UW professor to talk about energy, politics, free speech

By EVE NEWMAN / even@laramieboomerang.com Wednesday, October 29, 2014

University of Wyoming professor Jeff Lockwood is scheduled to speak about censorship by the energy industry during a talk this weekend in Sheridan.

Lockwood, who works in the UW Department of Philosophy, is set to present the keynote address for the Powder River Basin Resource Councils 42nd annual meeting at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Holiday Inn in Sheridan.

The talk, Living Behind the Carbon Curtain: Wyoming, Energy and Censorship, is a preview of a book by the same name thats due out in 2016, to be published by University of New Mexico Press.

Im digging into the ways in which the energy industry has colluded with the government in both Wyoming and nationally as well as internationally, Lockwood said, to shape public discourse, and in some cases to explicitly censor free speech, particularly forms of speech the industry finds inconsistent with its interests.

The book highlights five examples of such censorship that have taken place in Wyoming, he said.

His talk this weekend will focus on two chapters and one example, about the cancellation of an art show.

Art work was censored from the Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper because it was deemed offensive to the energy industry, Lockwood said.

His motivation for the project came from the handling of a sculpture at UW called Carbon Sink: What Goes Around Comes Around. It consisted of a spiral of logs from beetle-killed trees arranged around a pile of coal. The sculpture, by artist Chris Drury, was installed on campus in 2011. It was removed in May 2012, a year ahead of schedule.

University officials initially said water damage necessitated its early removal, though emails requested by the media suggested the sculpture might have been removed because some lawmakers and coal companies found it offensive. Much of UWs funding comes from taxes paid by coal mines and oil and gas fields in the state, plus donations from energy companies.

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UW professor to talk about energy, politics, free speech