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A new book by University of Wyoming professor Jeff Lockwood explores the role of corporate wealth in censoring speech and expression, and he got his inspiration from a campus incident several years ago.

Behind the Carbon Curtain: The Energy Industry, Political Censorship and Free Speech, is set to be released in April by University of New Mexico Press. A book launch party is scheduled for 1-3 p.m. April 1 at Second Story Books, 105 Ivinson Ave.

Lockwood directs the UW Creative Writing Program with a joint appointment in the Department of Philosophy. He said he first began considering the ideas central to his book in 2012.

A sculpture called Carbon Sink by artist Chris Drury was installed in 2011 on the UW campus south of Old Main, near the intersection of 10th Street and Ivinson Avenue. The circular, ground-level sculpture consisted of a 36-foot-wide whirlpool of beetle-killed logs, with a charred center.

The sculpture was removed the following year, a year ahead of schedule. In an essay written for WyoFile, Lockwood accused the UW administration of caving to pressure from politicians and the energy industry to have the sculpture removed because it drew a connection between fossil fuels, climate change and the bark beetle epidemic.

I was very concerned with the collusion of corporate power and political power to destroy art, he said.

Emails obtained by Wyoming Public Radio suggest former President Tom Buchanan ordered the sculpture to be removed because of the controversy it generated.

Following his public protest, Lockwood began hearing from residents elsewhere in the state about similar occurrences at museums and institutions of higher education.

The people who were telling me these stories were not often in positions where they had the necessary protection, he said.

Lockwood said his position as a tenured professor gives him an opportunity to tell stories others cant.

I was given the incredible privilege of tenure by the people of Wyoming, and that comes with a very serious responsibility, which is to tell the truth as I understand it, and to do that in a fearless way, he said.

Behind the Carbon Curtain documents those stories, as Lockwood argues the energy industry uses economic pressure to suppress the expression of ideas that run counter to its economic interests.

Lockwood said Wyoming offers a particularly clear lens into the relationship between the energy industry and the government because of the states small size and its dependence on a single industry.

But its not as if its not happening in other places, he said. Its just clearer here.

He points to similar stories in states such as Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

In a broader sense, I make the case that Wyoming is a microcosm of whats happening around the country, Lockwood said.

And its not just a problem of the energy industry, either, Lockwood argues.

The relationship between corporate wealth and political power, to me, is probably the single-most insidious and most dangerous phenomenon in American democracy, he said.

He hopes the book generates concern among readers and spurs them to action. He stressed he doesnt consider his argument to be limited to a single political party. For example, censorship on college campuses has multiple sources.

The First Amendment is fundamental to the health of the future of the country, he said. This is something we all share in.

Lockwood joined the UW faculty 30 years as an entomologist in the College of Agriculture. He has written nonfiction books about philosophy and entomology as well as a crime noir novel.

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New book by professor explores censorship - Laramie Boomerang