Princeton to Accept Certain Fossil Fuel Funds

Princeton will resume taking donations for research from the fossil fuel companies it has dissociated from, as long as the research funded focuses on the “amelioration” of environmental harms caused by carbon emissions, the University announced Oct. 3.

The announcement, signed by Provost Jennifer Rexford ’91, Dean of the Faculty Gene Jarrett ’97, and Dean for Research Peter Schiffer, presents a shift in policy since the University’s initial decision to divest from publicly traded fossil fuel companies and dissociate from “the most-polluting segments of the industry,” approved by the Board of Trustees in 2022.

That decision came after years of student and alumni organizing.

“The administration has the responsibility for determining how to implement the Board of Trustees’ fossil fuel dissociation decision,” University spokesperson Jennifer Morrill said in an email to PAW. “The administration ensures the Board of Trustees is appropriately and regularly informed about a broad range of matters.”

Anna Buretta ’27, co-lead of Sunrise Princeton, called the policy change “extremely heartbreaking” and said she felt “very disappointed and very frustrated” by the new policy.

Sunrise Princeton is the student activist group on campus committed to fossil fuel divestment. Previously, the group was known as Divest Princeton, which is now the moniker of the alumni fossil fuel divestment group.

Buretta said she had been excited “to see an institution like Princeton take the step in the right direction in 2022 to divest and start setting a precedent towards other universities to actually distance themselves from these companies.”

Now, she said, she has doubts.

“We’re going to take money from the people who are causing the climate crisis. That, to me, is very scary, because it shows that ... they don’t necessarily have my best interest at heart.”

Chris Greig, a research scientist at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton, offered a different perspective. “It’s probably where I thought they should have positioned themselves from the beginning,” he said.

Greig teaches a course called Rapid Switch: The Energy Transition Challenge to a Low-Carbon Future, with Andlinger Center colleague Eric Larson. Before Princeton, Greig served as director of an energy initiative at the University of Queensland, and before that he worked in carbon capture and storage for more than two decades.

There are three stipulations for research conducted with funds from fossil fuel companies. First, the money is only allowed to support projects that are “aimed toward the amelioration of the environmental harms of carbon emissions.” Second, faculty will “retain the academic freedom to publish their results.” Finally, the shift only covers grants that fund projects and does not cover broader funding.

“Some of the activists think that it is impossible for researchers to do, you know, academically robust independent research when it’s funded by fossil fuel companies,” Greig said. “I don’t buy that argument at all.”

Greig referenced the Net-Zero America study, which was sponsored by BP and Exxon Mobil. He served as a co-principal investigator on the project along with colleagues Larson and Jesse Jenkins. The report produced by the project presented five different ways the United States could decarbonize its economy using already-existing technology.

“I think that was a pretty good example of research that was conducted independently,” he said.

But Buretta pushed back, citing a report published by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Democrats and the Senate Committee on the Budget. The report cites internal emails from BP about the Net-Zero America Project and claims that the emails show “BP’s relationship with Princeton allowed it to advocate directly for energy and emissions policies like carbon capture without accountability for refusing to invest at scale.”

Buretta also argues that the stipulations about the type of permitted research are too vague.

“I think that that also leaves for more room for abuse,” she said.

Greig pointed out that academics are still able to hold companies accountable through their research.

Greig acknowledged that activists have concerns about academics who “will do anything to get the grant.” But he said he personally has no problem calling out fossil fuel companies. “I doubt that's a problem at Princeton,” he said. “People who have made it here are above that, I think, by and large.”

The University will also “no longer disclose the names of companies that meet the dissociation criteria and with which Princeton has had a relationship in the recent past,” according to the announcement. When Princeton dissociated from 90 fossil fuel companies in 2022, the list included Exxon Mobil, which had funded the University’s E-ffiliates Partnership. Princeton established an energy research fund “in part to offset research funding no longer available because of fossil fuel dissociation,” according to a November 2022 announcement.

Buretta said she is concerned about a “lack of transparency” in Princeton’s dissociation decisions.