What is a "Fracking CEO"? Is it someone that helps Polis' "heat beneath our feet"? Climate Lawfare

What is a "Fracking CEO"? Is it someone that helps Polis' "heat beneath our feet"?**

Want a quick lesson in thoughtless media copying, in the media grabbing content to stuff into their paper without thought?

Screenshots 1, 2, and 3 are pulled from the first, second, and third links below respectively.

In each I highlighted the title and the original source of the article though screenshot 1 comes from a Fox21 News, 2 from the Denver Gazette, and 3 from its sister paper Colorado politics.

See the commonality in links 1 and 2 as contrasted with 3? What exactly is a "fracking CEO (or executive)"? I know what an energy executive is. I know even what a fossil fuel CEO is (both titles I saw in other outlets for articles on this topic). But fracking is a process, and more than one industry does it. Not to mention that not all oil and gas exploration uses hydraulic fracturing.

When papers get shared news content (from AP, Rueters, etc.) they are allowed to edit things. They're also allowed to not. Clearly Fox 21 and the Denver Gazette chose to not, as evidenced by their forwarding of the ludicrously titled articles they ran with.

This sort of thing is another example of something I've written about before: what kind of quality checks are being done on shared news content and who owns the screwups when they happen?


**Never forget, and don't hesitate to remind others, that geothermal heat can often involve (gasp) fracking!

https://www.fox21news.com/top-stories/senate-confirms-fracking-ceo-chris-wright-to-lead-energy-department/

https://gazette.com/news/us-world/senate-confirms-fracking-executive-chris-wright-as-trumps-energy-secretary/article_10b4fde2-cac8-55ea-a2ec-2265a77ab6e7.html

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/colorado-in-dc/colorados-democratic-senators-vote-to-confirm-fossil-fuel-ceo-chris-wright-as-energy-secretary/article_c34867b4-c5fb-589f-b2e7-50870465a8fb.html#google_vignette

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Climate Lawfare

One of the latest efforts by environmentalists to stop the use and/or production of fossil fuels has been to take producers to court.

I've seen numbers as high as 86 for the total number of legal actions against fossil fuel companies. Whatever the actual number, Colorado is the proud home of one such effort.**


At my last look at the lawsuit (July 2024--see the first link below) the lawsuit was headed to Boulder court. Apparently, according to the op ed linked second below by Independence Institute energy-analyst Amy Cooke, it's now going to go to the Colorado Supreme Court.

Quoting with link intact: "Last summer, the state’s high court agreed to review a trial court decision denying the defendants’ motions to dismiss the case. On February 11th, the Colorado Supreme Court court will hear arguments on whether Boulder’s climate lawsuit can proceed under state law, a pivotal moment that should bring an end to this misguided example of ideological lawfare being waged in our state."

Whatever court this goes to (expect it and others to wash up eventually at the US Supreme court, although as of now--per the third link below--the Justices are letting lower courts play things out first), Ms. Cooke has it exactly correct here in assessing that these sorts of efforts are lawfare.

This is an effort to do in friendly courts what environmentalists have not, and likely cannot, accomplish through regular policy channels: break the back of oil and gas and stop its production and use.

I hope that the Colorado Supreme Court has the same kind of wisdom in this case as they did with the effort to declare the Cheyenne Zoo elephants people and quickly toss this thing in the trash can (as opposed to their Trump ruling), but honestly I don't know that I have a good feeling here.

I guess we'll see, however. More on this as I hear it.

**Not a coincidence, people that want to bring legal actions often do so in places where they feel their effort will be heard in friendly courts, hence the court case to get Trump off the ballot happening here. Further, as you can read in Ms. Cooke's op ed linked second below, there is ample out of state funding for this effort here in CO. Grassroots this is not.

https://coloradoaccountabilityproject.substack.com/p/ah-boulder-colorado-an-oversight?utm_source=publication-search

https://completecolorado.com/2025/02/09/colorado-high-court-climate-lawfare-case/

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-climate-change-oil-gas-companies-7548dbfe5cb38a9174330602cbef42c2