Net Worth: $7.9 billion (Forbes, 4/9/26)
Who is Kelcy Warren?
- Kelcy Warren is the billionaire founder and CEO of Energy Transfer Partners, a pipeline company.
- Warren is a longtime supporter of Trump’s presidential campaigns. Warren donated $814,600 to Trump’s 2024 campaign, and donated $5 million to Make America Great Again Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC.
- Warren co-hosted a 2024 fundraiser, where Trump promised oil and gas executives he would immediately approve their projects and expand drilling in his second term in return for $1 billion in donations.
- Warren donated more than $100,000 to Trump’s 2016 campaign. In 2020, Warren hosted a fundraiser and raised $10 million for Trump’s re-election campaign.
- During the 2020 campaign, Warren also donated $10 million to America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC that later donated to Women For America First, a group that organized the rally that led to the January 6th insurrection.
- Warren co-hosted a 2024 fundraiser, where Trump promised oil and gas executives he would immediately approve their projects and expand drilling in his second term in return for $1 billion in donations.
- Warren’s company, Energy Transfer Partners, is notorious for deploying extreme force against the environmental activists and land defenders protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.
- The Dakota Access Pipeline was built to transport crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois, and faced heavy opposition from environmental and Indigenous rights activists for threatening the water supply of and sacred sites for the Standing Rock Sioux.
- In Spring 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux, along with other tribes and activists, protested the pipeline’s construction. President Obama called for an environmental review of the pipeline, halting its construction. However, President Trump reversed the decision after his inauguration in 2017.
- Trump reported shares of Energy Transfer in both his 2015 and 2016 financial disclosure worth between $500,000 and $1,000,000.
- At the start of his first term, Trump signed executive orders reviving major oil and gas projects, including the Dakota Access pipeline.
- The Dakota Access Pipeline was built to transport crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois, and faced heavy opposition from environmental and Indigenous rights activists for threatening the water supply of and sacred sites for the Standing Rock Sioux.
- Energy Transfer filed a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) suit against Greenpeace in 2017, arguing that Greenpeace played a key role in motivating the protests against the Dakota Access pipeline. Energy Transfer claimed the protests forced construction delays and cost the company money.
- SLAPP suits are “complaints filed by powerful individuals or organizations aimed at shutting down critics by raising the risk of long, expensive court battles.” Many states have anti-SLAPP laws, not including North Dakota. Free speech advocates say SLAPP suits are attacks on the First Amendment.
- The case went to trial in 2025, and the jury ultimately sided with Energy Partners, awarding the company $345 million. Greenpeace appealed, asking a judge to “overturn or at least reduce the verdict”; Judge Gion of North Dakota did not find a reason to do so.
- SLAPP suits are “complaints filed by powerful individuals or organizations aimed at shutting down critics by raising the risk of long, expensive court battles.” Many states have anti-SLAPP laws, not including North Dakota. Free speech advocates say SLAPP suits are attacks on the First Amendment.
- Warren has donated and raised millions for Trump and other Republican candidates. In 2016, Warren initially supported Rick Perry, donating $6 million to Perry’s presidential campaign.
- Perry is a board member of Energy Transfer Partners, and was later appointed Secretary of Energy in the first Trump administration.
- Warren has donated over $2.8 million to Texas Governor Greg Abbott since 2010.
- Abbott helped Energy Transfer escape accountability for the collapse of the Texas power grid in 2021, which resulted in the death of 246 Texans. Energy Transfer managed to profit $2.4 billion from the crisis while ratepayers were saddled with future debt repayments.
- Perry is a board member of Energy Transfer Partners, and was later appointed Secretary of Energy in the first Trump administration.
How is Kelcy Warren benefitting from the Trump administration?
- Warren and Energy Transfer have profited greatly under the second Trump administration. On his first day back in office, Trump signed the “Unleashing American Energy” executive order, which, among other things, aimed to boost domestic fossil fuels production, weaken environmental review, and roll back restrictions on natural gas.
- Energy Transfer’s stock price jumped 22% between November 11th, 2024, and January 20, 2025.
- Energy Transfer’s stock price jumped 22% between November 11th, 2024, and January 20, 2025.
- After the DOE reversed a Biden-era pause on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, Energy Transfer signed a 20-year agreement with Chevron to increase its own LNG supply.
- Energy Transfer announced plans to build a $3 billion pipeline to carry LNG from the Permian Basin in West Texas to energy markets in Arizona and California. Days after the announcement, Warren purchased 2 million common units of Energy Transfer LP, increasing his direct holdings in the company to over 69 million units.
For more information, see the Revolving Door Project’s Oligarchs in Trump World tracker.