If you have enough money, you can cut college classes right out of Oklahoma University’s (OU) Norman campus. At least that is what billionaire and Continental Resources, CEO Harold Hamm, intended.
Billionaire Tries To End College Classes
Ham-handed Hamm wants the outstanding?Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, the?ConocoPhillips School of Geology and Geophysics, and the?Oklahoma Geological Survey hacked right out of the University.
Never mind that oil is how Hamm became a billionaire, he wants the entire Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) Agency, extracted from the university. But if the geological programs? college classes were robbed of OGS’s rich educational resources, they would likely fall apart.
So why does Hamm, a major university donor, want to carve the OGS from OU college classes? The OGS does research on the impact fracking has upon?earthquakes. And Hamm does not want that research made public.
Fracking Causes 5415 Earthquakes
In a 2014 OGS report, the agency wrote that it had located 5,415 earthquakes in Oklahoma of at least a 2.5 magnitude. Those of lesser magnitude were left out of the research due to the sheer numbers of them.
?With the rate of seismicity in Oklahoma in 2014 we were, at a minimum, working hard to locate all events above a magnitude 2.5.”
?We know that the recent rise in earthquakes cannot be entirely attributed to natural causes. The Oklahoma Geological Survey has determined that the majority of recent earthquakes in central and north-central Oklahoma are very likely triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells.?
Oil CEO Tries To Bully Scientist
Seismologist Austin Holland had a command performance meeting with university president David Boren and Hamm in late 2013. The agenda was to discuss his link of fracking to earthquakes. Hamm, a top energy advisor to Mitt Romney, 2012 GOP presidential candidate, may have tried to bully the scientist? Hamm says no,
?We care about the industry. When people disparage parts of it, I want to know why. I want to know what basis they have for doing that.?
Railroads Run In Earthquake Zone
According to Think Progress, Hamm’s company, Continental Sources,
“Ships 90 percent of its oil by railroad, a method Hamm?referred to?as an ?effective? and flexible means of transport, ignoring the rise in damaging and deadly oil by rail accidents.”
“He has defended continued government subsidies for the oil and gas industry while denouncing those for renewable energy sources,?saying of wind turbines, ?once they’re there, they haunt you.??
The OGS and the college classes are not so easily sliced out of OU. According to the OGS site, it is charted by the Oklahoma Constitution,
?Chartered in the Oklahoma Constitution and is charged with investigating the state’s?resources and disseminating the results?promote the wise use of Oklahoma’s natural resources consistent with sound environmental practices.?
If not fracking, what does Hamm attribute climate change to exactly? In a 2013 interview?with National Journal, he said,
?Overpopulation ? that probably hurts the environment more than anything.?
Sure. Why believe the facts when you can just buy them?
