Back in 2015, Harold Hamm, the Oklahoma oil tycoon, foresaw a future he found troubling. He recognized that renewable energy posed a significant challenge to the enduring supremacy of oil and natural gas.
During that period, Oklahoma grappled with a budget shortfall, prompting lawmakers to consider raising taxes on oil and gas. In an effort to safeguard a valuable tax incentive for his company, Continental Resources, Mr. Hamm launched a fierce campaign against the wind energy sector, aiming to persuade lawmakers and the public that the tax benefits granted to wind were the real issue.
In a commentary from 2016, he referred to the wind industry as “parasitic” and a “drain on state coffers.” A coalition he helped form ran advertisements featuring former University of Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer, claiming that wind turbines were “blowing a hole in our state’s budget.” It was worth noting that Oklahoma allocated approximately four times more in tax incentives to the oil-and-gas sector. Ultimately, Mr. Hamm succeeded; lawmakers maintained a low oil tax rate of 2 percent for the initial years of new production and dismantled two tax credits for wind-energy developers.
Since then, the United States has witnessed an energy revival. Oil production has soared, as has natural gas output, which we now export globally. Simultaneously, the country has established a considerable wind energy sector and is currently experiencing a remarkable surge in solar power. In 2023, the first new nuclear power plant since the 1980s came online.
This diversification has been beneficial for the nation: America’s power plants now emit significantly less carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides per megawatt produced compared to the past, and we have decreased our reliance on foreign energy sources. This achievement has come without an increase in energy costs.
However, for 79-year-old Mr. Hamm, whose privately owned company ranks as the 13th largest oil producer in the U.S., according to consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, with $2 billion in profits last year, a more competitive marketplace is alarming and ideologically unacceptable. He has taken his opposition to renewables to a national level and has made it a mission to influence President Trump.
Mr. Hamm’s associates now occupy pivotal positions in the administration; notably, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who recently delivered a staunch defense of fossil fuels in a speech in Houston. Together, they are shaping a policy that prioritizes fossil fuels, benefiting Mr. Hamm and other domestic oil producers while diverting the nation from the course that has strengthened U.S. energy security without raising costs.
Mr. Hamm, who did not respond to interview requests, has cultivated a closer relationship with the current president over the years. During their initial meeting in Trump Tower in 2012, Mr. Hamm informed Mr. Trump about how innovative drilling methods would boost U.S. oil output. Mr. Trump noticed that the oil executive was lacking a tie, so he guided him to the lobby gift shop, offering him ties bearing the Trump brand.
A few years later, when Mr. Hamm was featured on a magazine cover, he donned a royal blue Trump tie. If this wardrobe choice carried any hidden meaning, it was certainly understood. Mr. Trump sent him a letter lauding his choice of neckwear and included more ties.
At that time, Mr. Trump was relatively inexperienced regarding energy issues, and Mr. Hamm may have begun imparting his view that nationalism and petroleum are intrinsically linked. In a 2022 interview, he characterized himself as “an oilocrat, and also a patriot.”
In 2016, Mr. Hamm was among the early corporate leaders to endorse Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, although he later declined an offer to serve as energy secretary. As Mr. Trump’s campaign for re-election began in 2023, Mr. Hamm’s support faltered as he backed Ron DeSantis and then Nikki Haley during the primaries. However, after they exited the race, he returned to Mr. Trump’s side with renewed fervor.
Mr. Hamm organized an “energy round table” for Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago in April that included around 20 energy CEOs. During this meeting, Mr. Trump directly requested $1 billion in contributions from the oil sector and promised to relax regulations. While the industry did not reach that ambitious target, it became a significant financial supporter of Mr. Trump’s campaign, with Mr. Hamm contributing more than $4 million to political action committees aligned with Mr. Trump.
At the same Mar-a-Lago gathering, Mr. Hamm introduced Mr. Trump to his associate Mr. Wright, the CEO of Liberty Energy, an oil and gas fracking company. The new Interior Secretary is Doug Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, with whom Mr. Hamm has long-standing connections through Continental’s operations in the state.
Mr. Hamm recently called the two cabinet secretaries a “dream team of unimaginable proportions.” He hosted an extravagant inauguration celebration where oil and gas industry representatives and lobbying groups reveled in their close association with the new administration.
While speaking at a major oil industry conference in Houston, Mr. Wright mirrored sentiments from Mr. Hamm’s 2023 book, “Game Changer.” Mr. Hamm posits that fossil fuels “are the reason we have a modern world, lifting billions out of poverty.”
In his own impassioned defense of fossil fuels, Mr. Wright labeled climate change as merely a “side effect” of constructing a modern world with longer life expectancies and “lifting nearly all of the world’s population out of grinding poverty.” He also criticized renewable sources. “In areas where wind and solar have significantly increased, grid prices have risen, and grid stability has decreased,” he stated.
While certain states’ grids have faced challenges, Texas’ grid has largely remained stable. Renewable energy sources there have steadily grown, surpassing 30 percent throughout 2024. Recent prices have remained steady and fell in 2024 as additional solar power and battery storage helped alleviate summer price hikes. On the day of Mr. Wright’s address, as much as 67 percent of Texas’s electricity was sourced from solar and wind.
For Mr. Hamm, energy poverty resonates personally. He was the youngest among 13 children born to sharecroppers in central Oklahoma, relying on kerosene lamps for light and ice blocks for refrigeration until electricity finally reached their home. He began his career as a truck driver in the oil fields, cleaning sludge from tanks before amassing a multibillion-dollar petroleum empire.
While it is true that fossil fuels have provided us with air conditioning, plastics, and airplanes, they are also significantly responsible for exacerbating extreme heat waves and more destructive wildfires. The pressing issue remains how to address climate change while ensuring economic stability in the coming years. Mr. Hamm’s solution appears to pivot toward an energy model reminiscent of two decades ago, where wind and solar energy played minimal roles, and natural gas was on the rise alongside nuclear energy.
Reverting to these outdated practices would not only hasten global warming but also undermine the energy surge triggered by renewable sources and contemporary fracking innovations. And for what reason? We are not in an energy crisis.
Currently, the proportion of American household budgets allocated to electricity, heating, and gasoline costs is at one of its lowest levels in a generation. We are setting records in energy production month after month. Our greenhouse gas emissions have decreased by approximately 18 percent since 2005, although this trend may reverse if new Trump administration policies hinder the growth of wind and solar farms. Mr. Hamm’s rigid pro-fossil-fuel approach would likely undo these advancements and escalate prices.
Energy is simply too vital to destabilize the system. Every business and household depends on it, as does our national security and global competitiveness. Abandoning solar and battery energy—the fastest-growing sectors of our power grids—only jeopardizes our future.
Russell Gold is a prominent writer for Texas Monthly and the author of “Superpower: One Man’s Quest to Transform American Energy.”
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