Energy Transfer's Kelcy Warren Advocates Natural Gas as a Solution for Worldwide "Energy Poverty"

The price and availability of energy have been in the news and on most people's minds this past year, as the prices of fuel oil, gasoline and electricity rise. Currently, nearly three billion people around the globe live in so-called energy poverty, meaning they lack access to reliable electricity. This lack of reliable energy directly leads to death and disease. According to the World Health Organization, approximately four million people die annually due to household pollution from heating and cooking with dangerous fuels like crop waste, wood and dung.

Kelcy L. Warren, Executive Chairman of Energy Transfer, sees natural gas as a way to curb not only our worldwide dependence on electricity, but also help to curb energy poverty. Said Warren, "We can count ourselves lucky to have huge reserves of oil and gas throughout the U.S., which is abundant enough to support our needs here at home as well as supply international markets for many years to come." He continues by adding, "We are proud that we can help these developing nations through our natural-gas export operations. We believe that increasing global natural gas availability can have the greatest positive impact on reducing carbon emissions."

Warren also sees supplying natural gas to the billions who need energy around the globe as a way to reduce carbon emissions. Natural gas is a much cleaner form of energy than coal and other fossil fuels, as well as the energy needed to produce electricity.

About Energy Transfer

Founded by Warren and his partner, Ray Davis, in 1996, Energy Transfer is one of the top publicly-traded energy companies in the United States. Energy Transfer maintains operations in 18 US states and is responsible for moving more than 30 percent of the natural gas and oil transferred in the US annually.

About Kelcy Warren

A native of East Texas, Warren learned early about the gas and oil industries. His father was employed by Sun Oil in a number of positions. Warren started as a teenager working in the oil fields and worked in pipeline construction. After graduating from the University of Texas with a degree in civil engineering, Warren began his professional career at Lone Star Gas company as a pipeline engineer. He acquired his first energy-related company in 1992 when he purchased Endevco. He went on to found Energy Transfer four years later and is currently the company's chairman and CEO.

Kelcy Warren has won numerous awards throughout his career. In 2016, he received the prestigious Horatio Alger Award, which recognizes "personal initiative and perseverance, leadership and commitment to excellence, belief in the free-enterprise system and the importance of higher education, community service and the vision and determination to achieve a better future." 

Warren is also a very generous man. He created an endowment at the University of Texas to honor a professor who believed in him and helped him to persevere and finish college. He also hosts an annual fundraiser for Cherokee Crossroads, Inc., an organization that finances several Texas children's charities.

Learn more about Kelcy Warren on PBS: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/tag/kelcy-warren