Florida journalists Robert Block and Mark K. Matthews see it as a conflict of interest that a former Marathon Oil Director, who still owns over half a million dollars worth of Marathon stock, is working to prevent NASA, which he heads, from developing a method of creating oil from waste, algae, and seawater, while absorbing CO2. The scandal apparently is that the suspect, Charlie Bolden, sought advice from Marathon before seeking to delay the project.
Buried deep in the text is the note that Marathon has its own “proprietary microbe” to produce ethanol from wood chips. Whereas, one hopes, that a successful NASA project would produce technology available to all.
I suppose Bolden wanted, not to kill the project, but only to slow it until Marathon’s attorneys can figure a way to monopolize the “intellectual” “property” which it produces. Am I cynical?
btw, I think Tribune Company still owns the Orlando Sentinel, where this article was produced, but there is, so far, no sign of it in on Chicagotribune.com.