Big Oil Pressured Scientists Over Fracking Wastewater's Link to Quakes
In November 2013, Austin Holland, Oklahomaās state seismologist, got a request that made him nervous. It was from David Boren, president of the University of Oklahoma, which houses the Oklahoma Geological Survey where Holland works. Boren, a former U.S. senator, asked Holland to his office for coffee with Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of Continental Resources, one of Oklahomaās largest oil and gas operators. Boren sits on the board of Continental, and Hamm is a big donor to the university, giving $20 million in 2011 for a new diabetes center. Says Holland: āIt was just a little bit intimidating.ā
Holland had been studying possible links between a rise in seismic activity in Oklahoma and the rapid increase in oil and gas production, the stateās largest industry. During the meeting, Hamm requested that Holland be careful when publicly discussing the possible connection between oil and gas operations and a big jump in the number of earthquakes, which geological researchers were increasingly tying to the underground disposal of oil and gas wastewater, a byproduct of the fracking boom that Continental has helped pioneer. āIt was an expression of concern,ā Holland recalls.