big problems
with the EPA recently is the American Coalition for Clean Coal
Electricity. The president and CEO, Mike Duncan, <a href="http://behindtheplug.americaspower.org/2013/03/accce-statement-on-new-epa-nomination.html">said</a> <span class="print-footnote">[14]</span> Monday:
</font><blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We
congratulate Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy on her nomination to
be the next EPA Administrator, and we hope for a more constructive
working relationship with the EPA under her leadership. We hope that if
she is confirmed she can put EPA on a more balanced path that recognizes
America’s continued need for coal, and the importance of clean coal
technology.</font></blockquote><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More constructive? In other words, ACEEE's
question for her is along the lines of why can't you be more like
Stephen Johnson, the EPA's second director under George W. Bush, who <em>Nature</em>magazine in an editorial <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v452/n7183/full/452002a.html">stated</a> <span class="print-footnote">[15]</span> had
displaced a "reckless disregard for law, science or the agency's own
rules—or, it seems, the anguished protests of his own subordinates."</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><div class="article">
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When President Obama <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/03/04/president-obama-announces-three-nominees-help-tackle-our-most-important-challenges">nominated</a> ErnestMoniz to be energy secretary earlier this month, he hailed the nuclear
physicist as a “brilliant scientist��� who, among his many talents, had
effectively brought together “prominent thinkers and energy companies”
in the continuing effort to figure out a safe and economically sound
energy future for the country.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, Moniz’s collaborative work – best captured in the <a href="http://mitei.mit.edu/about/members">industry-backed</a> research program he oversaw at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology – is well known. So, too, is his support for Obama’s ���<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/clean_energy_record.pdf">all of the above</a>” energy strategy – one that embraces, fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewable energy sources.</font></p>
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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But beyond his job in academia, Moniz has also spent the last decade serving on a range of boards and
advisory councils for energy industry heavyweights, including some that
do business with the Department of Energy. That includes a six-year paid
stint on BP’s Technology Advisory Council as well as similar positions
at a uranium enrichment company and a pair of energy investment firms.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Such industry ties aren’t uncommon for cabinet nominees, and Obama
specifically praised Moniz for understanding both environmental and
economic issues.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, Moniz’s work for energy companies since he served in President
Clinton’s Energy Department has irked some environmentalists.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“His connections to the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries
threaten to undermine the focus we need to see on renewables and energy
efficiency,” said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at the
consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Slocum pointed out that Moniz, if confirmed, will set research and
investment priorities, including at the department’s network of <a href="http://energy.gov/maps/doe-national-laboratories">national laboratories</a>.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Energy Department hands out billions of dollars in contracts and
loan guarantees as it pushes energy research and development and
administers the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile and cleanup efforts.
(On fracking, probably the highest-profile energy issue of the moment, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/ernest-moniz-mit-physicist-is-to-be-nominated-as-energy-secretary/2013/03/04/e3fe68aa-808c-11e2-a350-49866afab584_print.html">the Environmental Protection Agency</a> has jurisdiction.)</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reaction to Moniz’s nomination has been mixed among environmental groups, ranging from support (<a href="http://www.nrdc.org/media/2013/130304.asp">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>) to concerned acceptance (<a href="https://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2013/03/president-makes-nominations-us-secretary-energy-and-epa-administrator">Sierra Club</a>) to outright opposition (<a href="http://foodandwaterwatch.org/pressreleases/americans-against-fracking-opposes-dr-ernest-moniz-for-secretary-of-energy/">Food and Water Watch</a>).</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What criticism there has been has focused on his <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136544/ernest-moniz/why-we-still-need-nuclear-power">support for nuclear power</a> and for natural gas extracted through fracking as a “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/04/is-fracking-a-bridge-to-a-clean-energy-future-ernest-moniz-thinks-so/">bridge fuel</a>” to transition away from coal.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here��s what we know about Moniz’s recent involvement with the energy industry:</font></p>
<ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
He was on BP’s Technology Advisory Council between 2005 and 2011, a
position for which he received a stipend, according to BP. Spokesman
Matt Hartwig said the company does not disclose details of such
payments. (A 2012 BP <a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/617215-bp-directors-remuneration-report-2012#document/p4/a95431">financial report</a> disclosed
that one council member received about $6,200.) The council ���provides
feedback and advice to BP’s executive management as to the company’s
approach to research and technology,” according to the company. BP has <a href="http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7079490">also provided</a> $50 million in funding to Moniz’s MIT Energy Initiative. Moniz talked about that relationship while <a href="http://mitei.mit.edu/news/video/facing-harsh-realities">delivering a warm introduction</a> before a 2009 speech at MIT by BP’s then-CEO Tony Hayward.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
From 2002 to 2004, Moniz <a href="http://www.usec.com/news/ernie-moniz-richard-perle-and-linda-stuntz-join-usec-inc-strategic-advisory-council">sat on</a> the strategic advisory council of <a href="http://www.usec.com/company">USEC</a>,
a public company that provides enriched uranium to nuclear power
plants. A company spokesman said Moniz was paid for his role on the
nine-member council, but declined to say how much. USEC, which has been <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/09/23/senate-oks-up-to-100-million-to-sustain-piketon-project.html">seeking</a> a $2 billion loan guarantee from the Energy Department for a centrifuge plant in Ohio, has <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/03/04/usec-moniz-department-of-energy/1962911/">applauded</a> Moniz��s nomination.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
He's on the board of <a href="http://www.icfi.com/">ICF International</a>, a Fairfax, Virginia-based company which does energy and environmental consulting. It has received Energy Department <a href="http://www.usaspending.gov/search?form_fields=%7B%22recipient_name%22%3A%22ICF%22%2C%22recip_state%22%3Anull%2C%22recip_congdist%22%3Anull%2C%22recip_country%22%3Anull%2C%22dept%22%3A%5B%228900%22%5D%7D">contracts</a> as part of what one executive <a href="http://www.icfi.com/news/2011/icf-awarded-new-task-order-contract-doe">called</a> a
“longstanding relationship with the Department of Energy.” As a board
member, Moniz got $158,000 in cash and stock in 2011, according to the
company’s most recent <a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1362004/000119312512171567/d335055ddef14a.htm">annual report</a>.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
He is on the strategic advisory council of <a href="http://www.ngpetp.com/strategic_advisory_board.php">NGP Energy Technology Partners</a>, a private equity firm that <a href="http://www.ngpetp.com/investment_approach.php">invests</a> in both alternative energy and fossil fuel companies. The Washington, D.C.-based firm declined to comment.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
He is on the board of advisers of another private equity firm, the <a href="http://www.angelenogroup.com/Default.aspx">Angeleno Group</a><u>,</u>which
says it provides “growth capital for next generation clean energy and
natural resources companies.” The Los Angeles-based firm didn’t respond
to requests for comment. </font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
He is a trustee of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (<a href="http://www.kapsarc.org/kapsarc/Default.aspx">KAPSARC</a>), a Saudi Aramco-backed nonprofit organization. The organization did not respond to requests for comment.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
He was on the board of directors of the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <a href="http://www.epri.com/Pages/Default.aspx">Electric Power Research Institute</a>
</span> from 2007 to 2011, following a stint on the group��s advisory council
that began in 2002. A nonprofit utility consortium, the organization
does research for the industry with an annual budget of over $300
million. The group paid Moniz $8,000 between 2009 and 2011, according to
its most recent <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/search/project:%20EPRI">tax returns</a>.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
Since 2006, Moniz has been on the board of General Electric’s “<a href="http://www.ecomagination.com/advisory-board">ecomagination</a>”
advisory board which advises the company on “critical environmental and
business issues.” The company did not respond to inquiries about
compensation.</font></li></ul>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A spokesperson for the MIT Energy Initiative said Moniz is not giving
interviews, and the White House didn’t respond to requests for comment.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moniz’s nomination has <a href="http://www.eenews.net/public/EEDaily/2013/03/05/2">not encountered</a> resistance from the Senate, where the Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Moniz April 9.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As part of the nomination process, Moniz has to fill out a financial
disclosure that will become public, along with an ethics agreement on
how he will avoid any conflicts of interest.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If confirmed Moniz won’t be the first energy secretary who has been close to industry.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steven Chu, the outgoing energy secretary, received scrutiny over his ties to BP. The company had <a href="http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/02/01_ebi.shtml">chosen</a> the
lab Chu headed at the University of California, Berkeley, to lead a
$500 million energy research project. BP’s chief scientist at the time
of the grant, <a href="http://energy.gov/contributors/steven-e-koonin">Steven Koonin</a>, became Chu’s undersecretary for science.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When the Energy Department became involved in the government’s
response to the 2010 Gulf oil spill, Koonin recused himself. Critics
who thought the administration was too soft on the company <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/us/politics/26energy.html">pointed to Chu’s ties</a> to BP. But no evidence emerged that Chu had played any role going to bat for BP within the administration.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/wealth-of-business-connections-ernest-moniz">http://www.propublica.org/article/wealth-of-business-connections-ernest-moniz</a>
</font></p>
</div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---<br />statoil?<br /><br /></font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Barack Obama’s nominee for energy secretary is drawing criticism for leading a study that minimized risks of natural gas while
failing to disclose that some of its researchers had financial ties to
the industry.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The nominee, Ernest Moniz, who now is the head of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology’s Energy Institute, came out with its report in
2011 that said the environmental risks of increased drilling and
production “are challenging but manageable.”</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the report’s co-authors had already agreed to take a position with Talisman Energy Inc. when the report was released.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another researcher was on the board of Cheniere Energy Inc., which is building an export facility for liquefied natural gas.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The public should have been informed that MIT’s natural gas study
was written by representatives of the oil and gas industry,” said Kevin
Connor, director of the Public Accountability Initiative, a research
group in Buffalo, New York that is critical of the use of hydraulic
fracturing for gas drilling and compiled the details of these industry
ties. “Aren’t there academics there not on the payroll of gas
companies?”</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s unlikely this disclosure will harm Moniz’s chances of
confirmation. Obama has also supported development of natural gas
through fracturing, and the Energy Department doesn’t regulate the
practice. That is left to the Environmental Protection Agency and
Interior Department.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The president has made clear that natural gas has a central role to
play in our nation’s energy future,” Clark Stevens, a White House
spokesman, said in an e-mail. “Dr. Moniz’s work at MIT demonstrates his
ability to work collaboratively with a wide spectrum of stakeholders on a
broad range of energy issues.”</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee scheduled a hearing on his nomination for April 9.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some environmental groups have criticized Moniz’s nomination because
of his support for natural gas as a so-called bridge fuel from
carbon-intensive coal to cleaner energy such as solar. Some local
activists say tapping that gas using fracturing, in which water, sand
and chemicals are shot underground, causes air and water contamination.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moniz has said there are risks, and industry disclosure and
government regulation can contain them. “Research and regulation, both
state and Federal, are needed to minimize the environmental
consequences,” the MIT researchers said in their report.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MIT’s Energy Institute discloses that it is sponsored by companies
such as BP Plc, Saudi Aramco and Duke Energy Corp., as well as
foundations. When it published its Future of Natural Gas report in 2011,
it disclosed the groups and companies that funded that study, including
the Clean Skies Foundation, which backs natural gas and has close ties
to Chesapeake Energy Corp.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of the MIT professors must file financial disclosure forms with
the university, and research is done independently of funding, said
Victoria Ekstrom, a spokeswoman for the Energy Institute.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ralph Cavanagh, co-director of the energy and transportation program
at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group
critical of fracturing, was a member of the advisory board for the
study. He called it “well balanced” and a fair report. While Cavanagh
has differences with some of the conclusions, the process “was very much
in the spirit of peer review.”</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The highest goal of technical people like myself is: What’s true?”
Daniel Cohn, a MIT professor who was part of the study, said in an
interview. “And I feel that standard was met here.”</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Connor’s group highlighted two main criticisms with the researchers
involved in the study. First, Anthony Meggs, a visiting professor at MIT
and co-chairman of the group, had already agreed to join Talisman, the
Canadian gas company, when the study was released. Nonetheless, he
presented the finding that the risks are “challenging but manageable” at
the press conference for the report.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meggs has since left Talisman, spokeswoman Phoebe Buckland said in an e-mail.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Second, John Deutch, an MIT chemistry professor and former CIA
director, was a member of the board of Cheniere when the report was
released. The report backed the export of LNG, which Cheniere is trying
to do.</font>
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Deutch, who remains on Cheniere’s board, didn’t return an e-mail and telephone message asking for comment.</font></p>
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