I don’t think he is insane at all. He went to MIT. He owns an oil company.
In 2011, he founded Liberty Energy, then known as Liberty Oilfield Services.[15] As of February 2023, the company was valued at $2.8 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. As the CEO of Liberty Energy, Wright earned $5.6 million in 2023.
In 2019 Wright drank fracking fluid to demonstrate that it was not dangerous. In a video posted to LinkedIn in January 2023, he said, “There is no climate crisis and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either”.
On November 16, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination of Wright to serve as U.S. secretary of energy
While I understand this sentiment and do agree that we should have a high sense of climate urgency, oil companies aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. A big first step is simply to stop burning oil, but even if we do that we will still require a huge amount of it. All plastics, ALL of them, are oil derivatives.
Look around you, wherever you are, and you will see things that are made with plastics. And if they aren’t made out of oil derivatives, they are made by oil derivatives either as a source of energy, or the machinery to make it has plastics. The clothes you are wearing, your shoes, your hair comb, your toaster, car, glasses, pc, t-shirt, birding binoculars, camping tent, the list is never ending because it’s everyfuckingwhere. The prints on your glass, the pen with which you write or the keyboard you type on, it is so incredibly pervasive.
So we can rant at these oil companies, but an enormous chunk of the economy depends on it and that’s a simple fact. I’m not claiming to have the answers, but we can’t just get rid of oil, which is why I say that step 1 is to simply stop burning it. That will already stop the worst, the bleeding if you will.
And sure, renewables are good and to have renewable energy is infinitely better than burning oil, but they only solve the most obvious problem. The real issue is what would we use instead of plastics? And as far as I know, there is no alternative.
Exactly. One of the big mistakes the average person makes is assuming aligned interest. When they make a move that we consider “insane” it’s because we’re focused on different outcomes.
Why are you doubling down on an energy sector that is more expensive, in decline, and causes pollution? You’d be insane not to pivot to renewables!
But… oil is subsidised, and they don’t care about pollution or oil decline because those are too far out. They can make money right now, more of it than they will ever need. So they do.
None of this is proof of sanity, especially the drinking fracking fluid bit. I’d argue just owning an oil company in this day-and-age alone qualifies one for some kind of major personality disorder.
I don’t think he is insane at all. He went to MIT. He owns an oil company.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Wright#cite_note-LibertyLeadership-14
The insane people are the ones who voted for this.
If he was sane he would pivot his company to renewables. Companies change what they do all the time.
While I understand this sentiment and do agree that we should have a high sense of climate urgency, oil companies aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. A big first step is simply to stop burning oil, but even if we do that we will still require a huge amount of it. All plastics, ALL of them, are oil derivatives.
Look around you, wherever you are, and you will see things that are made with plastics. And if they aren’t made out of oil derivatives, they are made by oil derivatives either as a source of energy, or the machinery to make it has plastics. The clothes you are wearing, your shoes, your hair comb, your toaster, car, glasses, pc, t-shirt, birding binoculars, camping tent, the list is never ending because it’s everyfuckingwhere. The prints on your glass, the pen with which you write or the keyboard you type on, it is so incredibly pervasive.
So we can rant at these oil companies, but an enormous chunk of the economy depends on it and that’s a simple fact. I’m not claiming to have the answers, but we can’t just get rid of oil, which is why I say that step 1 is to simply stop burning it. That will already stop the worst, the bleeding if you will.
And sure, renewables are good and to have renewable energy is infinitely better than burning oil, but they only solve the most obvious problem. The real issue is what would we use instead of plastics? And as far as I know, there is no alternative.
Competing with China is too much work. Easier to game the system than it is to change a business.
Exactly. One of the big mistakes the average person makes is assuming aligned interest. When they make a move that we consider “insane” it’s because we’re focused on different outcomes.
Why are you doubling down on an energy sector that is more expensive, in decline, and causes pollution? You’d be insane not to pivot to renewables!
But… oil is subsidised, and they don’t care about pollution or oil decline because those are too far out. They can make money right now, more of it than they will ever need. So they do.
Blatant corporate capture.
None of this is proof of sanity, especially the drinking fracking fluid bit. I’d argue just owning an oil company in this day-and-age alone qualifies one for some kind of major personality disorder.
Maybe being unable to feel empathy and only caring about being powerful and pleasing those in power can be considered as insanity?