Nov 21, 2002 2 min read

By Brad Foss AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) – Exxon Mobil Corp., General Electric and other major energy companies will contribute at least $175 million to a 10-year global energy and climate research project at Stanford University.

Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil and gas company, will contribute $100 million to the project, which will allow Stanford scientists to investigate everything from hydrogen power to technologies aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

GE will give $50 million and Schlumberger Limited has committed to putting up $25 million. E.On AG, a German power company, said it intends to contribute $50 million.

Stanford will retain formal legal title to the technology and information developed under the Global Climate and Energy Project, as well as formal legal title to all patents sought, the university said Wednesday.

“This project gives us an opportunity to unleash the creativity of Stanford students and faculty on one of the grand challenges of the century,” said Lynn Orr, who is stepping down as dean of Stanford’s school of earth sciences to be director of the project.

Orr said “there are plenty of protections built into the agreement that ensure there’s plenty of independence for our researchers.”

The endowment for energy and climate research is equal to the total amount of money Stanford has received for corporate-sponsored research in the past 10 years, the university said.

The energy and climate project would not be the first link between Stanford and Exxon Mobil. In September, Exxon Mobil elected to its board Henry A. McKinnel, chairman of the Advisory Council at Stanford’s graduate school of business. Michael Boskin, an economics professor at Stanford is also on Exxon Mobil’s board.

Environmentalists were quick to criticize it as little more than a public relations campaign by the energy industry.

“It looks like an extremely cheap attempt by Exxon Mobil to buy a shield from criticism” regarding global warming and other environmental issues linked to the burning of fossil fuels, said Peter Altman, national coordinator of Campaign Exxon Mobil, a shareholder group trying to influence the company’s positions on the environment.

At a recent industry conference, Exxon Mobil said total spending on oil and gas exploration and other projects would be roughly $100 billion over the next decade.

“It’s very disappointing,” Altman added. “It shows a very low level of commitment to solving this problem.”

—

On the Net:

http://gcep.stanford.edu