Ed. Note: How did a major energy trade association/ lobbying group come to support climate alarm and forced energy transformation, reversing its prior position? The story gets back to an ex-Enron executive who imported Enron’s political capitalism model to the electricity industry, to flip the script.

“Breaking ranks with others in the electric-power industry, [James “Jim” Rogers in 1988] supported legislation putting caps on sulfur-dioxide emissions. ‘Some of my guys thought I was drinking the environmental Kool-Aid,’ he said later. ‘But I said, “Let’s shape this, let’s make some money”.’” (Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2018)

“I made money on sulfur [dioxide], and I’ll make money on carbon [dioxide].” (Bloomberg Businessweek, June 3, 2010)

“The Edison Electric Institute, a trade association representing the electric power industry,” a recent New York Times article stated, “said that if without a federal role in regulating greenhouse gases, states and cities could ‘attempt to fill that perceived void through increased regulatory requirements that could vary significantly from one jurisdiction to the next.’”…

“… my passion for bettering human lives via improved access to energy is unwavering.” (- Chris Wright, below)

It is a topsy-turvy new energy world where reality bats last. With the physics of energy overcoming the ‘magical thinking’ of renewables and deep decarbonization, and with a push in the U.S. under Trump, the Paris Accord (‘a fraud really, a fake‘) is going the way of the Kyoto Protocol. The forced smiles of Climate Week in New York City last month will be harder to maintain at COP 30 in Brazil. Perhaps it will be the last one as more and more countries exit, just as businesses have from the decarbonization alliances.

The new reality and politics has a central world figure in Donald Trump. But behind Trump is the Secretary of the U.S.…

“I’ve yet to meet a blue-collar worker at a cleantech conference, nor have I met one at cleantech dinner tables. The industry needs to ditch its self-righteous virtue signaling and stop relying on handouts.” (- a Cleantech veteran, below)

“Is this really the climate movement’s next chapter?” asked Stephen Lacey, cofounder and executive editor of Latitude Media, a publication “covering the new frontiers of the energy transition.”

If so, it will end in nothing more than further alienating voters. The progressive approach to climate mobilization has largely failed to build durable coalitions and policies. The election of Trump clearly showed that kitchen table issues matter most. We are in an extraordinary moment where people are struggling to pay their energy bills — and this is the answer? I agree with Michael Liebreich that we need a deep, pragmatic climate reset.

“What about Left environmental groups buying off the Houston Chronicle with grants and biased op-eds? What about business editorialist Chris Tomlinson PR’ing for wind and solar, the very energies that his wife makes the couple’s riches from?”

Evan Mintz, the new editor of opinion at the Houston Chronicle, opined on his bias last month (July 27, 2025). “As the Chronicle’s new opinion editor, I promise to be biased,” he declared.

As I step into my new role as the Houston Chronicle’s editor of opinion and community engagement, I’ve written an opening column to set the tone — and yes, it’s biased.

He continued:

We’re seeking out voices that reflect not just our city’s cultural diversity but also its rich, often-overlooked political diversity. We’ll write editorials that go deeper than daily coverage — adding insight into the politics and personalities at City Hall and Commissioners Court and into suburban politics.