University of Tennessee "Frackademia" Program Put to Rest, For Now

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University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s โ€œfrackademiaโ€ program proposalย – set to transform UT‘sย Institute of Agricultureย into a de facto fracking land leasing agency –ย has been put to rest for now, according toย The Tennesseean. In short: the university’sย premiere leasing proposal forย acreage didn’t recieve a single bid. ย ย 

UT-Knoxville’s proposed program – as revealed in aย DeSmogBlog investigation –ย intended to research wells fracked on 8,600 acres ofย Cumberland Forest land owned by UT that sits on top of theย Chattanooga Shale basin. UT-Knoxvilleย would lease the acreage off to Big Oil under the nullifiedย plan.ย 

The proposal called for an initial fee of $300,000 paid by companies interested in fracking, an additional $300,000 per year, 15-percent royalties on any gas sold and a minimum of $35 per acre paid to UT-Knoxville.

โ€œIt would create a rare, controlled environment in which experts could study the environmental impact of the controversial drilling technique, while also generating revenue to finance research,โ€ explained aย March 2013ย New York Timesย article on the proposal.

For now, the โ€œcontrolled environmentโ€ conception serves as merely a prologue, its future at UT-Knoxville – if any at all – stillย undetermined.ย 

โ€œAt this point, I am unsure of the next steps, if any,โ€ Kevin Hoyt, Director of UT‘s Forest Resources AgยญResearch and Education Center – which manages the Cumberland Forest –ย said in a press statement. โ€œThose decisions will be up to UT Institute of Agricultureย leadership.โ€

It might also be up to other key important players, too: the Haslam family.ย ย 

Haslam Family Connections toย Fracking

Republican Governor Bill Haslam – the former Mayor of Knoxville – took $398,110 from Big Oil before his Nov. 2010 gubernatorial raceย victory.

Tennessee GOP Gov. Bill Haslam; Photo Credit: Wikimediaย Commons

Further,ย the Haslam family owns Pilot Flying J truck fueling stations, a corporation for which Bill Haslem used to serve as president and currently owned by Bill’s brother, Jimmy. It’s currently the 6th most profitable corporation in the U.S., earning over $29 billion in 2012.

Pilot Flying J also has 63 of its stations nationwide retrofitted with natural gas pumps for 18-wheelers owned by T. Boone Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels Corporation (CEF) as part of CEF‘s โ€œAmerica’s Natural Gas Highway.โ€ Some perspective: CEF currently has 67 U.S. fueling stations inย total.

T. Boone Pickens; Photo Credit:ย David Shankbone | Wikimediaย Commons

By the end of this year – an EcoWatch article explains – Pilot Flying J โ€œplan[s] to have 100 truck stops capable of fueling 18-wheelers withโ€ฆnaturalย gas.โ€

Bill Haslam’s father and Pilot founder, Jim Haslem – a co-chair of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s Tennessee campaign and former member of the UT-Knoxville Board of Trustees – gave a $32.5 million donation to UT-Knoxville in 2006. It was the largest ever private donation to the university from anย individual.

Icing on the cake: Bill Haslam Chairs UT-Knoxville’s Board of Trustees, overseer of UT‘s fundraisingย efforts.ย 

It remains to be seen whether fracking on UT-Knoxville’s land will morph into a centerpiece of the university’s funding drives – led by Gov. Bill Haslam – going forward. For now, the Cumberland Forest lives another dayย unfracked.ย 

Photo Credit: Wikimediaย Commons

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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