(VitalNews.org) – Louisiana State University has said that it will allow an oil company to weigh in on its research study and have access to all of its intellectual property, but it wouldn’t be allowing them to do this for free.
Their flagship university has said that for five million dollars they would allow Shell to weigh in on facility research activities. An alternative offer is for one hundred thousand dollars a corporation can review the information and they will have access to the resulting intellectual property.
These conditions have been outlined in a Boilerplate Document that Louisiana State University released to oil and chemical companies associated with the Louisiana Chemical Association.
A twenty million dollar donation from Shell to Louisiana State University was originally given in order to create the Institute for Energy Innovation. Records showed that this then pushed the university to give rights to the oil company on the research they were conducting.
Another oil company that donated to the university was Exxonmobil which donated two million dollars and became the university’s first “strategic partner-level donor.” Following this, there have been eight other companies that have stated their interest in working with the university.
Institute for Energy Innovation’s director, Brad Ives, spoke out about the agreements and defended the partnerships. Although other companies have donated, Shell is the only company that has donated such a hefty amount and been given a seat on the board.
Ives has even said that being able to work with these oil and gas companies is “really a key to advancing energy innovation.”
A Shell spokesperson also came out to talk about their agreement and the process. “We’re proud to partner with LSU to contribute to the growing compendium of peer-reviewed climate science and advance the effort to identify multiple pathways that can lead to more energy with fewer emissions,” the spokesperson said.
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