For most of the meeting, his face was stoic. If you watched carefully, you might have noticed a thin smile crossing his lips as he looked to the commission chair, shaking his head slightly.
But to the dozens of citizen speakers calling him out, one after the next, as a pollutant to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, a destroyer of cultural treasures, and an agent of the greatest environmental crisis in history, what mattered most was that, for once, the man could not ignore them.
Kelcy Warren, billionaire CEO of Energy Transfer Parters (ETP), must not have found the experience pleasant. Appointed as a Texas Parks and Wildlife Commissioner by Gov. Greg Abbott after donating at least half a million dollars to his gubernatorial campaign, Warren is best known for his company’s 1,174-mile Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), the subject of months of escalating protests in Standing Rock, N.D. His company also has produced similar, though less-known, outrage in the Big Bend area for using legal loopholes to seize private property in the construction of an export-based gas pipeline.
In a quarterly commission meeting which convened in Austin Thursday, protesters seized the opportunity to stand face-to-face with the man who has become a symbol of corporate greed for environmentalists and Native tribes nationwide. As the commission considered a proposal to construct six petrochemical pipelines through the J.D. Murphee Wildlife Management Area, citizen speakers decried the regulatory body as a fraud, demanding Warren’s immediate resignation on account of his conflict of interest.
“The very presence of Kelcy Warren in this chamber completely illegitimates this body,” one woman shouted from the seat beside me. A handful of game wardens escorted her from the room as she chanted a protest song.
“We believe the creator asked (the) Native people to be keepers of the Earth, and that’s really exactly the job title that you have,” Jackki Hagans of the Society of Native Nations told the commission. “And I really think that for you to be considering any kind of pipeline through parks is really unconscionable. You all know what has been happening in North Dakota and other places in the world. You’ve seen pipeline spills, you’ve seen gas lines blow up, people have been killed, water has been ruined, and yet we’re still deciding to go forward with these types of actions?”
Business woman Colleen Mulvey added, “This plan … is not in the best interest of anyone except direct monetary beneficiaries of the oil and gas industries, who have shown an utter disdain for life, for indigenous culture, and for the environment. Those interests are not those we are here to serve.”
Others centered their comments on climate change.
“This pipeline is just a small part of a larger story that is unfolding,” said one speaker. “It’s really a story of a move from the industrial revolution and an industrial culture to a life-sustaining civilization. We’ll either make it or we won’t.”
Warren barely budged as long-bearded environmentalists, soft-spoken senior citizens, young businessmen, and tribal leaders pleaded with him and the rest of the commission to consider their consciences.
Initially, the presiding commissioner interrupted speakers when they targeted Warren specifically, but eventually only speakers and their applause were heard.
Then, over an hour into the speeches, a murmur rippled through the room as Warren reached for his microphone for the first time. Even the citizen speaker he addressed seemed startled. Pete Hefflin, a member of the Society of Native Nations, had been talking in a quiet but intentional voice about ETP’s alleged destruction of archaeological sites in West Texas and North Dakota.
“It hurts,” he had said. “And I have no … I have no anger toward you. All I do is I pray for you. I pray for you and your family. Hopefully one day, maybe today, you can give me the answer: Do you think that it’s right to go and dig up burial grounds, sacred burial grounds and desecrate them?”
“No, sir, I do not,” Warren replied.
“Huh?” Hefflin asked.
“No sir, I do not think that’s appropriate,” Warren said. “I think that would be bad.”
“But you have been doing that.”
“No sir, obviously I don’t believe so.”
“We have proof that you have been doing that,” Hefflin responded. “And I’d be glad to meet up with you and my organization … I’d be glad to sit down with you and show you the facts, if you will give me the respect.”
“Yes sir, I will.”
The oil tycoon and protester agreed to exchange information. Hefflin sat down. No one else offered to speak, perhaps too surprised to approach the podium, and the commission said it would withdraw for a five-minute break. Twenty or 30 minutes later, the commission returned.
“In light of what I heard here today, I believe it would be appropriate for me to recuse myself of this vote,” Warren said, following a similar statement from another commissioner. That left less than a quorum, so the vote was postponed until the next meeting.
Evelyn Merz, conservation committee chair for the Lone Star Chapter Sierra Club, has been coming to the commission meetings for years but said she’s “never seen someone recuse themselves of a vote before.”
“That is very refreshing that the (citizen) concern could have results,” she told the Rivard Report. “It’s good that when people show up, they make a difference.”
Protesters remained skeptical of Warren’s motives or whether he would follow through in his commitment to meet with Hefflin. Without a similar presence in the next meeting, the commission could just as easily go ahead with the pipeline. But to the approximately 200 activists who attended, there was something invigorating about the chance to speak on a level playing field with someone of such immense wealth and power.
“I’ve been fighting against mega project development for a long time,” organizer Tane Ward said. “I have never been that close to the CEO of a company that I’m fighting against as I have been at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission today, and looked them right right in the eye and (told) them they have no honor. I have always wanted to do that.”
So, if a farmer leaves the gate to the chicken coop open at night, do we blame the foxes for taking advantage of the situation?
The banks and financial institutions are only enabling a project that was
legally permitted, indeed encouraged, by our government. If we are to
lay blame, we need to look to the government and the regulatory agencies
that gave this entire project, and all other fossil fuel
economy-enabling projects, the green light. These companies will do
whatever profitable thing they can get away with. It’s in their DNA. It
is our government’s job to keep these predators in their cages. THAT is
not happening.
This blaming of perfectly legal activity is a non-starter. Until we focus on the root cause (our government), this is much ado about nothing.
The traditional analogy is a “fox guarding the chicken coop, ” remember?
Someone opened the gates to your chicken coop while you weren’t looking, then blamed you for not being alert enough to keep them closed. And you believe them ?!
The custom in Texas is for Oil & Gas to run things indirectly through bought and paid for politicians. In this case, the corporate ‘foxes’ actually sit on a State board that proposes to manage our public property for us by giving it all away.
Also, just because you CAN legally lie about many things, or cheat on a spouse, should you do it? Just because something is legal does not make it right. We need to shine a spotlight on bad behavior and call it out instead of excusing it.
Your theory about institutional DNA enables certain people — that is, real human beings with addresses (not non-human predators) — to hide behind a corporate alias and shirk all personal responsibility for their actions.
And yes, we are all sinners, but the powerful and wealthy need to especially show responsibility and leadership, not to abuse and misuse their privileges.
GreenTexan, your scolding of humans within the various Capitalistic manifestations is quaint, but useless.
The fact is, Capitalism is rapacious and amoral, and no amount of putting lipstick on that pig will change that fact. No amount of scolding will change it. Capitalism will take and take until there’s nothing left, and then it will move on to the next “opportunity”. It has completely corrupted our political process, poisoned our air, water, oceans and food supply, and will kill us all very soon, if we don’t name it for what it is – a cancer in the world’s economic, social, environmental and political life.
Yes, real live people work in these Capitalistic institutions, but there are a million and one ways that such individuals (cogs in the machine) can honestly say that they are not personally responsible for the abuses. And they do say that. As Upton Sinclair has pointed out, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
Here’s a quote from someone I follow online named Maxwell. As usual, he nails it here:
“The current system – capitalism – needs to go before the governance of a new system- socialism- is established. A face lift of the current system will not help.
There is a difference between the state and government. The state is the permanent collection of institutions that have entrenched power structures and interests. The government is made up of various politicians. It is the institutions that have power in the state due to their permanence, not the representatives who come and go. We cannot expect different politicians to act in different ways to the same pressures. However, this is all ignored by the voting political consumer who wishes Politician______ was more a socialist, green, populist etc. and could ignore the demands of the dominant class in society while in charge of one part of its protector and creature, the state.
The forces placed on the elected person by the state machinery and pressures from big business dictate the outcome.”
They say that without a vision, the people perish. Capitalism is not only killing us, it has poisoned our minds and imaginations to the point that we can’t see any other way. The only way back from the precipice is the way we came to it – by disabling the relentless and insidious levers of corruption that have enabled this cancer to take over our governance. We need ruthless, clear-headed action – equal to or greater than the enemy in our midst.
#standwithstandingrock #NODAPL #standwithbigbend
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION AND SHARE FREELY
GREG ABBOTT REMOVE KELCY WARREN FROM HIS CHAIR ON THE TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION: ——-
Petition Excerpt – Texas Governor Greg Abbott appointed Kelcy Warren for a 6 year term as 1 of the 10 commissioners who preside over Texas Parks And Wildlife Department(TPWD)… Why? Probably the $550,000 in campaign contributions Abbott received from Warren. Most people may know Kelcy Warren as the man behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline. The Dallas-based billionaire and CEO of Energy Transfer Partners has been making headlines for fast-tracking a 1100 mile crude oil pipeline across the Midwest and under the Missouri River, just north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
My name is Andrew Lucas and I am an Environmental Science major at UTSA and former Texas State Park Ambassador. I write this out of love for our beautiful Big Bend and Trans Pecos regions. I, like many other people, draw so much inspiration from this land. I do not want to see the future of our wild places left in the hands of corporate interest, so let us keep these interests separated from the agencies that are here to help preserve and protect it…..Seats on the TPW Commission should not be earned through campaign contributions for status or business/political leverage; the seats need to be appointed to those who actually care about TPW, who care about our environment, and who truly want to preserve our beautiful land for future generations.
….Read more, sign the petition and share freely – We need at least !0,000 signatures. ~ Shared from UNCLE TB
Click here for Link to Petition: https://www.change.org/p/greg-abbott-remove-kelcy-warren-from-his-chair-on-the-texas-parks-wildlife-commission
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signrd. Glad to read about the hearings at the commission. thank you. I am against the Trans Pecos Pipeline, as I used to spend 3 months in Marfa, for about four years. I also am against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
You are needed. Right now. Please sign this petition http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/484/410/465/?taf_id=30744352&cid=fb_na#bbfb=827161593
It’s a good thing this is happening, we all know these evil greedy oil companies like to install oil sprinklers along pipeline routes to make sure the land is saturated with the black stuff. I’m also aware that these companies like to use Squaw and Apache blood, literal blood, in their fracking fluid b.c it brings good luck. These oil people are a pure incarnation of evil.