While the 2012 study about the effect of a legacy lawsuit on the Louisiana oil and gas industry has been under scrutiny, the Center for Energy Studies and ExxonMobil have maintained the study was nothing other than standard procedure. 
The study was done by David Dismukes, associate director and a professor at the LSU Center for Energy Studies.
Allan Pulsipher, executive director of the LSU Center for Energy Studies, said the manner in which Dismukes carried out his study was completely normal despite doubts placed on the study. ExxonMobil is a member of the advisory board for the center.
Dismukes published the study in February 2012. His emails, obtained by the state and the Vermilion Parish School Board, show the involvement of ExxonMobil and Chevron Corporation in Dismukes’ research. Dismukes said in an email he was under pressure from the companies to produce the report, and he was concerned about citing them as sources for data. 
Dismukes’ study, as it is published on the Center for Energy Studies website, does not specifically mention data from Chevron Corporation or ExxonMobil. The study showed that legacy lawsuits, which are claimed by landowners against oil and gas companies saying their land had been contaminated after leasing it to gas companies, had hampered the business of the oil and                    gas industry. 
Dismukes’ study has been used by oil and gas industry advocates like Don and Gifford Briggs of Louisiana Oil and Gas Association to back their claims that the state’s legal climate is causing the industry to leave for greener pastures, The INDsider reported.
But Pulsipher is adamant that the practice is common and                  acceptable in academia.
“I’ve never seen anybody raise qualms about the data used in the study,” Pulsipher said. 
Pulsipher said he didn’t understand why the study was under such scrutiny, and his study does no more than it claims to. He said the data used came from publicly available sources, and the only concerns raised initially were about the way Dismukes labeled some items in his study. 
“It just strikes me as trivial,” Pulsipher said. “How his research should get entangled in this is beyond me.”  
ExxonMobil issued a statement regarding the 2012 study, saying researchers routinely receive data and feedback from companies associated with the field of study, and ExxonMobil did not provide Dismukes with any funding for his research. 
Stuart Bell, executive vice chancellor and provost, said he had not yet discussed Dismukes’ study with anyone, that it occurred before his time on campus, but it is normal for faculty to work with                                       outside companies.