The University at Buffalo (UB) will not change the operations of the Shale Resources and Society Institute (SRSI), despite a controversy over an SRSI hydraulic fracturing (fracking) study that threatened to overshadow its conclusions, UB said.

“The university upholds academic freedom as a core principle. In accordance with this principle, faculty members are free to conduct research on any topic, including controversial ones, and to disseminate their findings without prior review or approval by the university,” UB said Thursday. “The university’s role is to create a forum for objective research and informed debate — not to dictate the positions taken by its faculty members.

“Thus the university views the work of the Shale Resources and Society Institute as fully consistent with UB’s mission as a public research university. UB has no plans to alter or suspend the operations of the institute.”

The study of data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which SRSI released in May, concluded that fracking is becoming safer in the state’s Marcellus Shale, thanks at least in part to the state’s regulation of the practice (see Shale Daily, May 16). The researchers said that the percentage of wells with pollution events declined 60% between 2008 and August 2011. The results suggested that Pennsylvania’s regulatory approach has been effective at maintaining a low probability of serious environmental events and in reducing the frequency of environmental violations, the researchers said.

But the report contained “significant errors and distortions” that undermine its conclusions, according to an analysis released by the Public Accountability Initiative (PAI), a nonprofit research organization based in Buffalo, NY (see Shale Daily, May 31). Data in the report actually shows that environmental risks increased between 2008 and 2011, according to PAI. And the report’s “pro-industry spin” was due to the “strong industry ties” of some of its authors and reviewers, PAI said.

PAI’s approach to the data was not the same as SRSI’s, resulting in an apples to oranges comparison, according to the study’s lead author.

Since the report was released, about 20 professors and students have formed the University at Buffalo Coalition for Leading Ethically in Academic Research to call for a university inquiry of SRSI. “This report reflects the interests of the gas companies, not scholarship,” English professor Jim Holstun told the New York Times.

In the days following the study’s initial release, SRSI issued a an editor’s note clarifying that it had not been “peer-reviewed,” as it was originally described, though drafts of the report “were reviewed by several individuals with expertise in related areas, who provided comments to the authors” (see Shale Daily, May 29).

The SRSI was formed in April to conduct and disseminate research to guide policymakers on issues relating to fracking and the development of energy resources and to educate students and the public (see Shale Daily, April 12).