# Energy Sector Energy is where three of the vault's biggest stories collide: the "energy dominance" deregulation project, the AI datacenter power crunch turning electricity prices into a midterm issue, and Texas oil fortunes bankrolling Christian nationalism. This MOC maps the corporate landscape; [[Climate in Right-Wing Thought Hub]] covers the ideology, and [[Nuclear Energy Debate]] the atomic revival's politics. ## Oil and gas: dominance with friction **ExxonMobil** ([[ExxonMobil]], CEO Darren Woods) and **[[Chevron]]** (Mike Wirth, who closed the ~$53B Hess acquisition in July 2025 after winning the Guyana arbitration) headline a majors tier that is aligned with Trump on deregulation but repeatedly crosswise on specifics — Woods urged Trump not to exit Paris (he did, day one) and called Venezuela "uninvestable" when pressed to invest (Trump called Exxon "too cute"). The "drill baby drill" agenda collided with capital discipline while WTI slumped early in 2026 — until the Iran war (see [[Strait of Hormuz]] and [[Trump-Iran MOU 2026]]) sent crude to a four-year high, with [[Continental Resources]] first to publicly ramp. **[[Harold Hamm]]** is the sector's political fixer: he co-led Trump's energy transition with [[Doug Burgum]], helped install the personnel, and runs the Hamm Institute's "Energy Freedom Tour" through the midterms. **[[Koch Industries]]** remains the ideological infrastructure — [[Americans for Prosperity]] claimed credit for the [[Big Beautiful Bill]] and pushes fossil-powered AI acceleration — even as the network chafes at tariffs. [[Halliburton]] and the services layer ride the cycle. The government is run by the industry's own: Energy Secretary [[Chris Wright]] (founder of fracking-services firm Liberty Energy), Interior Secretary and National Energy Dominance Council chair [[Doug Burgum]], and EPA's [[Lee Zeldin]], whose February 2026 repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding — gutting the legal basis for federal climate regulation — is headed for the Supreme Court. The [[Big Beautiful Bill]] killed the wind/solar and EV tax credits while sparing nuclear, geothermal, and hydro; the offshore-wind stop-work orders of December 2025 lost in court (all five projects won injunctions, and the administration let the appeal lapse). ## The datacenter power collision AI demand is now the grid's organizing fact: GE Vernova's gas turbines are sold out toward 2030, PJM's capacity auction cleared at its price cap (+22%), and a July 2026 heat dome forced DOE emergency orders to avert Mid-Atlantic blackouts as Northern Virginia spot prices topped $2,000/MWh. Residential electricity prices — up double digits in swing states like Pennsylvania — have become a first-order midterm issue, with a bipartisan "techlash" against datacenters brewing (see [[AI Sector]] and [[Stargate]] for the demand side). ## The nuclear renaissance Trump's May 2025 executive orders target 400 GW by 2050 and let DOE-authorized pilot reactors bypass the NRC. The vault-relevant cluster: **[[Oklo]]** ([[Sam Altman]]-chaired, stock up ~10x, Idaho pilot targeting criticality); **[[TerraPower]]** ([[Bill Gates]]; its Natrium plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming became the first US utility-scale advanced reactor to start construction, May 2026); **[[Constellation Energy]]** (restarting Three Mile Island for [[Microsoft]] and re-powering Clinton, Illinois for [[Meta]] under 20-year PPAs); and Holtec's Palisades restart. Big tech buying dedicated nuclear plants is the clearest expression of the AI-energy fusion — private power for private compute. ## Texas oil money → Christian nationalism The vault's signature energy thread: **[[Tim Dunn]]** (a ~$2.2B personal windfall from selling CrownRock to Occidental) and **[[Farris Wilks]]** (with brother Dan, fracking billionaires and [[The Daily Wire]] co-funders) supplied roughly a quarter of Texas GOP funding at their peak, bankrolling [[Defend Texas Liberty PAC]] and its successor vehicles, school-voucher primaries, and the Convention of States push. Fracked gas becomes theocratic politics with remarkable efficiency — the money trail runs through the [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]] and [[School Choice Ecosystem]]. ## Coverage gaps Now built alongside this page: [[ExxonMobil]], [[Chevron]], [[Harold Hamm]], [[Continental Resources]], [[Oklo]], [[TerraPower]], [[Constellation Energy]]. Still missing: Occidental Petroleum (Warren Buffett-backed, CrownRock buyer), Liberty Energy, GE Vernova, Dan Wilks as a person, Texas Scorecard, Convention of States, NextEra, Holtec, Centrus (the enrichment chokepoint), and a PJM/grid-politics concept page. Highest value: a PJM/electricity-prices concept page (the midterm issue needs an anchor) and Occidental. ## See Also - [[ExxonMobil]] · [[Chevron]] · [[Continental Resources]] · [[Koch Industries]] · [[Halliburton]] - [[Oklo]] · [[TerraPower]] · [[Constellation Energy]] · [[Nuclear Energy Debate]] - [[Harold Hamm]] · [[Chris Wright]] · [[Doug Burgum]] · [[Lee Zeldin]] · [[Tim Dunn]] · [[Farris Wilks]] - [[Big Beautiful Bill]] · [[Inflation Reduction Act]] · [[Paris Agreement]] · [[Climate in Right-Wing Thought Hub]] - [[Defend Texas Liberty PAC]] · [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]] · [[School Choice Ecosystem]] - [[AI Sector]] — the demand shock · [[Chipmakers Sector]] · [[Commercial Space Sector]] · [[Biotech Sector]] · [[Quantum Computing Sector]] · [[Cryptocurrency Sector]] · [[Carceral and Border Security Sector]] · [[Private Equity Sector]] — sibling sector MOCs