A massive pipeline fire broke out last week outside of Houston, generating billowing black clouds of smoke that hovered over the industrialized suburb of Deer Park for multiple days. That fire began after an SUV hit a 20-inch-wide natural gas pipeline owned by Energy Transfer. The resulting explosion and fire killed the SUV driver, forced evacuations, and left hundreds of homes without power for nearly two days during a week of near-constant 90-degree heat.
Energy Transfer, a corporate energy infrastructure giant, delayed issuing a response, including waiting more than three hours before confirming that it owned the exploded valve, misstating the amount of people injured by the fire, and seemingly refusing to answer questions from the public and the press. Unfortunately, this is par for the course for the company, also behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, and its infamous Executive Chairman (and ex-CEO) Kelcy Warren.
Energy Transfer is one of the Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Texas, and Warren is its extremely politically connected co-founder. Warren is also one of the most generous donors in the Texas (and national) conservative political scene, and has funneled huge donations to politicians like Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and Attorney General Ken Paxton. Warren’s investments, unfortunately, seem to have paid off. In 2021, Energy Transfer and its execs profiteered $2.4 billion off of the February collapse of Texas’ electric grid, which resulted in the deaths of at least 246 Texans. Governor Abbott subsequently, and successfully, steered scrutiny away from Energy Transfer and other energy companies who were either responsible for or profited from the crash. Mere months later, Warren sent Abbott’s campaign a million-dollar check.
