Whose the shill for Big Oil money? You’re a shill for Big Oil money.

(from Watts Up With That blog)

Climategate: CRU looks to “big oil” for support

One of the favorite put-downs from people who think they have the moral high ground in the climate debate is to accuse skeptics with this phrase: “You are nothing but a shill for Big Oil”

Who amongst us hasn’t seen variants of that pointed finger repeated thousands of times? The paradigm has shifted. Now it appears CRU is the one looking for “big oil” money. See the email:

See the entire email here:
http://www.eastangliaemails.com/emails.php?eid=171&filename=962818260.txt

There’s more.

But wait that’s not all!

Further down in that email,  look at who else they were looking to for money. Oh, this is horrible, it just can’t be, they wouldn’t. They were looking to not only BP but, but EXXON in its Esso incarnation:

See the entire email here:
http://www.eastangliaemails.com/emails.php?eid=156&filename=947541692.txt

Now who is the shill for Big Oil again? Next time somebody brings up that ridiculous argument about skeptics, show them this.

Another scientist looking for Big Oil money from AmSpec blog:

rom: Mike Hulme <m.hulme@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
To: barker,vira
Subject: Fwd: BP funding
Date: Sat Nov 4 16:45:25 2000

Any idea who at Cambridge has been benefitting from this BP money?
Mike

From: “Simon J Shackley” <Mcysssjs@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
Organization: umist
To: m.hulme@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2000 14:44:09 GMT
Subject: BP funding
Reply-to: Simon.Shackley@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
CC: robin.smith@xxxxxxxxx.xxx,
brian.launder@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Priority: normal
X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12a)
dear TC colleagues looks like BP have their cheque books out! How can TC benefit from
this largesse? I wonder who has received this money within Cambridge University?
Cheers, Simon
17) BP, FORD GIVE $20 MILLION FOR PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
EMISSIONS
STUDY
Auto.com/Bloomberg News
October 26, 2000
Internet: [1]http://www.auto.com/industry/iwirc26_20001026.htm
LONDON — BP Amoco Plc, the world’s No. 3 publicly traded oil
company, and Ford Motor Co. said they will give Princeton
University $20 million over 10 years to study ways to reduce
carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. BP said it will give
$15 million. Ford, the world’s second-biggest automaker, is
donating $5 million. The gift is part of a partnership between the
companies aimed at addressing concerns about climate change.
Carbon dioxide is the most common of the greenhouse gases believed
to contribute to global warming.
London-based BP said it plans to give $85 million in the next
decade to universities in the U.S. and U.K. to study environmental
and energy issues. In the past two years, the company has pledged
$40 million to Cambridge University, $20 million to the University
of California at Berkeley and $10 million to the University of
Colorado at Boulder.

(for more go here and here.)