Chris Wright Commentary

When the big cheese comes to town

I think we all knew when Trump was elected that we needed to limit our expectations for the next few years, and then he started nominating to his “cabinet” if we can call it that. When you start with JD Vance for VP it is hard to imagine someone less suited but somehow he figured out a way. Tulsi for Dir. of National Intelligence, really? Piss drunk Pete for DoD, sure why not? Let’s not forget perhaps the least qualified of the pics (if you ignore tRump himself) Ka$h as the top law enforcement person in the country. I know most of them could be better played by characters from the Looney Tunes characters of my youth and we will have to see what damage they all do. While most of the country has been focused on these fools we need to turn our attention to others that are far more insidious and potentially damaging to our futures.

Let’s start with Colorado’s own Chris Wright of Liberty Energy one of the many “oil services” companies in our state. These are the companies that the big players contract to do almost everything except purchase the leases and prepare the “plans”. They are the ones that are hard to nail down when there has been a spill or an accident because it appears it should be a Chevron or Civitas issue but since they contracted out it isn’t their fault at all, right? Anyway, enough on how broken our O&G process is here let’s look at the man that can make it 100 times worse.

In an article on Colorado Public Radio (CPR) this week written during Secretary Wrights visit to our famous National Renewable Energy Laboratory this week. One of the agencies that is being targeted not only by F Elon Musk but also by Secy Wright himself. He made many unbelievable statements among them that “calling climate change a crisis was a form of political theater that has lead to destructive policy choices.” For anyone that has been watching our weather I think you can see the lunacy of this statement. 1.5º C isn’t an imaginary problem and since we are beyond that now and on our way to 3-4º C of real climate change I would argue our policies have been too weak to address the real problems our planet has. These same people that want to ignore the climate and go on drill, drill, drilling are the same ones that HATE immigrants and immigration but guess what??? If we don’t address the climate we and every other global “north” nation will continue to see more and more immigrants at our borders. Wright continued in this vein suggesting American infrastructure had been curtailed and that the policies didn’t actually impact emissions. Again, it seems to me that infrastructure continues to be built apace in our country especially during the Biden years when real action was taken to FUND infrastructure rather than just talk about it…I guess I would need to see real evidence that these policies caused compromise at the levels he suggests

When asked about the connection between the Marshall fire and climate change, a connection many, many scientists have made, he suggested it had nothing to do with climate change but rather poor forestry management was to blame. I guess we need to rake our forests just like California but I think he misses the larger point about the Marshall fire - it wasn’t in a forested area, it was actually grasslands that were exceedingly dry from the droughts we frequently suffer from in the West. Wright suggests looking at the data to see that this fire and many others are the result of other factors, however, he doesn’t explain what the data shows leaving us to wonder what data he is in fact reviewing…

Next, we would be remiss to not address the real reason for the Secretary’s visit to our state which was his state, too, but, I suggest we no longer claim him as a Coloradan. He was here to review NREL and presumably put targets on the backs of hundreds or perhaps thousands of workers at the West Denver facility. He claimed “It would be downright irresponsible if we weren’t doing this.” So the facility and people that have brought so many new technologies and technological improvements to Colorado, the USA and the World will be pared down to something less than the world needs. Frankly, if anything, we should be doubling down on the budget for NREL, right? What other part of the government is specifically focused on solving or at least working to minimize the harm of ongoing climate issues. California had 3 days last year where 100% of their energy use came from renewables; the EU has also had days where 100% of usage was covered by renewables. Why not the US?? We have huge swaths of prairie where we can put combo solar and wind farms. New technology in use in California puts solar panels over irrigation ditches to minimize evaporation while producing power. Instead of gutting our premier clean energy lab we should be asking them to do more and to do it faster AND we should fund this work. We could garner the funds by truly taxing Oil and Gas for the damage they do every day in half a dozen states. Colorado could sue for funds to help clean up the nation’s 5th worst air which has NEVER been in compliance with EPA guidelines for clean air.

One final note on Secy Wrights plans for our country is that he is all in on Liquified Natural Gas Depots. These facilities which already dot the Gulf coast are among the worst sources of not only greenhouse gases (GHG) but are also deadly to those living in proximity to them. The largest of these LNG depots is in Cameron Parish Louisiana and it produces more emissions on a daily basis than Europe. Yup - all of the industrial output of the EU produces less emissions in a day than the Sabine Pass LNG Depot. Wright and his team of incompetents wants to approve many more of these facilities DESPITE a Dept. of Energy study completed in 2024 showing that we have more capacity than we need from the existing LNG Depots we already have. So why construct more which in itself creates emissions and pollution, impacts communities and ultimately becomes a major source of pollution wherever they plop it down? Because of greed of course. $$$ are what continues to drive the Oil & Gas industry but maybe we are getting close to the point where the kimono will drop like it did on Big Tobacco and then we can all have our say and extract something from the industry that has extracted to the point of crisis. What side of history will you be on Secretary Wright?