RuPaul: Environmental outcry after Drag Race star suggests he allows fracking on ranch

RuPaul and husband, rancher Georges LeBar, live on 60,000 acres stretching across Wyoming and South Dakota where they ‘lease the mineral rights to oil companies’, the Drag Race host says

RuPaul and his husband appear to permit fracking on their rural Wyoming ranch, according to comments by the TV star which have provoked the ire of environmental campaigners.

In an NPR interview last week, RuPaul Charles, 59, discussed his Emmy-winning show, RuPaul’s Drag Race, and the lesser-known side of his business empire, which has contributed to the iconic drag queen’s estimated $60 million fortune.

Charles and husband, rancher Georges LeBar, 47, live on 60,000 acres stretching across Wyoming and South Dakota.

“That’s like a national park,” NPR host Terry Gross remarked.

Charles replied: “Well, a modern ranch, 21st century ranch, is really land management. It is – you lease the mineral rights to oil companies. And you sell water to oil companies. And then you lease the grazing rights to different ranchers. So it’s land management. Yeah.”

Gross did not follow-up but listeners wasted no time in doing a little digging. 

Rory Solomon, a PhD candidate at NYU, tweeted: “HOLD UP. (Non-COVID content) @RuPaul was just on @NPRFreshAir and shared that he & his partner own 60,000 acres in Wyoming & they “lease mineral rights ... and sell water to oil companies” and Terry Gross did not follow up with one question about the fact that RuPaul is FRACKING”

Fractracker appears to show that the land is dotted with ‘oil and gas wells’.

Will Fadely, senior government relations representative for The Wilderness Society told the Independent: “As someone who is an inspiration to so many, this is disappointing. We’re in a climate crisis and should be managing lands to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. A truly modern 21st century ranch doesn’t have to be about 20th century oil and gas extraction. We would love to talk to RuPaul about land management and other less harmful approaches that he and Georges can implement to lead the way to a better future.”

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which has boosted U.S. fossil fuel production, involves injecting a high-pressure stream of water, sand and chemicals into low-permeability rock bed to increase oil and gas flow.

Charles previously brought up the ranch and its ‘management’ during a 2018 interview with Jimmy Kimmel.

Fracking is despised by environmentalists and a number of Democrats want to ban the process entirely.

“Fracking is a danger to our water supply and the air we breathe. It causes earthquakes. It’s highly explosive. To avert the climate crisis, we must ban fracking,” Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted last year.

Mitch Jones, climate & energy program director at Food & Water Watch, told the Independent: “It’s disappointing when anyone who claims to care about the climate — celebrity or not — seeks to profit from an industry that pollutes and poisons our planet.”

The Independent has contacted RuPaul for comment.