A prominent environmental activist used the recent death of former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon’s death to promote her new book vilifying hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Wenonah Hauter, the founder and executive director of Food & Water Watch, an environmental group, used the organization’s website Thursday to direct scathing criticisms at McClendon. Not only that, she used McClendon’s death to promote her new book, “Frackopoly: The Battle For The Future Of Energy And Environment“
McCLendon is such a legend in the fracking, business, Hauter wrote, that she dedicate “an entire chapter of my forthcoming book Frackopoly to him.”
“A rapacious energy baron is glorified by the center of power and finance as a visionary,” Hauter called McClendon in a Facebook post Wednesday, prior to learning about the oil tycoon’s death.
“Then come massive investor losses, clearly unethical behavior and now a grand jury indictment bringing total disgrace,” Hauter added, referring to McClendon’s fall from grace.
She took to the Food & Water Watch website to explain her Facebook post, as well as to continue dumping on the now-deceased McClendon.
During McClendon’s heyday, Hauter noted on the site, his success “came at the expense of the planet and people—whether it was the leaseholders he allegedly conspired against, the communities that fracking harmed or the impacts on our global climate. His story, from start to finish, is a tragedy all around.”
She concluded her post with a pitch to the readers, telling them that her new book is all about explaining how supposed oil barons like McClendon use their wealth, prestige and ability to addict people to fossil fuels distorts democracy.
“No matter what, it is time to take back our democracy from billionaires that control major industries like oil and gas, and whose influence spreads far and wide to create policies that keep us hooked on what they’re selling,” she added.
McClendon, who was killed in a car wreck Wednesday morning, was indicted Tuesday for allegedly colluding with then-SandRidge Energy CEO Tom Ward to keep oil and gas bid prices at low levels from 2007 to 2012.
The former Chesapeake CEO faced 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for violating the Sherman Act, a federal antitrust statute, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
“The charge that has been filed against me today is wrong and unprecedented,” McClendon said in a statement. “All my life I have worked to create jobs in Oklahoma, grow its economy, and to provide abundant and affordable energy to all Americans. I am proud of my track record in this industry, and I will fight to prove my innocence and to clear my name.”
Ironically, McClendon used much of his wealth to bankroll one of the Hauter’s environmentalist ideological counterparts — the Sierra Club — during the mid-2000s.
He paid the Sierra Club $25 million to fund its Beyond Coal campaign, according to a report published by TIME Magazine in 2012. The Chesapeake’s cash infusion flowed into the Sierra Club’s bank accounts from 2007 to 2010, a time frame corresponding with the new oil bid allegations leveled against McClendon.
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