Running for President While Cashing in on Fracking? Jeb Bush’s New Venture

By Mitch Jones

In America’s constant campaign mode, where one election cycle begins before another even ends, speculation over the possible candidacies for president in 2016 has been ripe. Most of the names have been familiar, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, son of one former president and brother of another. But it seems presidential politics isn’t the only family business Jeb is following his father and brother into.

Both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush worked in the oil and gas industry before getting into politics. And Bloomberg reports today that Jeb Bush has been serving as the chairman of a private equity firm. The story claims that Bush “has teamed with former Credit Suisse Group AG and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bankers to create an investment firm based in Coral Gables, Florida.” The firm is called Britton Hill Holdings LLC and it has been investing heavily in oil and gas.

According to the filings reported by Bloomberg, the firm received financing from a Chinese company to buy a share of a Connecticut-based shipping firm “seeking to capitalize on surging Asian demand for U.S. shale oil and gas.” In addition to its Chinese backed move into shipping, Britton Hill has invested in Inflection Energy LLC, a Denver-based company that needed capital to invest in exploiting the Marcellus Shale. In other words, Bush’s company is providing capital to fund the fracking of Pennsylvania.

In April, Britton Hill raised capital to invest in Dorian LPG Ltd., a company founded last year to ship propane overseas. One of the investors is a Chinese company, HNA Group Co., which among other things invests in air transport. Bloomberg speculates that by selling a stake to HNA Group, Dorian is hoping to secure entry into China. The company reported in filings that China is building a series of plants to manufacture propylene, a constituent in the manufacture of plastics. Those plants will use imported propane. Clearly Dorian, and by extension Britton Hill, are counting on growing exports of propane to Asia, especially China. The source of that propane will be fracked gas from the United States.

This isn’t just another example of the revolving door whereby it becomes increasingly difficult to tell the difference between our millionaire political class and our millionaire business class. Consider this: Jeb Bush is an establishment favorite to be the Republican nominee for president. He currently serves as the chairman of a firm that is investing heavily in fracking for oil and gas and that is partnering with Chinese companies to ship that gas to Asia. Were he to become president, would President Bush be able to distinguish himself from Chairman Bush? Would he serve the interests of his friends and business partners or of the rest of us?

These relationships, where politicians move between Washington and Wall Street, between government and finance and resource exploitation, is another reason why we need to get money out of politics. It’s these sorts of relationships that corrupt our system and provide the permanent political-business elite with their hold on our government.