{"id":67496,"date":"2015-12-14T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=67496"},"modified":"2015-12-11T13:37:58","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T13:37:58","slug":"in-greenpeace-sting-professors-agree-to-produce-research-for-fossil-fuel-industry-without-disclosure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/12\/in-greenpeace-sting-professors-agree-to-produce-research-for-fossil-fuel-industry-without-disclosure\/","title":{"rendered":"In Greenpeace Sting, Professors Agree to Produce Research for Fossil Fuel Industry without Disclosure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"chamney<\/a><\/p>\n

9 Dec 2015 – \u201cHow much have you taken from Peabody Coal?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That was the question Greenpeace researcher Jesse Coleman asked prominent climate change skeptic<\/a> and Princeton physicist William Happer in a Senate hearing room Tuesday [8 Dec] afternoon, just as Happer was preparing to testify before Sen. Ted Cruz\u2019s Commerce subcommittee.<\/p>\n

Hours earlier, Happer had been exposed as one of the two victims of a sting in which Greenpeace researchers posed as consultants for the fossil fuel industry. They got Happer and a Pennsylvania State University professor to agree to accept funding to produce pro-industry research while concealing the source of that funding.<\/p>\n

Happer was none too pleased with Coleman\u2019s question.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou son of a bitch, I haven\u2019t taken a dime!\u201d <\/em>replied Happer. \u201cI haven\u2019t taken a dime, you son of a bitch.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Watch the exchange:<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tULDE_gYmuc<\/p>\n

In fact, in email exchanges he thought he was having with a business advisory firm based in Beirut, Happer had described his convoluted remuneration agreement with\u00a0Peabody Coal: His fee, in return for his testimony at a regulatory hearing in Minnesota, was to go not directly to him, but to a nonprofit that paid some of his expenses.<\/p>\n

The other sting victim was Frank Clemente, a professor emeritus of sociology at Penn State known for his pro-coal views. He received an email in which\u00a0 Greenpeace U.K. investigators Lawrence Carter and Maeve McClenaghan posed as a fixer for an Indonesian energy company. They asked him to produce a \u201cbriefing paper\u201d to \u201ccounter damaging studies on Indonesian coal deaths, which have appeared in run up to Paris [climate talks].\u201d<\/p>\n

Clemente replied that he would be \u201cvery interested\u201d in the project, noting that he had \u201cworked with the Coal Industry Advisory Board, International Energy Agency, World Coal Association, the American Coal Council and the NCC, as well as a number of private coal-based companies and groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clemente explained that he could be cited using his academic title, that there was \u201cno requirement to declare source funding in the U.S.,\u201d and that all of his writing has \u201cbeen published under the rubric of me as an independent scholar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing an hourly rate of $275, he sent over a paper he did for the International Energy Agency that he said cost them\u00a0$50,000. An \u201c8-10 page paper\u201d would run $15,000. \u201cMy op\/ed fee usually is $6,000 for 2-3 pages.\u201d<\/p>\n

He attached his testimony before the Tennessee Valley Authority and an op-ed<\/a> about coal that was picked up by dozens of small publications. \u201cNote that in none of these cases is the sponsor identified,\u201d he boasted. \u201cAll my work is published as an independent scholar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"William<\/a><\/p>\n

In their dealings with Happer, the Greenpeace researchers posed as a \u201cpartner in a business advisory firm based in Beirut\u201d advising an exploration and production firm.<\/p>\n

They wrote that their client was \u201cconcerned about the impacts of the U.N. climate talks later this month\u201d and wanted to \u201ccommission a briefing \u2026 which highlights the crucial role that oil and gas have to play in developing economies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Happer responded by attaching a white paper he helped write for the CO2 Coalition, a pro-carbon organization, as well as testimony at a regulatory hearing in Minnesota. \u201cI would be glad to try to help if my views, outlined in the attachments, are in line with those of your client,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Happer explained that \u201cwhatever fee\u201d they paid should \u201cgo directly to the CO2 Coalition. This was the arrangement I had with the attorneys representing the Peabody Coal Company in the regulatory hearings in Minnesota. The fee I would have received was sent instead to the CO2 Coalition, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt educational organization. The CO2 Coalition covers occasional travel expenses for me, but pays me no other fees or salary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"William<\/a><\/p>\n

Penn State and Princeton did not respond to requests for comment. Like many universities, Penn State explains<\/a> on its website that it only requires public disclosure of conflicts of interest on research that receives certain kinds of federal research money.<\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

Zaid Jilani is a journalist who hails from Atlanta, Georgia. He has previously worked as a reporter-blogger for <\/em>ThinkProgress<\/em>,<\/em> United Republic, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and<\/em> Alternet<\/em>. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in international affairs and received his master\u2019s in public administration from Syracuse University in 2014. \u2709zaid.jilani@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greenpeace researchers posing as consultants for the fossil fuel industry got professors at Princeton and Penn State to agree to write papers for money but conceal the source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}