After gay parenting study debacle, another black eye to U of Texas academic integrity

A University of Texas review panel examining conflict-of-interest charges against UT professor Charles Groat released a scathing report on the study, which found no evidence that fracking polluted ground water. Groat has retired and the director of the UT Energy Institute, Raymond Orback, has resigned. The Panel noted that UT Professor Groat, who led the study, failed to discluse conflict of interest as a director and stockholder of Houston-based Plains Exploration and Productions Co., owning $1.58 million worth of shares
     The review panel said the study:

• wasn't fact based"
• included little scientific; conclusions were distorted in successive drafts
• included only one active scientist
• included white papers not subject to "serious peer review"
• "fell short of contemporary standards of peer review"

     Earlier this year, despite the University of Texas' conclusion that a controversial gay parenting study contained "no falsification of data, plagiarism or other serious ethical  breaches constituting scientific misconduct," a member of the editorial board of the journal which published it called the study "bullshit" and 200 PhDs and MDs questioned its scholarly merit.
     In respect of hydraulic fracturing, two other industry-manipulated studies have crashed and burned this year. At Penn State, the Marcellus Shale Coalition cancelled a fracking study after faculty snubbed the endeavor, which followed three previous studies written by a former Penn State professor, Tim Considine, now at the University of Wyoming, whose work has been characterized as advocacy for producers by groups like the nonprofit Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center in Harrisburg.
     In November, the State University of New York announced it would close its Shale Resources and Society Institute.

Professors, students, and several SUNY trustees had pressured the University to close its shale institute. The movement presented a petition with more than 10,500 signatures to support its cause.
     SUNY English professor Jim Holstun was one of those who challenged the credibility of the Shale Resources and Society Institute. The signatories strongly insisted that their public university should not turn into a corporate mouthpiece.
     The Shale Resources and Society Institute released a study that claiming that state regulation was making drilling for oil in Pennsylvania much safer. The study argued that the rules pending in New York would bring about the same benefits.
     Howver, the local government watchdog group Public Accountability Initiative challenged some of the data and conclusions published by the study. The PAI also pointed out that the study’s lead authors directly conducted research for the oil and gas industry, and that they did not release full disclosure.
     The PAI noted that John P. Martin, the study’s third author and the co-director of the Shale Resources and Society Institute, provided planning and public relations services for the oil and gas industry.