Kennedy to Tulane's Keenan: 'Why Don't You Ask Tulane to Give the $25 Million Back?' (July 26, 2023)

On July 26, 2023, the Senate Budget Committee held a hearing titled “Beyond the Breaking Point: The Fiscal Consequences of Climate Change Infrastructure” [1]. The witnesses included Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and Jesse Keenan, the Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning at Tulane University in New Orleans. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, used his time to question Keenan about two positions the professor had taken publicly, and then to talk with the governor about how much offshore oil money Louisiana gets to keep. This video shows the exchange with Keenan. All quotes are from the official hearing record, Senate Hearing 118-85 [1].

Key Moments

”Have you called on Tulane to give that money back?”

Kennedy began by establishing that Keenan gives paid speeches through an agent and keeps the fees, which Keenan said was “outside of my capacity as a professor.” Then: “You recently joined a lot of other academics. You signed a letter demanding that elite institutions and universities stop accepting money from fossil fuel companies. Is that correct?” “This is correct,” Keenan said. “Well the Murphy family of Murphy Oil, and the Dimming family of Murphy Oil, have recently given Tulane 25 million dollars. Have you called on Tulane to give that money back?” Kennedy asked. “It’s not they didn’t give that money to the department or school that I work in,” Keenan answered, and later: “It’s their prerogative, not mine” [1].

”You don’t see the hypocrisy here?”

“Did you put a footnote in there saying except my own?” Kennedy asked. Keenan argued that “it raises a conflict of interest for those that research climate change, that are supported by the fossil fuel industry,” and that if the money were used “to support climate research … that may be an appropriate conflict of interest.” “You don’t see the hypocrisy here?” Kennedy asked. “It is hypocrisy in those that may read and interpret it as such,” Keenan said. “Maybe it’s like Washington if there weren’t double standards there wouldn’t be standards at all,” Kennedy replied [1].

”It’s still a McMansion”

Kennedy then read a quote attributed to Keenan: “You could have a super-efficient, energy-efficient, mega mansion in Houston or the suburbs, but it’s still a McMansion. You’re still overconsuming space.” “Did you say that?” “Yes, sir. That’s based on work as a member of the IPCC,” Keenan said. “And so, you’re saying that people should live in smaller houses because larger houses contribute to CO2 emissions?” “100 percent, Senator.” Kennedy then listed new Tulane buildings, including the 77,000-square-foot Commons, and asked whether Keenan had called on the university to stop building them. Keenan said the residential space in student housing was small, and did not find it “to be equivocal comparison.” Asked again about the “irony of hypocrisy,” Keenan said: “I’m going to go ahead and say no” [1].

The Record

The letter. Keenan confirmed signing it [1]. The open letter organized by Fossil Free Research called on U.S. and U.K. universities “to institute a ban on accepting fossil fuel industry funding for climate change, environmental, and energy policy research,” arguing that such funding “represents an inherent conflict of interest” [2].
The Murphy Oil family’s $25 million. In 2017, Bertie Deming Smith gave Tulane $25 million to name the John W. Deming Department of Medicine, “the largest in the School of Medicine’s history” [3]. The Deming family is part of the Murphy family that built Murphy Oil Corporation; Bertie M. and John W. Deming were among the original donors to the Tulane Murphy Foundation [4].

Background: Kennedy and the Governor on Offshore Revenue

After questioning Keenan, Kennedy turned to Edwards. “We get 37.5 percent of offshore royalties under GOMESA. New Mexico gets 50 percent share from the federal government for God sakes, Wyoming gets 50 percent,” Kennedy said. “And it’s capped at 375 million that we get to share,” Edwards added [1]. Under the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, “37.5% of revenues from certain leases” are shared with Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas collectively, with a cap of “$500 million for the states and LWCF combined” in most years; supporters of a larger share “point to a disparity between the 37.5% offshore state share provided under GOMESA and the 50% share of revenues that most states receive from onshore federal leases under the Mineral Leasing Act,” the Congressional Research Service reported. Opponents argue that offshore revenues “should accrue to the nation as a whole” [5]. Edwards also noted that the first Gulf offshore wind lease sale was coming the next month.

What Happened Next

The wind lease sale: On August 29, 2023, the Interior Department held the first offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Mexico. One lease area drew a high bid of $5.6 million; RWE Offshore US Gulf won the Lake Charles lease area, which the department said could power nearly 435,400 homes [6].
Wind leasing halted: On Jan. 20, 2025, his first day back in office, President Trump withdrew all areas of the Outer Continental Shelf from offshore wind leasing, effective the next day [8].
A bigger share for the Gulf states: The One Big Beautiful Bill that Trump signed on July 4, 2025, raised the annual cap on GOMESA revenue shared with the Gulf states and the Land and Water Conservation Fund to $650 million for fiscal years 2025 through 2034, up from the $500 million cap that applied in most years [5][7].