Group Urges UT To Fight Climate Change In University-Owned Oil Fields

Environmentalists know that the university, which depends on oil revenue to sustain it, cannot sever its fossil fuel ties.

By Mose BucheleMay 22, 2018 9:30 am, , , ,

From KUT:

Student activists around the country are pushing for universities not to invest in industries that contribute to global warming. But at the University of Texas, some environmentalists are taking a different approach, urging UT not to divest, but to adopt more climate-friendly drilling rules.

That’s because the University of Texas System isn’t just a collection of public universities; it’s an organization that owns millions of acres of oil fields. It leases that land to drilling companies to make billions of dollars for its schools.

“If you pooled all those operations together and compared them to other oil companies in the state, UT would be the fifth largest producer of oil in the state,” says Luke Metzger, director of the nonprofit Environment Texas.

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