{"id":15372,"date":"2012-07-23T13:08:46","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T18:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=15372"},"modified":"2012-07-24T17:17:08","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T22:17:08","slug":"fracking-company-paid-texas-professor-behind-water-contamination-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/23\/fracking-company-paid-texas-professor-behind-water-contamination-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Fracking Company Paid Texas Professor Behind Water Contamination Study"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo courtesy of the University of Texas at Austin<\/p>

Dr. Charles "Chip" Groat, who led a study on fracking and groundwater contamination, didn't disclose over a million dollars in compensation and stock from a drilling company.<\/p><\/div>\n

Earlier this year, a study led by Dr. Charles “Chip” Groat<\/a>\u00a0for the Energy Institute<\/a> at the University of Texas at Austin made headlines for saying there was no link between fracking and groundwater contamination<\/a>. (When we reported on the study in February<\/a>, we noted that the study also found some serious issues around the safety and regulation of fracking that weren’t getting much press coverage.)<\/p>\n

But according to a new report<\/a>\u00a0out today by the Public Accountablitiy Initiative<\/a> (PAI), a nonprofit watchdog group, the conclusions in Groat’s report aren’t as clear cut as initially reported. And Groat himself did not disclose significant financial ties to the fracking industry.<\/p>\n

Groat, a former Director of the U.S. Geological Survey and professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, also sits on the board of Plains Exploration and Production Company<\/a>, a Houston-based company that conducts drilling and fracking in Texas and other parts of the country. According to the new report (and a review of the company’s financial reports by Bloomberg<\/em><\/a>)\u00a0Groat received more than $400,000 from the drilling company last year alone, more than double his salary at the University. And one of the shales examined in Groat’s fracking study is currently being drilled by the company, the report says.<\/p>\n

Since 2007, Groat has received over $1.5 million in cash and stock awards from the company, and he currently holds over $1.6 million in company stock, according to the PAI report. (Update:<\/em> we clarified with PAI, and that $1.6 million in stock comes from the stock awards over the years. PAI says Groat’s total compensation from the company is close to $2 million.)<\/p>\n

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