If an environmental law prof at a big university — who makes more than $ 350,000 a yr advising a major oil and throttle society — help that fellowship set up get together with the federal government , is that lobby ? This is the question circumvent Harvard law prof Jody Freeman , who has come under increase scrutiny in late weeks for her ante up position on the board of ConocoPhillips , as the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism ( TBIJ ) reported this calendar week .
According to two e-mail sent in 2021 andobtained by the Guardian and TBIJvia a Freedom of Information Act request , Freeman correspond with John Coates , who was then the act director of the Securities and Exchange Commission , helping to set up a meeting between ConocoPhillips executive and the SEC . The emails were sent as the SEC was prepare to propose rules around hold companies report their glasshouse natural gas emissions , on the face of it in decree for the oil and gas behemoth to pitch its climate work to regulators in private before the authority could announce the plans in public .
In the emails , Freeman described two ConocoPhillips executives as “ hugely knowledgeable , thoughtful , and concerned in solving trouble ” and touted one ’s work chairing the clime committee at the American Petroleum Institute , the industriousness ’s lead lobbying subdivision .
The entrance to the Harvard campus in Cambridge, MA.Photo: Charles Krupa (AP)
“ ConocoPhillips is widely recognize as the crude and gas industry loss leader on clime related revelation , ” Freeman wrote in one electronic mail .
In these emails , according to the Guardian and TBIJ , Freeman signed off as a Harvard law professor but did not disclose her give place on the ConocoPhillips board . That , the outlets claim , is in misdemeanour of Harvard’spolicyregarding individuals with financial battle of interest , which states that faculty “ must make public disclosures of financial interests in related external entities … when reasonable members of the audience would give weight to those interests in evaluate the notion , advice , or work they are presenting . ”
Freeman told the Guardian that Coates , who is also a Harvard law professor , was aware of her affiliation with ConocoPhillips before the electronic mail were exchange and that she ’s “ compliant with the university ’s conflict of interest rules . ”
Freeman said in an email to Earther , with Coates cc’ed , that she “ did not buttonhole for or initiate the request for a coming together . ” Freeman said that Coates contact out to ask for link to the company , and she attached a statement from Coates , who says he was still at Harvard when the electronic mail were sent , corroborating her bill . ( “ Jody ’s board role at Conoco was known to me , ” Coates ’s statement read . “ I reach out to her first , and she did not request a merging or ‘ lobby ’ me or others at the SEC for Conoco . ” )
Freeman ’s resume , as detailed on herfaculty bio page , is full of clean vitality and clime bona fides : She served as an consultant on vigour and mood alteration for the Obama administration ; she helped explicate an agreement with the U.S. auto industry to set fuel efficiency standards ; she ’s worked with the Biden transition team to develop the organization ’s climate plan . Her character with ConocoPhillips is described on her faculty Thomas Nelson Page as play as “ an of import advisor on clime change and the energy transition . ” According to ConocoPhillips ’s 2023proxy affirmation , Freeman make $ 367,584 in total compensation in cash fees and ancestry options from her lieu on the board .
Freeman has been on the ConocoPhillips display board since 2012 , but her affiliation has been raising more supercilium of later , as the divestment front on campus continues to gain steam and previously staid insane asylum begin to reconsider their relationships with fossil fuel funding . In 2021 , after yr of pressure from student activists , Harvard announced that it would “ phase out ” investments in fossil fuels in its endowments ; the divestment movement has now refocused its attention on other ways that fossil fuel money is exerting influence within academia .
ConocoPhillips ’s ownership of the Willow Project , an tremendous and controversial oil and gas undertaking in Alaskaapproved by the Biden administration in March , means the company is tie even more scrutiny . Divest Harvard , a bookman and alum group , last monthcalled on Freeman to choke her positionwith ConocoPhillips , accusing the company of “ listening to the call of profit without regard for climate abjection ” when it come to the Willow Project .
“ While divestment was an important step forward , the case of Jody Freeman illuminates the pervasive continued influence of fogey fuel companies and the indigence for a far more comprehensive dissociation , ” say Phoebe Barr , a junior at Harvard and an organizer with Divest Harvard . “ Conflicts of interest like this one should not bear . ”
This class , Harvard ’s Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainabilitygave Freeman fundingto point up a three - year research project on corporate net - zero targets , include whether or not these targets “ leave in real expelling reduction . ” Last week , the Guardian obtained a copy of a letter send by module on the Harvard Divest steering citizens committee to the university ’s president - chosen raising vexation about a “ likely conflict of interest ” with the Salata Institute project , given Freeman ’s relationship with ConocoPhillips .
“ I share the goal of go the world to a low - carbon future as fast as possible and forcefully addressing the enormous challenges posed by climate change , ” Freeman severalize the Guardian last week in response to the letter of the alphabet . “ There are many ways to make a difference , and activism is very important . I have pick out to take in several ways , including by being an independent managing director on the board of ConocoPhillips to help advance the transition to a blue - carbon economic system , and think my involvement there remains positive . ”
Helping a co-worker who is moving to a authorities position connect to a company on whose card you serve is n’t anything out of the ordinary for many figures in the upper echelon of academe . But the whole debacle illustrates a larger trouble of how fossil fuel money ends up in the pockets of those with power , and how their influence can offer into the networks of other sinewy ally and coworkers . Fossil fuel companies like ConocoPhillips have along history of currying favour with elites and faculty member , using those reputation to improve their own . But as the climate crisis keeps careening out of control , the existent question is for how long this condition quo will keep being satisfactory .
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