| process | environmental & social | corporatization |
Notes from Around Town-- a chronology of news, notes, rumors, and events related to the BP-deal --December 10th, 2007 California State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, a democrat who has been criticized for his warm relations with Arnold Schwartzenegger on environmental issues in the run up to the 2006 election, stated at a presentation at UC Berkeley that he believed research and development in the biofuels sector would be California's main avenue to success in the global economy. When asked about recent legislation AB32 simply exported problems elsewhere by not including lifecycle analysis of energy produced, he was vague but hoped regulators would fix the problem in the future before the bill kicked in. December 6th, 2007 The $10 billion investment by BP in extracting oil from Tar Sands has made headlines recently. What's less known is that the UC Berkeley has already taken $40 million in tar sands money, from BP's partner in the venture, Li Ka Shing. Ka Shing controls the Canadian company Husky that BP is partnering with in the wastefull and destructive tar sands project. Here's a picture of our slick Chancellor meeting with Ka Shing, who he called "a world-leading philanthropist." Ka Shing also earned praise from MCB professor Randy Schekman, who, remember, helped ram through the Academic Senate motion equating academic freedom with the ability to take money from any source.  December 6th 2007 Over heard conversation by two undergraduate students in poster forum for Chemical Engineering 144 in Stanley Hall: "So you're hitching yourself to the BP bandwagon?"; "Hell yeah!" The student also mentioned the possibility of a newly created graduate program in energy biosciences. November 12th 2007 Apparently, the UC administration signed their copy of the contract without informing Dan Kammen, who was speaking on Democracy Now! and said the contract had not yet been signed. He later clarified that in an email sent out to his REAL listserv. The adminsitration also signed the contract before meeting with Graduate Assembly Liasons, despite their understanding that the administration would not do so and such actions would constitute "bad faith." According to the liaisons, the administration said it would not "publicly release" the contract without first speaking with them. November 2007 At the fall meting of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate, the Chancellor mentioned the possibility of a significant increase in energy research funding from sources in the midwest. After further investigation, this may come from the Energy Foundation. ERG Professor Dan Kammen has already received $125,000 from them. November 2007 A Berkeley citizen wearing a piece of clothing critical of the UC-BP deal was prevented from attending a lecture at the Reperatory Theatre by EBI-director Chris Somerville. |
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Read more on the current environmental and social problems of biofuels on our resources page. See what's in the media: visit our media page. |