INSTITUTE INDEX: Rick Perry's oily plans for an authoritarian America
Rick Perry, at left, reportedly shared a plan with the Trump White House to let the Supreme Court choose the winner of the 2020 presidential election. Weeks later, Perry was appointed a director for the general partner of Dallas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners, which is led by major Trump supporter Kelcy Warren (center). During Perry's three-year stint as Trump's energy secretary, he helped Energy Transfer — on whose board he served prior to joining the administration, and whose stock he's now heavily invested in — negotiate lucrative overseas business deals. (Official portraits of Perry and Trump; Warren photo by Racsoagrafal via Wikipedia.)
According to the ongoing investigation by the House select committee into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection that sought to overturn the presidential election, number of days after the November 2020 election that Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows received a text message suggesting an "agressive [sic] strategy" for Republican-led state legislatures — including Georgia's and North Carolina's — to send their own electors to Congress and let the U.S. Supreme Court pick the president: 1
Though he's denied involvement, number of people who confirmed to CNN that the phone number associated with the text belongs to Rick Perry, the former three-term Texas governor who served as Trump's energy secretary before resigning in December 2019: multiple
Days before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection that Perry was appointed to the board of LE GP LLC, general partner of Energy Transfer Partners, the Dallas-based company behind controversial oil pipeline projects including Dakota Access and Bayou Bridge: 3
Year in which Perry had initially joined the Energy Transfer board, when the Dakota Access pipeline was still in the planning stages: 2015
During Perry's time on the board, value of the deal Energy Transfer signed with oil giant Shell to build a gas export terminal in Lake Charles, Louisiana, leading to a quest to find a major overseas buyer: $11 billion
Running at the time for the Republican presidential nomination despite having recently been indicted on felony abuse-of-office charges for threatening funding for anti-corruption prosecutors while governor, month in which Perry called Trump "a cancer on conservatism": 6/2015
Month in which Trump announced that Perry, who had recently been cleared of wrongdoing by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, would serve as his energy secretary, leading him to resign from Energy Transfer's board: 12/2016
Month in which Trump signed an executive order to speed approval of Energy Transfer's Dakota Access pipeline over the protests of the Standing Rock Sioux, whose lands surround it: 1/2017
Months later that Dakota Access began delivering crude oil to refineries: 4
During his less than three years as Trump's energy secretary, potential dollar value of energy deals Perry helped advance that benefited his friends and political donors, according to an investigation by Time, WNYC, and ProPublica: billions
Number of those deals that appeared to benefit Energy Transfer specifically: 2
Value of the biggest deal Perry brokered to help the company, which involving exporting liquefied natural gas — what Perry's department dubbed "freedom gas" — from its Louisiana terminal and selling it to Ukraine, which was being pressured by Trump to dig up dirt on his political rivals: $20 billion
Three months after Perry left his administration post, value of his Energy Transfer holdings: around $800,000
As an Energy Transfer director, annual retainer Perry is eligible to receive from the company, along with equally valuable stock options: $100,000
During the 2016 election, amount billionaire Kelcy Warren, Energy Transfer's chair and chief executive, contributed to super PACs supporting Perry's presidential nomination bid: $6 million
Four years later, amount Warren contributed to a pro-Trump super PAC, making him one of the top financial backers of the former president's re-election: $10 million
Specifically citing what she called the "unethical" relationship between Energy Transfer and Perry, year in which Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts most recently introduced the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act to close the revolving door between government and industry — a measure that's yet to leave committee: 2020
(Click on figure to go to source.)
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Sue Sturgis
Sue is the former editorial director of Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies.