by Matt Saldaña
December 5, 2007
Duke Energy and ConocoPhillips have donated $3.5 million to Duke University's Climate Change Policy Partnership, and that financial support may have influenced academic research.
In 2005, Duke Energy, which, by company estimates, ranks third among the nation's electrical utilities in carbon dioxide emissions and coal consumption, donated $2.5 million to help found the CCPP, tasked with evaluating potential federal climate policies. ConocoPhillips, the third-largest integrated energy company in the U.S., joined as a corporate partner in 2007 and contributed $1 million.
That money bought representatives from the utility and the energy company each a seat on the CCPP's advisory panel, but also the ability to vet climate policy research before it is released to the public.
[View the entire article at the Independent Weekly.]