Donation Intended For Ocean Exhibit
By James V. Grimaldi and Jacqueline Trescott
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, November 3, 2007
The Smithsonian Institution has taken the rare step of putting on hold a $5 million donation from the American Petroleum Institute after two members of the museum complex's Board of Regents, including a U.S. senator, balked at accepting oil-industry money for a major initiative on the world's oceans.
The longtime chairman of the regents' executive committee, Roger W. Sant, and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), one of the six congressional regents, raised objections when the donation appeared on the board's agenda. Sant, a former energy industry executive who has donated millions of dollars to ocean conservation, said he is worried that the oil-and-gas money could taint the showcase "Ocean Initiative," which is scheduled to include a major exhibit hall and a multimedia Web site.
"I have some real concerns about this," Sant said. "I want to be sure that the sponsor's behavior is consistent with the message we're trying to deliver. It is a question mark given the record of oil spills in the past two decades."
Sant is in an unusual position to raise questions about the donation because he is the project's largest benefactor: He and his wife, Victoria, contributed $10 million to projects related to the sea. The money will go to the new $49 million Ocean Hall, a Web site to showcase ocean research, a Sant Chair for Marine Science and related programs. The hall, which will be the largest exhibition space at the National Museum of Natural History, is to open next fall. Sant also serves as chairman of the museum's board.
Sant's term on the Board of Regents expired last week, but he is expected to be reappointed by Congress as early as Monday. He said he may recuse himself when the regents consider the API donation later this month.
A spokeswoman for the petroleum institute, Karen Matusic, said, "The gift is offered in the spirit of encouraging education."
The regents' handling of the matter is in stark contrast to fundraising efforts under Lawrence M. Small, the former investment banker who was ousted as the head of the Smithsonian over his compensation and expense accounts. Small was criticized for going to great lengths to keep big donors happy. Many insiders still resent the decision to remove the name of aviation pioneer Samuel Langley from a National Air and Space Museum theater and rename it after a donor, the Lockheed Martin Corp.
"It is not just that I have this opinion, but there is a heightened level of scrutiny" after a string of revelations about the Smithsonian this year, Sant said. "Let's just be damned sure here, instead of accepting the money."
Sant said that when people think of oil and oceans, they think of spills. "I know the industry has done quite a bit to minimize [spills] in the future," he said. "I think it is in everyone's mind that oceans and oil are not consistent."
The decision to review the gift also marks a setback for Cristi¿n Samper, the Smithsonian's acting secretary, who said in a speech last month that the Ocean Initiative is "clearly very close to my heart." Samper, who was director of the Natural History Museum before succeeding Small, signed off on the arrangement.
The petroleum institute, an 84-year-old trade association for more than 400 oil and natural-gas corporations, is eager to improve the industry's image in an era where it is often painted as a villain in the global-warming debate. In past years, the API has given about $200,000 to various parts of the Smithsonian, including the Natural History Museum, the astrophysical observatory and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md.
The API signed the $5 million five-year sponsorship agreement on Aug. 29 pending approval by the Board of Regents. At a meeting on Sept. 17, Sant and Leahy objected to the donation and requested more information. They received a four-page memo, which was delivered in time for a conference call among regents on Oct. 15.
After some discussion, Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, who as Smithsonian chancellor presides over Board of Regents meetings, called for a motion on the donation. He received no response, and the matter was tabled until the next meeting on Nov. 19.
Roberts and the other justices are scheduled to hear arguments later this term on ExxonMobil's appeal of $2.5 billion in punitive damages imposed after the Exxon Valdez supertanker slammed into an Alaskan reef in 1989, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil. ExxonMobil is the API's largest member.
Sant, who is a former chairman of the World Wildlife Fund, has asked Smithsonian officials for additional research about the history of oil spills and how those spills and the transportation of petroleum in sea-going tankers has compromised the health of oceans.
The acting director of the Natural History Museum, Paul Risser, who helped solicit the donation, wrote Sant an e-mail expressing his "profound disappointment" and attempting to change Sant's mind.
"Because petroleum companies have not always been friends of the oceans, one logical conclusion would be to deny their participation in the Ocean Initiative," Risser wrote in an exchange obtained by The Washington Post. "My view is different. It is based on courage and anticipation, on the belief that the Smithsonian has the strength to use understanding to change behavior like no other institution."
The petroleum institute money was primarily intended to sponsor Ocean Portal, "a large-scale online destination that will use current technology to present a substantial body of original content to the public with the goal of helping build informed and concerned stewards of the world's oceans," according to a Regents briefing memo obtained by The Post. The Web site would be aimed at students, teachers, families, marine scientists, policy makers and conservationists.
The API would be listed as lead sponsor of the Web site for at least five years. Ocean Portal would include the petroleum institute's name and logo. When visitors open the Ocean Portal home page, they would see a 20-second animated introduction followed by a two-second acknowledgment of the API's support.
But Risser told Sant in his e-mail that "the museum has total control of the content on the portal."
A billionaire on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, Sant made his money through AES Corp., a power company he founded that is a member of the American Petroleum Institute -- an irony not lost on Sant. "I am an industry guy," Sant said. "I would feel the same way about my company or any other company."
Sant said the petroleum institute's donation would be less of a problem if it were supporting a different type of project, one not so closely linked to the environment.
The last time the Smithsonian publicly rejected a major donation was in 1985. A $5 million gift from Saudi Arabia that had been solicited by Secretary S. Dillon Ripley for buildings near the Smithsonian Castle was ultimately rejected by Ripley's successor, Robert McCormick Adams, after lawmakers and others objected to a Center for Islamic Arts and Culture that was to be built on the Mall as part of the arrangement.
The regents' review of Samper's decision raises questions about the tenuous leadership at the world's largest museum complex as the board searches for a permanent replacement for Small. Interviews with candidates for the secretary's job are scheduled for midwinter. Samper is in the running for the job.
Other organizations have had to decide about donations from oil companies and their representatives.
"In general, we don't seek out or accept funding from oil companies. But that is not an ironclad policy," said Leslie Aun, a spokeswoman for the World Wildlife Fund. "We have received indirect funding in the past for projects."
"It is not an active issue for us," said Ken Peterson, communications director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. "We would review the company case by case to make sure their policies are consistent with our mission. We have an ongoing sponsorship with Pacific Gas, a distributor of power. We feel very comfortable with that."
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