BP buys up Gulf scientists for legal defense + Some Fun Facts!

[Hetland]

First the Numbers:

Oil spill: as of 7/15, 218,258,750 gallons were released from the well (187,755,550 gallons
spilled, 33,583,200 captured), worth $13.8 billion at yesterday's market close. That's 173,955,550 gallons more than the Exxon Valdez. Enough to fill 307 Olympic-size pools, change the oil in 30,792,591 Hummers or fill 1.97 billion soda cans (that's 6.42 cans per US 6.42 cans per US citizen

Now the News:

BP buys up Gulf scientists for legal defense, roiling academic community | al.com

 

[drbill]

Gee, I'm a marine biologist... wonder if BP will try to buy me. No, wait... I can't be bought... at almost any price!

 

[Hetland]

Gee, I'm a marine biologist... wonder if BP will try to buy me. No, wait... I can't be bought... at almost any price!

Thanks Dr. Bill!

Dr. Shipp (from the article) is a fisherman and a diver. His son owns a restaurant in Orange Beach that has been affected by the oil spill too, so I would find it very hard to believe that he (Dr. Shipp) would ever sell out in such a fashion either.

BTW, if you're ever in Orange Beach, that's the place to go for vittles (Shipp's Harbor Grill). The Pepper Shrimp is beyond compare, and everything else on the menu has been awesome too.

 

[mike_s]

This whole thing to me is clearly a coverup and BP trying to surpress the facts to the media.

 

[captain]

If I read this correctly the government want to withdraw grant money to scientist who sigh with BP, seems like a bit of blackmail to me.

 

[DennisS]

Publish or Perish is the rule of Academia, scientists routinely submit their work to peer reviewed journals. BP is offering these "consultation jobs" with the provision that nothing is published. It comes down to, good or bad, don't tell anyone about what you are finding about oil and the gulf environment.

The people being offered these "jobs" are the public university marine scientists that should be informing the residents of their states about the damage that the spill caused.


Ben Raines of the Alabama Press-Register has spoken with a number of marine scientists at private universities who say BP representatives are offering $250 per hour for them to join their legal team. The Press-Register examined one such contract that specifies that signing the contract 'prohibits the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scientists or speaking about the data that they collect for at least the next three years.'

Definitely Hush Money

 

[DennisS]

Gee, I'm a marine biologist... wonder if BP will try to buy me. No, wait... I can't be bought... at almost any price!

Think of it like farm subsidies, farmers are being paid not to farm certain crops.

BP is paying scientists not to publish reports and papers. You're already not publishing reports or papers on the oil spill. Get BP to pay you to continue not writing reports or papers

 

[Hetland]

If I read this correctly the government want to withdraw grant money to scientist who sigh with BP, seems like a bit of blackmail to me.

If they can't use the data they gather, why would the government want to continue paying them for research? At best it is a conflict of interest for a scientist to be paid by both the government and BP to research anything connected to the Gulf of Mexico. If BP really wanted scientists for research, they would use the ones they already have on staff or retainer, you know, the ones that told them there were walruses that needed protection.

But if, for the sake of argument, I agreed the government was blackmailing scientists NOT to work for BP, then I say, "Hooray for the Government".

BP can go 4@#$%^ itself.

 

[drbill]

If BP really wanted scientists for research, they would use the ones they already have on staff or retainer, you know, the ones that told them there were walruses that needed protection.

Those environmental statements were so worthless, but used by a number of oil companies in applications for leases. Reminded me of some lawyers who provide cut-and-paste boilerplate to cover specific situations you've requested in contracts. I've run into at least three (from well respected firms) who did so and charged small fortunes, and I had to completely rewrite the contracts (mine stood up in court each time). Wonder how much the original author of the walrus BS was paid?