BP's relationship with a U.K. museum is under scrutiny after campaigners accused the oil giant of manipulating education standards for profit. 

What's happening?

According to The Guardian, campaigners obtained documents about BP's ties to the Science Museum under the U.K.'s freedom of information legislation.

The documents revealed that BP funded a project resulting in the formation of Science Museum Group Academy, which claims to offer "research-informed training and resources" for teachers and other professionals. BP has supported more than 500 courses for 5,000-plus teachers. 

However, campaigners say BP wielded undue influence over the project, dubbed Enterprising Science, whose aim is to engage young people with science in collaboration with Science Museum Group, University College London, and King's College London. 

Documents revealed that BP's contract with its partners stipulated that one of its representatives must vote in favor of a proposal for major decisions to be "validly passed."

Why is this concerning?

This is hardly the first time an oil giant has been accused of investing in education to advance its own interests at the public's expense. 

In 2015, an investigation revealed that Exxon was aware since the late 1970s that its products could cause "dramatic environmental effects before the year 2050," as a study published in Science noted. Internal documents obtained during a subsequent congressional investigation revealed that other oil and gas giants, including BP, knew about their industry's dangerous effects. 

However, the investigation showed they, along with the industry's largest U.S. trade association — the American Petroleum Institute — worked to sow doubt about these findings, employing tactics historians of science have compared to the tobacco industry's deceptive ways. 

Numerous lawsuits have also accused oil and gas giants of misrepresenting the cleanliness of their products to the public when air pollution from burning them contributes to millions of annual premature deaths and exacerbates destructive weather patterns, among other troubling things.  

"BP's toxic influence over young people's learning is calculated and insidious," said Chris Garrard, co-founder of the campaign group Culture Unstained — whose mission is to end dirty fuel sponsorship of culture, according to The Guardian. 

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"We wouldn't allow tobacco companies to be involved in crafting approaches to education, so why should BP — a company shunning the scientific consensus on climate change by ramping up drilling for oil and gas — be able to buy such an influential and prominent role?" Garrad added. 

What's being done about this?

While acknowledging that BP sponsors the academy and backs the Enterprising Science project, the Science Museum said in a statement to The Guardian that BP has "no involvement in the research or educational output" and said the museum group maintains full editorial control. 

However, many campaigners and educators remain suspicious of the connection.

"As educators, it is our responsibility to resist the greenwashing and the image-laundering of those destroying our children's futures," said Helen Tucker, green representative for the National Education Union, which has withdrawn support for the museum due to its fossil fuel ties.

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