Although they’d have had to up that hourly rate to at least $500 to attract that faculty…
… [BP] has been “offering signing bonuses and lucrative pay to prominent scientists from public universities around the Gulf Coast” to muster a defense against inevitable litigation in the wake of the April 20 oil spill, according to a report in the Press-Register newspaper in Alabama.
At one point, BP plc “attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department” at the University of South Alabama, the report states.
The contract, obtained by the newspaper, would have barred the scientists from publishing their research, sharing it with other scholars or even talking about it.
The department did not sign…
Scientists interviewed by the newspaper told of being offered $250 an hour…