By Robert Bradley Jr.
“Opponents of oil and gas have increasingly targeted energy projects through misinformation, protests, lawfare and misinformation, hurting a strategic U.S. industry that employs more than 11 million Americans, and negatively impacting our country’s economic stability.” (Energy Transfer, below)
Pragmatic rent-seeking by crony capitalists is a major problem in the United States. Political capitalism allows “the worst of get on top,” while misallocating resources from consumer to governmental ends. Think of Ken Lay of Enron. James E. Rogers of Public Service of Indiana/Duke Energy. John “beyond petroleum” Browne … Ben van Beurden of Royal Dutch Shell… GE’s Jeff Immelt… T. Boone Pickens … John Hofmeister. The wind and solar crowd. Even Kelcy Warren, co-founder and chairman of Energy Transfer, the subject of this post.
As a Houston Chronicle editorial stated on Monday:
A few of Trump’s Texas-based allies and donors stand to make a killing off Biden’s climate law. Energy Transfer, led by Trump booster Kelcy Warren, is a partner in Texas’ HyVelocity hydrogen hub, which won more than $1 billion in Department of Energy grants. Occidental Petroleum, whose CEO raised millions for Trump, won a $1 billion grant to build a carbon capture hub near Corpus Christi. Even Trump’s BFF Elon Musk admitted that the IRA’s tax credits for battery manufacturing could make as much as $250 million per quarter for Tesla. [1]
ExxonMobil Takes the Political Bait
Sadly, ExxonMobil has gone into the political capitalism camp–with bad results. In an attempt to try to appease the enemy of fossil fuels (futile: the more they get, the more they want), the last two decades has seen the storied company invest unsuccessfully in algae oil (renewable biofuels) and hydrogen. Its carbon capture and storage play is at risk with the possible end of tax subsidies with the new administration.
Exxon CEO Lee Raymond (1993–2004) smartly avoided such taxpayer bets and explained why; his successors succumbed to the climate lobby and have hurt shareholders, employees, and the general public. Raymond was also transparent and correct on the climate issue, stating in 2010:
We in the petroleum industry are not dismissing the global climate change issue. But I don’t believe anyone should have the moral authority to deny people the opportunity to improve their way in life by arbitrarily depriving them of the means…. I hope that the governments of this region will work with us to resist policies that could strangle economic growth.
“Take Back the Truth”
Amid the political capitalism, there is room to applaud moments of free market energy. Enter Energy Transfer’s new website, Take Back the Truth, which the company describes as
dedicated to setting the record straight, not only on oil and gas – the lifeblood of our modern society – but our projects and our company. Oil and gas have enabled the benefits we enjoy in our everyday lives. Opponents of oil and gas have increasingly targeted energy projects through misinformation, protests, lawfare and misinformation, hurting a strategic U.S. industry that employs more than 11 million Americans, and negatively impacting our country’s economic stability.
The picture/logo below includes no industrial wind turbines or solar arrays–just below-ground pipeage amidst CO2-enriched greening.
The truth bombs follow on the site:
Fact: The Dakota Access Pipeline does not encroach on any tribal lands.
Fact: Greenpeace targeted Energy Transfer’s business constituents with misinformation.
Fact: Energy Transfer’s lawsuit is not about free speech.
Fact: Energy Transfer did not desecrate culturally important sites.
Fact: Neither Energy Transfer nor Dakota Access used extreme violence against protestors.
Energy Transfer’s news releases detail the ongoing lawsuit against Greenpeace and push back against their critics. The best defense is offense!
Final Comment
Energy Transfer’s Kelcy Warren is to be commended for playing offense against the Progressive Left. In this regard, he joins Liberty Energy/Chris Wright in a fight for basic property rights and for energy for the masses, not the climate elite. Both Warren and Wright hark back to the first philosopher of energy, Alex Epstein.
There is a new politics in the air in the U.S. but also around the world. Amid the progress and upside, however, there are government interventions that still need correction. Firms such as Energy Transfer need to accept the end of some favorable-to-them intervention (HyVelocity hydrogen hub) to be true and consistent. And to do their part in slashing Leviathan.
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[1] “Private Sector Could Scuttle Energy Scheme.” Houston Chronicle (February 3, 2025).
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Some of the opposition to pipelines is pure rent seeking by investors in railroads, like Warren Buffett. Otherwise, it is mostly fundraising objections by the Green Blob, which wants wind and solar, and in general anything that will not sustain industrial society.
You mention Ken Lay. A tragic figure (in the Greek sense). I came across a poetic epitaph for him years ago, don’t recall the author, if it was even signed.:
In Memory of Ken Lay
I said, Kenny, all I ever wanted
Was the summer barbecues out back
Of the small house, in the paved yard
The kids in high school or college
The touch of Jesus on Sundays
And whatever you wanted, for you.
But you can’t go home again.
And he said, me too girl, me too,
Thing was, I never knew it.
He could have worked for USAID.
I find very little effort to take on the big lie. Until the big lie is approached, no real progress will be made. Everyone still claims they support climate science and the claim that CO2 emissions produce warming. No, they don’t. Not even a little bit.
The only way to play offense is to start being vocal about the true physics of the atmosphere. Win this battle and the war is over.
Saturation is where we hold them.
Saturation is where we fight.
Saturation is where the lie dies.
Yes, low atmosphere saturation is where the warming effect ends. But, there’s also more to it.
Yes, much more, and deeper:
“Imagination is far more powerful than logic or reason… A malformed imagination is romantic. It is unbalanced and lacks proportion. It is oriented by an unrealistic, even utopian, vision of progress and a world altogether changed through human effort. This dreamy vision of a New Earth is made possible by the belief that “man is a naturally good being,” as the archromantic Jean-Jacques Rousseau declared in the 18th century: [… one] must clear away the traditional religious and social norms hindering prosperity and instead heed the “cry of nature,” Rousseau argued.”
———
The first real thing to know about your ‘love of nature’, is that nature won’t love you back: it wants you dead, or at least is indifferent to your survival.
Less of it by this graphic.
Win this battle and the war is over.
Know your enemy. One can win the battle and lose the war if one does not know the enemy.
“Opponents of oil and gas have increasingly targeted energy projects through misinformation, protests, lawfare and misinformation“
Someone really wrote that?
Literacy is not what it once was. Thank the Department of Education.
More of disinformation than misinformation.
Nuances in the definitions. Disinformation is intended to deceive.