Global Oneness Project

On February 1, 2007, BP Amoco PLC (formerly British Petroleum) announced that it had chosen the University of California at Berkeley, in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to host the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI). Funded with $500 million over 10 years, the agreement would double the amount of corporate funding for research on campus, and change the direction of biofuels research on this campus for years to come. The details of the agreement are currently in negotiation. This deal has not been signed.

We are a UC Berkeley-based student campaign formed to oppose this deal. We insist that UC Berkeley must commit itself to responsible, accountable research in the interest of social justice and sustainability.

We oppose the BP-Berkeley agreement for three major reasons:

• The undemocratic process by which it is being struck.  So far, this deal has been made "at the top", with most of the UC Berkeley community unaware it was taking place, and no opportunity for concerns or criticisms. A project of this scale will change the course of research on campus, and is explicitly against the recommendations given to UC Berkeley in the wake of the Novartis deal. Read more...  
• The social and environmental consequences of this research.  Biofuel research could be a great force for good. It could also directly promote social inequality and environmental degradation. The research agenda needs to explicitly consider the dimensions of social justice and ecological sustainability, which the current proposal does not. Read more...  
• BP's control over the research agenda.  In the BP-Berkeley proposal, BP will have at least as much power over the direction of the EBI as will Berkeley itself, and up to 50 BP employees working on campus will be allowed to participate in developing and teaching classes, mentoring graduate students, and K-12 outreach. Corporate research focuses on questions that promise patents and other opportunities for profit, and neglects research areas that benefit only the public. Read more...