public accountability initiative
March 20, 2013 -
A watchdog group with a track record of uncovering conflicts of interest in fracking research has discovered that the president's energy nominee failed to disclose he was a director of a firm that profits from the shale gas industry at the time he released an influential study concluding the environmental impacts of the controversial gas drilling practice were "manageable."
December 12, 2012 -
A professor involved in a scientific conflict of interest scandal at the University of Texas has moved to a Louisiana coastal research nonprofit -- where he continues to be less than upfront about his oil and gas industry connections.
August 14, 2012 -
After coming under fire for releasing what it touted as an independent study of fracking's environmental risks that was in fact led by a director of a fracking company, the school appoints a panel to investigate -- and it's chaired by a former director of a gas giant whose fracking operations have been blamed for contaminating groundwater.
August 1, 2012 -
The University of Texas promoted research by a faculty member as an independent study of fracking's environmental hazards -- but it turns out the scientist holds a big financial stake in a fracking company and sits on its board, which he failed to fully disclose. Meanwhile, another conflict-of-interest controversy over fracking arises in North Carolina.
