Is The University Being Exploited?
KGO-TV 7 (ABC – San Francisco, CA)
Watch the video of this broadcast here.
There’s opposition today to Governor Schwarzenegger’s deal between BP and the University of California. The grant creates a new energy institute aimed at developing fuel alternatives. However, there are concerns the university could be exploited.
A Hollywood producer has retracted his $2.5 million dollar pledge to Stanford University. Steven Bing took back his donation after learning Stanford had struck a $100 million dollar research deal with Exxon — a deal he believed compromised the university’s integrity.
Now, those same concerns are being raised about the University of California’s $500 million dollar deal with BP.
With great fanfare, on February 1st, Governor Schwarzenegger announced a half-billion dollar grant from BP Petroleum to the University of California. The deal includes funding the Energy Bioscience Institute where Cal scientists will work side by side with BP scientists to develop alternatives to gasoline. The Energy Bioscience Institute billed as a win for private industry, a win for the university, a win for the planet.
Bob Sanders, U.C. Berkeley Spokesman: “BP came up with a half a billion dollars to help fund research that could address part of the problem. So it was a great confluence of our interests, their money. We think it’s going to have at the end of the day a very positive impact and help deal with global warming.”
The Foundation for Taxpayers’ and Consumers’ Rights is calling on the university to protect the public institution from exploitation by BP — “greenwashing” they call it.
The foundation wants assurances that the university will protect patents developed at and by the public institution.
John Simpson, Foundation for Taxpayers’ and Consumers’ Rights: “That’s a huge problem as I see it. You’re going to have public research going on and shoulder to shoulder you’re going to have BP scientists on the payroll indulging in what’s described as proprietary research. That means to me secret research. It just seems to me that they get the benefit from everything that Berkeley has to offer and they give very little in return.”
The university says the BP project will be structured the same as all public-private research partnerships. Their lawyers are working out the details now.
Though no one has signed off on the final deal yet, buildings are already being cleared out to make way for the new labs. The university does expect to have a signed agreement by June.
