shed fresh light on companies' motivations for providing funding for external research programs — a practice long accepted and disclosed, but nonetheless opaque.For example, BP has funded research on climate science, energy and policy at Princeton University, via their Carbon Mitigation Initiative, for more than two decades.
"If Presidential elections go the way it looks now, I would not be surprised to see some of our friends in senior government policymaking roles as well!" wrote Robert Stout, then head of BP's US policy, in a 2020 email.The documents were released as part of an investigation by Democrats on the House Oversight and Governmental Affairs Committee as well as the Senate Budget Committee.
Documents describe the Princeton-BP tie-up as a "genuine collaboration," which the company felt contrasted with its funding of some other higher education institutions that received less money over a shorter period.BP's investment in CMI's work over the years has been complemented by more policy-oriented research, as the company supported programs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Such relationships, plus the investment in Princeton can "provide BP access to unparalleled expertise at the forefront of research in the areas of climate change science, technology and policy," the memo states.BP also saw the projects it funded as a way to push its priorities with academic backing, rather than just gaining information from universities.