Gulf of Mexico Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Gulf of Mexico Foundation is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1990 by citizens concerned with the health and productivity of the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

.

Programs

Based in Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...

, the Foundation operates several programs to protect the fragile Gulf of Mexico. These include a Habitat and Conservation Team, teacher workshops on the wetlands, GMF science and Spanish clubs for high school students, and a Gulf of Mexico Summit conducted in conjunction with Mexican organizations.

Management

The Foundation is led by Quenton Dokken, director, a marine biologist. Its board of directors is led by president Paul Kelly, a former senior executive at Rowan Companies
Rowan Companies
Rowan Companies, Inc. , founded in 1923 and based in Houston, Texas, is an S&P 500 company which provides contract oil well drilling services and rigs, and manufactures equipment for drilling as well as for mining and timber industries. Rowan Companies is located at 2800 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite...

, an oil drilling firm. Other board members are executives from Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company is the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational oil company of Anglo Dutch origins, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 22,000 Shell employees are based in the U.S. The head office in the U.S. is in Houston, Texas...

, ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational energy corporation with its headquarters located in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas in the United States...

, Transocean
Transocean
Transocean Ltd. is one of the world's largest offshore drilling contractors. The company rents floating mobile drill rigs, along with the equipment and personnel for operations, to oil and gas companies at an average daily rate of US$282,700...

 oil drilling firm, and legal, environmental and marketing firms. At least half of the 19 board of directors have ties to the offshore oil drilling industry.

Partners

Gulf of Mexico Foundation partners include major oil companies and oil drilling firms, and others concerned for the environment. They include BP
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...

, Transocean, Marathon
Marathon
The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...

, ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational energy corporation with its headquarters located in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas in the United States...

, Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company is the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational oil company of Anglo Dutch origins, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 22,000 Shell employees are based in the U.S. The head office in the U.S. is in Houston, Texas...

, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation is one of the world’s largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies, with approximately 2.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent of proved reserves and production of 206 million BOE as of December 31, 2008. Anadarko employs a worldwide...

, Rowan Companies and the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund.

Funding

The Foundation has a reported $2 million annual budget, and one-quarter of its funding comes from corporations, including oil and gas companies. While the remaining, three-quarters comes from state and federal government grants. The foundation website provides the most prominent credit to oil and gas companies.

Controversy

Media and consumer advocacy groups question the Foundation’s close and questionable ties to the oil and gas industry.

After the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

 starting in April 2010, Quenton Dokken, the organization’s director was interviewed by the New York Times about the severity of the then ongoing oil spill. He was optimistic saying:


“The sky is not falling. We’ve certainly stepped in a hole and we’re going to have to work ourselves out of it, but it isn’t the end of the Gulf of Mexico.”


While the story did not mention the Foundation’s ties to the oil industry, two days later, the New York Times added an editors note that said the foundation “…receives some money from the oil industry, and other business interests in the gulf, and includes industry executives on its board.”
The paper’s blog also questioned Dokken’s objectiveness, reporting, “But as an executive (Dokken) whose fortunes are tied to partnerships between his group and the oil and gas companies that fund it -- including BP, ConocoPhillips, Marathon, etc. -- he's hardly an objective observer of corporate malfeasance.”

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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