https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/23/joe-biden-fight-climate-crisis-ernest-moniz
It was a deceptively low-key occasion on Capitol Hill: an older man in a
dark suit, talking into a TV camera about an energy report.
According to his firm’s 362-pageanalysis
<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58ec123cb3db2bd94e057628/t/5ced6fc515fcc0b190b60cd2/1559064542876/EFI_CA_Decarbonization_Full.pdf>,
the fastest path to California’s climate goals included continuing to
rely on fossil fuels. The analysis was funded by gas companies and
groups related to them, but he wasn’t a lobbyist or industry consultant.
Quite the opposite, he was the Obama administration’s well-respected
energy secretary, Ernest Moniz.
----
Moniz was the founding director of MIT’s Energy Initiative, or MITEI,
the university’s self-described “hub for energy research, education, and
outreach” on low-carbon and no-carbon energy options. MITEI’s founding
donors were BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, Saudi Aramco, and Italian oil and gas
company Eni. Its sustaining members (i.e. biggest donors) include GE,
Chevron, French oil and gas company Total, and Norwegian oil and gas
company Statoil.
“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,” a White House spokesman said upon Moniz’s nomination.
And we can only assume that MITEI’s stakeholders are well pleased with
Moniz’s collaborative prowess. As ProPublicareported
<https://www.propublica.org/article/wealth-of-business-connections-ernest-moniz>,
he was a paid member of BP’s Technology Advisory Council, while BP gave
$50 million to MITEI. He served on GE’s “ecomagination
<http://www.ge.com/about-us/ecomagination>” advisory board on growth
strategy for sustainable products and practices, and GE gave money to
MITEI. He was a trustee of King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research
Center, which is funded by Saudi Aramco, a company that gave money to
MITEI. And money wasn’t flowing only to MITEI; Dr. Moniz got paid to sit
on several boards and advisory councils for energy companies and
energy-related initiatives.
These investments were perhaps best recouped with MITEI’s 2011 report
“The Future of Natural Gas.” Moniz was lead author. It argued that
“natural gas truly is a bridge to a low-carbon future.” As the Public
Accountability Initiative detailed in itsreporting
<http://public-accountability.org/wp-content/uploads/industry_partner_or_industry_puppet.pdf>on
the fracking industry’s influence on academic research, Moniz and his
coauthors had numerous conflicts of interest over and above the limited
number of energy-industry financial ties disclosed in the report. Moniz,
for example, received compensation in excess of $300,000 as a board
member of ICF International—a consulting firm to oil and gas companies
that cited shale gas “as a key profit driver for its energy business,”
according to areport
<http://public-accountability.org/wp-content/uploads/industry_partner_or_industry_puppet.pdf>by
the Public Accountability Initiative—before hiring Moniz to give his
MITEI stamp of approval.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/academe-on-the-auction-block-johnson
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