http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/us/politics/26energy.html?nl=us&emc=politicsemailema4Three years ago, the national laboratory then headed by Steven Chu received the bulk of a $500 million grant from the British oil giant BP to develop alternative energy sources through a new Energy Biosciences Institute.
Dr. Chu received the grant from BP’s chief scientist at the time, Steven E. Koonin, a fellow theoretical physicist whom Dr. Chu jocularly described as “my twin brother.” Dr. Koonin had selected the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, over other universities in the United States and Britain in part because of Dr. Chu’s pioneering work in alternative fuels.
Today, Dr. Chu is President Obama’s energy secretary, and he spent Tuesday in Houston working with BP officials to try to find a way to stop the unabated flow of oil from a ruptured well a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico.
Dr. Koonin, who followed Dr. Chu to the Energy Department and now serves as under secretary of energy for science, is recused from all matters relating to the disaster because of his past ties to BP, said Stephanie Mueller, an Energy Department spokeswoman.
Dr. Chu, she said, “has never had a financial interest in BP.”
-snip-
The relationships among Dr. Chu, Dr. Koonin and BP illustrate the complexity of the ties between the company and the government now playing out along the Gulf Coast as they struggle to cope with one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters. Just as the Pentagon and military contractors develop symbiotic business, technical and political interdependencies, the government in this case needs BP’s offshore drilling technology and well-control equipment; the company needs the government’s logistical and scientific expertise, including that of Dr. Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist.
-snip-
While there is no evidence that Dr. Chu or Dr. Koonin have represented BP’s viewpoints in internal deliberations or sought to influence administration policy in a way that would benefit BP, the mere fact of their shared history brought expressions of concern from environmentalists and other critics of the White House’s response to the spill.
“The fact that Steven Chu selected Steve Koonin, BP’s chief scientist, to be his under secretary could predispose them to think that they could maybe negotiate with BP, could be more like partners regarding the oil cleanup,” said Jennifer Washburn, the author of a coming report by the Center for American Progress called “Big Oil Goes to College,” which examines the BP-Berkeley venture. “It makes it more likely for them to see BP as a legitimate partner in handling the cleanup operation.
-snip-
Ms. Mueller, the Energy Department spokeswoman, said that the accusation that the agency reacted slowly to the spill was unfair, and that 150 people at national laboratories had been working on it.
-snip-
On Monday, BP announced another $500 million grant, this one to study the impact of the spill on the marine and coastal environment, with the first award to go to Louisiana State University. An independent panel will decide which institutions will receive the rest of the money, the company said in a news release.
A White House official said Tuesday that the Energy Department “doesn’t have jurisdiction over the oil spill.” Dr. Chu — who, according to an Energy Department news release was in Houston on Tuesday “to continue engagement on strategies to stop the oil spill” — is “just volunteering because he’s one of the most brilliant scientists around,” the official said. Dr. Chu canceled a trip to China in order to deal with the crisis, the Energy Department said.
-snip-
----------------------
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
