Berkeley biofuels project is clean

Re “Big Oil buys Berkeley,” Opinion, March 24

Jennifer Washburn’s critique of BP’s $500-million grant to a Berkeley-led consortium to research biofuels contains misinterpretations of our proposed research contract.

Washburn states that “there is nothing in the plan that calls for truly independent selection of research proposals.” On the contrary, faculty and scientists at UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all partners in the Energy Biosciences Institute, will propose their own projects, with an executive committee composed of a majority of academics deciding which will be funded. Contrary to her implication that commercial criteria will take priority, the research will look closely at the socioeconomic and environmental consequences of any shift to advanced biofuels.

The grant proposal has been widely shared and may be read, by those interested, on the campus website.

BETH BURNSIDE

Vice chancellor for research

UC Berkeley