‘Fossil Fuel Companies Are Hijacking Our Universities’: 6 Top Schools Received Over $100 Million in Funds From Polluting Industries Since 2003

Elite universities in the United States — which conduct important climate research — are raking in millions from fossil fuel interests, potentially creating conflicts of interest.

This is according to a collection of new reports compiled by student organizers and released by the student-led Campus Climate Network, as The Guardian reported.

“Universities globally are often caught in a web of financial and research dependencies with the fossil fuel sector. These ties not only conflict with the ethics of academic independence but also hinder the progress of genuine climate research,” Campus Climate Network said on its website.

One institution, Princeton University, seems to have actually owned an oil company — Petrotiger, named after its mascot — earning it millions of dollars, reported The Guardian.

Six analyses put together by students at each institution focused on Princeton, American University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Cornell University, Columbia University and University of California, San Diego.

“Fossil fuel companies are hijacking our universities to perpetuate their own toxic industry, and we students are not having it anymore,” said Will Kattrup, Campus Climate Network research lead, as The Guardian reported.

In order to document university funding that came from fossil fuels, those conducting the research looked at tax forms revealing oil company donations to universities, tracked statements of conflict of interest in academic articles and searched for names of school board members associated with fossil fuel interests. Public information requests for additional financial information were also filed by students attending public universities.

The researchers discovered that, since 2003, the six prestigious schools have accepted a total of more than $100 million in funding tied to the fossil fuel industry, either from companies or their charitable divisions.

In addition, the students organizers said companies that are enablers of the fossil fuel industry gave millions more, such as groups spreading climate disinformation and banks funding oil expansion.

The students emphasized that the figures were understatements, since most research centers at universities don’t publicly disclose their donors, and some of the data only went back as far as the most recent decade.

A total of 1,507 academic articles published at the universities were funded by those with interests tied to oil and gas, which brought up concerns of bias. A number of individuals with fossil fuel ties have also been placed on university boards — governing boards, in some cases, which frequently set the policies of the respective institutions.

Alex Norbrook, a Princeton sophomore, discovered that the university appeared to have earned almost $140 million in the past decade in direct financial contributions and investment income from Petrotiger, its oil and gas company based in Houston.

A spokesperson for the university, as well as school officials, did not comment on Princeton’s relationship with Petrotiger, according to the research.

Between 2013 and 2023, Princeton also received over $40 million from fossil fuel companies. During that decade, the university reported more than $350 million in oil and gas sector revenue from its investments. The students pointed out that the financial relationships persisted despite the university’s decision in September of 2022 to dissociate itself from the biggest fossil fuel companies.

“Princeton’s claim that it is a climate leader is false. The university cannot make this claim while continuing to promote the fossil fuel industry behind the scenes,” Norbrook said, as reported by The Guardian.

Likewise, students at American University found that contributions of $1,004,784 had been made by the fossil fuel industry to the university in the past decade. The Koch Foundation — which has a history of breeding doubt regarding climate science — also gave the university almost $1.41 million.

The researchers found that Columbia University had been given $43,712,333 since 2005 in fossil fuel-related funds, as well as produced 784 academic papers with industry funds.

The Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia had also gotten more than $15 million in industry funds since its founding in 2013.

A study published by WIREs Climate Change earlier this month examined the influence of the fossil fuel industry on academia. It found that the funding of universities’ climate efforts by industry companies is delaying the phase out of fossil fuels.

“It’s time for our universities to become real climate leaders and cut ties with the fossil fuel industry once and for all,” said Maddie Young, Sunrise Movement at American University’s student organizer and Campus Climate Network research manager, as The Guardian reported.