Gulf Microbe Study Was Funded by BP

It is worth knowing that the apparently important reports that the oil had disappeared, consumed by microbes, came from research funded by BP.  Hardly gives us encouragement about the results, does it.

Earlier this week, major news outlets ran with headlines about how a new microbe has been found eating up BP’s oil, and how microbes have degraded the hydrocarbons so efficiently that the vast plumes of oil in the Gulf are now undetectable. No joke.

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MIT’s Science Tracker, in a post published yesterday, noted that the microbe study was conducted by U.C. Berkeley scientists through a grant with the Energy Biosciences Institute, and that the Energy Biosciences Institute is funded by none other than BP, through a $500 million, 10-year grant. (To the researchers’ credit, they also mentioned the funding in their press release — you just had to read about three-quarters of the way through.)

via Take It With a Grain of (Sea) Salt: Gulf Microbe Study Was Funded by BP – ProPublica.