'Conservation group' quoted by NYT has direct ties to offshore drilling industry

Source: ProPublica

With crude oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico every day, the conventional wisdom about last month’s explosion and spill has been that this is an environmental disaster of unpredictable scale. The New York Times, in a story published today on Page One, challenged this conventional wisdom by citing several experts. One of those was from a nonprofit group called the Gulf of Mexico Foundation.

... The Times doesn’t offer any more information about the foundation. So we decided to poke around. The Gulf of Mexico Foundation‘s website says it was “founded in 1990 by citizens concerned with the health and productivity of the Gulf of Mexico.” Its site shows it has sponsored conservation and educational programs and partnered with the likes of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The site also says the group represents a “wide range of interests,” including “agriculture, business, fisheries, industry, tourism, and the environment.”

But as it turns out, industry appears to be the most represented of those interests.

At least half of the 19 members of the group’s board of directors have direct ties to the offshore drilling industry. One of them is currently an executive at Transocean, the company that owns the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded last month, causing millions of gallons of oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico.

Seven other board members are currently employed at oil companies, or at companies that provide products and services “primarily” to the offshore oil and gas industry. Those companies include Shell, Conoco Phillips, LLOG Exploration Company, Devon Energy, Anadarko Petroleum Company and Oceaneering International.

Read more: http://www.propublica.org/ion/blog/item/non-profit-conservation-group-has-ties-to-big-oil-interests-gulf-oil-spill

I am soooooooo glad I canceled my subscription years ago.

just read this. I 'get it' now.

http://mediamatters.org/strupp/201005040040

ProPublica Questions New York Times Oil Story Source

I am soooooooo glad I canceled my subscription years ago.