Big Oil and the Harvard climate professor

Ben Franta @BenFranta tweeted on April 6, 2023: "The founder of @Harvard's environmental & energy law program (and co-chair of Harvard's sustainability committee) is also paid $350,000 a year by @conocophillips to be on the oil company's board. A flagrant violation of professional and human ethics." Franta linked to this Guardian article: "Harvard professor lobbied SEC on behalf of oil firm that pays her lavishly, emails show" (April 6, 2023)

Similarly, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism @TBIJ tweeted that day: "A Harvard climate professor used her Ivy League connections to vouch for a giant oil and gas company currently trying to weaken new climate regulations - Jody Freeman, who earns $350,000 a year as a ConocoPhillips board member, lobbied the US regulator on their behalf"

Franta retweeted TBIJ, commenting: "Big Oil's colonization of academia runs deep. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Why didn't Prof. Freeman's colleagues bring this to the public's attention before? Because she's not the only one on the take."

Follow-up

Bill McKibben's "Forget Conspiracy Theories: The Really Bad Stuff Happens in Plain View" (The Crucial Years, Substack, July 24, 2023):

"So, in case you missed it, here’s the biggest thing that happened in the world last week: while our planet was experiencing its hottest month of all time, the earth’s biggest pile of cash (the asset manager Blackrock, with $8.59 trillion dollars under management) named to its board of directors the CEO of the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, which has produced more carbon emissions than any firm on earth.

This decision was barely even noted—the New York Times produced a nine-paragraph account in its Dealbook newsletter. And yet think of what it means. It is the ultimate signal that the world’s financial community has decided to essentially give up on even the modest commitments they made a couple of years ago in Glasgow, where they said they would work to decarbonize their portfolios."

Why did they go back on those promises? Because, McKibben explains, over the past year they've profited off the war in Ukraine. (See my posts on "NYT opinion: Russia's invasion of Ukraine is fueled by fossils" and "Biden's fossil fuel reduction goals during Russia's war on Ukraine".) Also, they've successfully pressured U.S. politicians to threaten investment companies who prioritized "ESG investing" over oil.

McKibben quoted a recent LA Times editorial:

"It should be obvious by now that fossil fuel companies have no real plans to change in response to the climate crisis. And that the only way forward is without them.... It's a little late for powerful voices from older generations to come to the realization that fossil fuel companies aren't operating in good faith and will fight climate action until the bitter end. But it's welcome nonetheless..."

See also: "Aramco Targeted in UN Human Rights Probe Tied to Climate Change," Frances Schwartzkopff, Bloomberg, August 25, 2023