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"As Wright speaks to industry insiders, members of impacted communities, faith leaders, youth, and others are assembling for a 'March for Future Generations,'" one campaigner said of the action at CERAWeek.
As environmental justice advocates were arrested outside a major energy conference in Houston on Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump's energy secretary faced criticism for his remarks to the government officials and oil and gas executives attending the event.
"Chris Wright, a former fracking CEO who essentially purchased his Cabinet position through $450,000 in Trump campaign contributions, personifies the deadly alliance between the Trump administration and the fossil fuel industry," said Oil Change International U.S. campaign manager Allie Rosenbluth, citing a figure that includes his wife's donations.
Wright's speech at CERAWeek, hosted by S&P Global, Rosenbluth continued, "made clear that he and the rest of the Trump administration are ready to sacrifice our communities and climate for the profits of the fossil fuel industry—which spent $445 million in total to influence Trump and Congress last election cycle."
"We have a human right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and spread our roots in our homes. We cannot do that as long as these poisonous companies... continue to encroach on our communities."
CNBCreported that at the event, Wright vowed to support natural gas production and said that "the Trump administration will end the Biden administration's irrational, quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens."
Despite his past comments about the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, Wright rejected claims that he is a climate change denier and said that "the Trump administration will treat climate change for what it is—a global physical phenomenon that is a side effect of building the modern world."
"There is simply no physical way wind, solar and batteries could replace the myriad uses of natural gas," Wright claimed. He also singled out wind, saying that "it's incredibly high prices, incredibly huge investment, and a large footprint on the local communities, so it's been very unpopular for people that live near offshore wind turbines."
While in Texas, Wright announced a permit extension for Delfin LNG, an offshore liquefied natural gas export terminal proposal near the Louisiana coast—which Kelsey Crane, senior policy advocate at Earthworks, called "just a continuation of Chris Wright acting in the interest of Big Oil and Gas."
"Without hesitation he is advancing a project that has a different design, funding, contracts, and operational plans since it was first reviewed over six years ago," she said. "It is clear his only job is to make fossil fuel corporations rich by advancing oil and projects, which will leave families and small businesses to struggle with higher energy bills."
According to the Houston Chronicle, "It's the third Gulf Coast LNG project to receive support since Trump took office."
Rosenbluth similarly slammed the decision, saying that "his performative extension of Delfin LNG's export authorization during his speech represents just how deeply intertwined the Trump administration is with the fossil fuel CEOs at CERAWeek."
"As Wright speaks to industry insiders, members of impacted communities, faith leaders, youth, and others are assembling for a 'March for Future Generations,' where they're demanding an end to new fossil fuel projects and government subsidies for the fossil fuel industry," she noted. "The movement for a just transition away from fossil fuels, and towards a clean energy economy that works for all of us, is continuing to fight—regardless of how many fracking CEOs Trump puts in his Cabinet."
The Chroniclereported that "police arrested eight climate protesters Monday after they linked arms to briefly block a street next to CERAWeek by S&P Global... The activists were among hundreds who marched from nearby Root Memorial Square Park to the conference, which is hosted annually at the Hilton Americas-Houston and the George R. Brown Convention Center."
Climate advocates held a banner at CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, Texas on March 10, 2025. (Photo: Luigi W. Morris)
During a press conference at the park, Bekah Hinojosa, co-Founder of South Texas Environmental Justice Network in the Rio Grande Valley, said that "our community has been resisting LNG projects for over 10 years. Those projects are the Rio Grande LNG, Texas LNG, and the Rio Bravo pipeline. Last year, our community proved in court that these LNG facilities would be environmental racism. We are a low-income, brown, Native community, and LNG would be a cancer factory."
Jake Hernandez of Texas Campaign for the Environment declared that "we have a human right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and spread our roots in our homes. We cannot do that as long as these poisonous companies, like Cheniere, continue to encroach on our communities. I've seen a lot of harms and consequences that LNG buildout can cause to our communities. This is just an earnest plea to help us put an end to LNG!"
"Really reassuring that the SpaceX guy is taking over the FAA," one observer quipped.
The eighth test launch of SpaceX's Starship, which billionaire CEO Elon Musk claims will be the spacecraft that eventually transports humans to Mars, ended Thursday in much the same way the seventh did: an explosive failure that sent toxic and polluting debris raining down from the sky.
"We are all in the debris field of a SpaceX mishap," remarked journalist Aaron Rupar after the spacecraft exploded just minutes following its lift-off from a launch site in Texas.
Reutersreported that "several videos on social media showed fiery debris streaking through the dusk skies near south Florida and the Bahamas after Starship broke up in space shortly after it began to spin uncontrollably with its engines cut off."
"The back-to-back mishaps occurred in early mission phases that SpaceX has easily surpassed previously, a setback for a program Musk had sought to speed up this year," the news agency added.
Musk, who is leading SpaceX while simultaneously spearheading a lawless effort to eviscerate the federal government and its workforce, wrote on his social media platform following the Starship explosion that "rockets are hard."
Another failed launch by Elon Musks' SpaceX tonight.
Tesla's explodes. Twitter collapses. SpaceX crumbles. Everything Elon Musk touches turns to shit.
Let's call a spade a spade—Musk is a failure.pic.twitter.com/07DscAvPbF
— The Debt Collective 🟥 (@StrikeDebt) March 7, 2025
The explosion forced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)—an agency that Musk and his cronies have infiltrated—to suspend air traffic at several Florida airports, citing "space launch debris."
The New York Timesreported that falling debris from the Starship explosion impacted flights "as far away as Philadelphia International Airport."
Musk, the world's richest man, has been vocal about wanting SpaceX subsidiary Starlink to take over the FAA's air traffic control system.
Following Thursday's explosion and subsequent flight disruptions, New Yorker staff writer Philip Gourevitch wrote sardonically, "Really reassuring that the SpaceX guy is taking over the FAA."
"Taking away a child's freedom and deliberately putting them in these conditions is unconscionable, as is denying a parent their most fundamental role of providing their child with a loving and nurturing environment."
Private prison companies in the United States can hardly contain their excitement as the Trump administration moves to revive the practice of detaining migrant families at facilities with records of horrifying abuses, a decision that advocacy groups say highlights the White House's disdain for human rights as it carries out its large-scale assault on immigrants.
"Reopening family detention facilities with devastating histories of abuses, trauma, and long-term psychological damage underscores that cruelty is the point of these Trump administration policies," Amy Fischer, director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Program at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement Thursday after CBS Newsreported the administration's moves.
According to CBS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—newly empowered by President Donald Trump—"was detaining the first group of migrant parents and children" on Thursday "in a detention facility in Texas designed to hold families with minors."
"The group includes three children," the outlet added, citing an internal government report.
Separately, NBC Newsreported Thursday that "U.S. immigration agents are planning a new operation to arrest migrant families with children as part of a nationwide crackdown."
"During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump and border czar Tom Homan said that plans for mass deportations would initially focus on migrants who had committed crimes," NBC observed. "The new plans for national operations show that many of the families and children to be targeted do not have criminal histories."
As part of the revival of family detention—which was used by the Obama administration and the first Trump administration, and largely ended by the Biden administration—immigration officials are "refitting" two Texas facilities, including the notorious detention center in Dilley, Texas.
CoreCivic, a private prison company, has been newly contracted by ICE to reopen the facility for family detention.
"I've worked at CoreCivic for 32 years, and this is truly one of the most exciting periods in my career," Damon Hininger, CoreCivic's CEO, told investors last month.
George Zoley, executive chairman of the GEO Group, said last week that "we've never seen anything like this before," referring to the speed with which the Trump administration is moving to procure contracts for migrant detention.
The New York Timesreported Friday that "a GEO Group subsidiary gave more than $2 million to Republican PACs that accept unlimited donations, with the bulk going to groups that supported House Republicans and Mr. Trump."
"It is enraging to see the Trump administration reinstate family detention, a policy of jailing immigrant parents with their children—including babies."
The Detention Watch Network noted that while the Dilley center was "in operation for family detention, there were reports of foul water and negligent medical treatment, with hospitals confirming that children are consistently released with health issues they dubbed 'Dilley-ish.'"
"In 2018, a 19-month-old girl, Mariee, tragically died after leaving the facility, and in 2019, a guard was accused of physically assaulting a 5-year-old," the organization said.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) wrote earlier this week that he visited the center in December 2018 and "it was horrifying."
"The cruelty and abuse of Trump's family detention policy is a lasting stain on our nation," Merkley wrote on social media. "I'm calling on the admin to reverse this decision—in no world should this facility reopen."
Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director of the Detention Watch Network, said Thursday that "it is enraging to see the Trump administration reinstate family detention, a policy of jailing immigrant parents with their children—including babies."
"Detention is harmful and traumatic for everyone, but especially children," said Ghandehari. "Families should be able to navigate their immigration cases in community with support services provided and facilitated by local community-based groups—never Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an enforcement agency that is plagued by egregiously poor conditions and a culture of violence."
"Taking away a child's freedom and deliberately putting them in these conditions is unconscionable, as is denying a parent their most fundamental role of providing their child with a loving and nurturing environment," Ghandehari added. "Family detention, like all immigration detention, is inhumane, unjust, and unnecessary. Everyone, certainly children and their parents, deserves to freely and safely move for opportunity and stability."