Friday, June 25, 2010

Obama NASA appointee Bolden investigated for oil company stock conflict of interest

"While millions of barrels of spilled oil choke the Gulf of Mexico, NASA is working on an ocean-based biofuels venture that could revolutionize clean-energy production at sea and treat wastewater at the same time....
  • NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden doesn't believe in (Project) OMEGA — and has sought to slow it down.
The reason: He was advised against it by Marathon Oil — the Texas-based company on whose board Bolden sat until he was named NASA administrator last year. The former astronaut and Marine Corps general also still holds as much as $1 million worth of Marathon stock.
  • So far, the project is proceeding without any signs of obvious interference, according to scientists and officials. But Bolden's decision to vet OMEGA with a company in which he has a significant financial interest —
  • and that also has invested in a competing biofuels proposal — has prompted an investigation by the NASA inspector general.
Bolden says he did nothing wrong, and his lawyers at NASA agree.
  • But government ethics watchdogs say Bolden should have steered clear of involvement with the project because of his ties to the industry and financial holdings.
"It definitely does not pass the smell test," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, who called Bolden's conversation "wholly inappropriate."
  • Bolden's action has infuriated the director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., where the project is based. In an e-mail obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, Pete Worden, a former astronomy professor and retired Air Force general, angrily demanded an explanation."...
from Orlando Sentinel, "NASA boss investigated for possible conflict of interest on biofuel project" via John Batchelor show

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