Prominent energy centers at MIT, Stanford, and Columbia may be biased toward natural gas because of funding, a new study says.
in order to keep the world from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, many oil and gas majors continue to promote natural gas as part of a climate solution.
“Natural gas is now the U.S.’s largest energy source for electricity generation,” Papp said. “All major fossil fuel companies produce it. So natural gas is very policy-relevant.”The researchers found that reports from the three prominently fossil fuel-funded centers in the analysis at Columbia, MIT, and at Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy were “more favorable” toward natural gas than renewable energy.
“Our scholars carry out their research by following facts and evidence wherever they lead, independently and free from any influence or control by funders or other interest groups,” the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy’s website states. “They adhere to strict conflict of interest policies established by Columbia University to protect against real or perceived risks to the integrity of research.
One of the main challenges of this research is that the three centers identified as the most positive toward natural gas are simply the ones who disclose their prominent relationships with fossil fuel funders. Papp said it was difficult to find information on funding from many centers’ public information sources. It’s not out of the question that fossil fuel companies may be giving money to other energy centers in this study who simply did not disclose the funding publicly.
“The academically-branded but non peer-reviewed research of these energy centers are increasingly used for policy making, but without appropriate disclosures it is difficult for the public and policymakers to determine whether there may be a threat to the impartiality of these products,” Papp said.
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