Editorial Archives - Liberty Energy

Liberty CEO, Chris Wright, Responds to WSJ Article

Audrey Flynn — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 17:16:44 +0000

This weekend the WSJ wrote an article on some of my efforts to communicate to the public about energy and climate change, and LinkedIn’s censorship, then reversal of that censorship decision. I am pleased that the WSJ wrote a piece about my education efforts as it draws attention to these critical issues.

Unfortunately, they titled the article “Energy CEO Fights Climate Science…” Quite the opposite, my goal is to make big-picture learnings from climate science more accessible to the public and put them in context with the appropriate tradeoffs regarding energy affordability, reliability, and security.

Presumably, the “fights climate science” comes from the fact that an IPCC author said I should be censored for stating false conclusions. Except my comments stating that hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, or floods were not increasing in frequency or magnitude was correct. The data backing that up is referenced in the Bettering Human Lives report released in August last year. In the WSJ article, the authority quoted to rebut me only spoke about one, ONE of the claims I made: drought. The IPCC does say that soil moisture deficits are increasing, a factor impacted by human activities like farming. The IPCC does NOT say that meteorological or hydrological droughts are increasing. I have no desire to censor the quoted IPCC author, but he has his facts wrong in this case.

Professor Roger Pielke Jr., perhaps the world’s foremost scholar on extreme weather trends, has written extensively on this topic. Here is one of his pieces on the IPCC’s work on extreme weather:

https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/how-to-understand-the-new-ipcc-report-1e3

Here is another on the 2022 year in review:

https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/dont-believe-the-hype

Below are several links covering many more issues: What the Media Won’t Tell You About . . .

Engage with Pielke Jr.’s writings if you want to garner a deeper understanding of extreme weather data and the gross mishandling of this issue, unfortunately, illustrated in this WSJ piece.

Disappointing that the journal would find someone unable to get it right on droughts — one tiny topic in my broad 12-minute video — to justify a headline that I “fight(s) climate science.”

My goal is to short-circuit the media, activists, and politicians who thrive on frightening, alarmist climate pronouncements that are often at odds with the facts. In Liberty’s Bettering Human Lives report, I wrote a 12-page long section on climate change and climate economics along with an extensive list of references for the dialogue. Far from “fighting it,” I want to spread a basic understanding of climate change so that we can engage in a more sober conversation around the unavoidable tradeoffs that must be made on climate goals, our energy system, and poverty abatement.

I thank the journal for writing this piece and stirring dialogue on these critical topics👍

The post Liberty CEO, Chris Wright, Responds to WSJ Article appeared first on Liberty Energy.

“Zero Poverty 2050”

Audrey Flynn — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 01:14:09 +0000

Progress only matters if you are pursuing the right goals. Our current energy and unfolding food crisis is the product of pursuing the wrong goal. – Chris Wright, Liberty Energy CEO.

Watch the full video here.

The post “Zero Poverty 2050” appeared first on Liberty Energy.

Well Servicing Magazine October 2022: “The Advocate: Liberty Energy’s Chris Wright wants you to be bullish on the industry”

Audrey Flynn — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 09:34:27 +0000

“I struggle with why more people don’t talk positively about our industry,” Wright said. “For years, it has been, ‘keep our head down and just don’t say anything.’ That doesn’t work. We have to be honest. Our story is so fantastic.” – Well Servicing Magazine/October 2022. Read the full article here.

The post Well Servicing Magazine October 2022: “The Advocate: Liberty Energy’s Chris Wright wants you to be bullish on the industry” appeared first on Liberty Energy.

“An Oil Company Shows Wall Street How to Do ESG” by Rupert Darwall, Real Clear Energy

Audrey Flynn — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 15:17:41 +0000

In his essential book, “How the World Really Works,” scientist Vaclav Smil writes of modern urbanites’ profound ignorance about the energy and material requirements of the modern world. “We are a fossil-fueled civilization,” Smil writes. “We cannot simply walk away from this essential determinant of our future in a few decades, never mind years.” Smil ascribes the delusive belief that society can forsake fossil fuels to a commingling of fact and fiction, making gullible minds susceptible to cult-like visions.

Read the complete article here.

The post “An Oil Company Shows Wall Street How to Do ESG” by Rupert Darwall, Real Clear Energy appeared first on Liberty Energy.

Natural Gas Intelligence: “Liberty Energy’s Wright Sees Long Oil, Natural Gas Future as ‘Energy Transition Is Not Happening’”

Audrey Flynn — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 09:18:58 +0000

Liberty Energy Inc. CEO Chris Wright made no bones about prognosticators calling for the demise of oil and natural gas on Monday.

Full article here.

The post Natural Gas Intelligence: “Liberty Energy’s Wright Sees Long Oil, Natural Gas Future as ‘Energy Transition Is Not Happening’” appeared first on Liberty Energy.

Liberty Energy and Seismos Team Up To Track Fractures – Journal of Petroleum Technology

Audrey Flynn — Fri, 13 May 2022 08:56:10 +0000

“Liberty will be integrating Seismos’ measurements-while-fracturing system into its completions service to analyze near-wellbore fracture networks and create a near-field connectivity index.”

Read the complete article here.

The post Liberty Energy and Seismos Team Up To Track Fractures – Journal of Petroleum Technology appeared first on Liberty Energy.

“How Biden could lower oil and gas prices” – Yahoo Finance

Audrey Flynn — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 14:51:22 +0000

“You have a public campaign against us, which is increasing the cost of capital,” Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Oilfield Services, tells Yahoo Finance. “Why don’t we stop the public trashing of our industry. If we could do that, we’d be more inclined to invest more. Dial back the all-of-government war against hydrocarbons.”

Read full article here.

The post “How Biden could lower oil and gas prices” – Yahoo Finance appeared first on Liberty Energy.

Liberty CEO Chris Wright Is Happy To Talk About ESG And Electric Fracking – David Blackmon, Forbes

Audrey Flynn — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 11:06:54 +0000

Liberty CEO Chris Wright Is Happy To Talk About ESG And Electric Fracking

by David Blackmon, Forbes

…

One of the truly odd aspects about being a contributor for Forbes.com has been the fact that most CEOs and other senior executives in the oil and gas business won’t talk on the record to me, a guy who spent his entire career in that same business. This is especially true related to their companies’ efforts in the realm of ESG (Environment, Social and Governance), where they have received so much pressure to perform from investors and customers in recent years. If that seems like a missed opportunity to you, well, welcome to the party.

One oil and gas CEO I did not have that problem with is Chris Wright, the CEO of Liberty Oilfield Services. He’s so happy to talk about what his company is doing related to ESG and fracking that he actually sought me out. Talk about a different kind of senior executive, here he is.

…

Read the full article here.

The post Liberty CEO Chris Wright Is Happy To Talk About ESG And Electric Fracking – David Blackmon, Forbes appeared first on Liberty Energy.

THE PODIUM | Will climate crusade eclipse the poor? – Chris Wright

Audrey Flynn — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 10:44:55 +0000

THE PODIUM | Will climate crusade eclipse the poor?

by Chris Wright

“Roughly 1 billion, or 15 percent of the world’s population, live highly energized, wealthy, modern lifestyles recognizable to Coloradans. More than twice that many people — one third of the global population — cook their daily meals burning wood and dung and have either no electricity or only modest, intermittent access to electricity. I can think of no starker illustration of the immense inequality in today’s world. This cannot stand.”

Full article read here.

The post THE PODIUM | Will climate crusade eclipse the poor? – Chris Wright appeared first on Liberty Energy.

Denver Business Journal: “Liberty Oilfield challenges climate change assumptions as it trolls The North Face”

Audrey Flynn — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 12:20:42 +0000

“Liberty Oilfield challenges climate change assumptions as it trolls The North Face”

by Greg Avery

Chris Wright has never been shy about challenging conventional wisdom, and nowhere is that more obvious than in his Denver-based fracking company’s corporate sustainability report.

Half of the 84-page sustainability report issued in early June by Liberty Oilfield Services, the second-largest U.S. provider of hydraulic fracturing and related well services, lays out detailed challenges to widespread assumptions about climate change and energy policy beliefs.

“We’ve always been honest followers of the data in our business. Why would we be any different here?” Wright said.

Rather than scare off shareholders, many investors will appreciate Liberty making its case, he predicts.

Liberty’s sustainability report covers how natural gas replacing coal has been a major driver in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions reduction and how some of the effects of climate change often cited in calls for immediate public policy action — such as a quickening rise in sea levels and increasingly severe and deadly weather events — aren’t supported by factual data.

Liberty’s sustainability report published the same week that Wright and Liberty Oilfield released a new video and downtown billboard praising The North Face, an outdoor clothing brand of Denver-based VF Corp., for using petroleum products to make “puffer” jackets and other items.

Wright appeared on Fox Business cable news and did other media interviews about the video, billboard and accompanying public relations campaign.

It’s a continuation of the Denver oil and gas industry’s effort to highlight The North Face’s reliance on petroleum products after it rejected selling 400 co-branded jackets to a Houston-based fracking company. The North Face said it was making its co-branding sales align with the company’s commitments to sustainability and environmental protection.

The oil and gas industry considers that hypocritical, given the degree to which North Face products and the outdoor pursuits of its customers rely on fossil fuels. Calling it out is meant to attract attention to oil and gas uses that are being left out of the public narrative about sustainability, Wright said.

“It’s just trying to bring a sober, thoughtful dialogue to this issue,” he said. “We have a very unhealthy climate for talking about energy, and we want to change that.”

Half of Liberty Oilfield’s sustainability report still is devoted to the company’s environmental protection strategies.

That includes 25% of its fracking fleets — the large pumper trucks that push fracking fluid and sand under incredible pressure down the well bore — running new diesel engines that reduce particulate emissions by 87% compared to traditional fleets.

The engines are Tier IV “dynamic gas blend” diesel engines. They’ll become the standard engine in future new fleets the company puts into the field, Liberty says.

It has also been developing and expects to soon start using fracking fleets powered by electricity, what Liberty calls its digiFrac fleet.

Other companies have started using electric fracking, but those systems are dependent on electricity generated by a natural gas turbine power plant the fracking project sets up nearby. The overall emissions of the system aren’t necessarily better than the clean-burning Tier IV diesel fracking fleets, Wright says, while Liberty’s digiFrac fleet will have at least 20% fewer emissions than the clean diesel fleets, Wright said.

A digiFrac system is being tested in fracking projects in West Texas now, the company says. Liberty expects commercially roll out its first commercial digiFrac fleet next year.

Full article here.

The post Denver Business Journal: “Liberty Oilfield challenges climate change assumptions as it trolls The North Face” appeared first on Liberty Energy.