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There’s a new voice in the US energy debate, and he’s not exactly whispering. Kaes Van’t Hof, who took over as CEO of Diamondback Energy in May 2025, has been waging a surprisingly public campaign to defend the shale industry against accusations of price gouging, regulatory overreach, and general villainy.
His targets so far include Senator Bernie Sanders and podcaster Joe Rogan. Which is quite the range.
From the C-suite to the soapbox
Van’t Hof previously served as Diamondback’s President and CFO from February 2022 to February 2025 before stepping into the top job, succeeding Travis Stice.
Global supply disruptions tied to the Iran conflict have rattled oil markets, and Van’t Hof has responded by doing something unusual for an energy CEO: logging on. Through social media posts and interviews, he’s been pushing back on narratives that paint oil companies as profiteers exploiting geopolitical chaos. His exchanges with Sanders, who has long accused fossil fuel companies of gouging consumers, and Rogan, whose podcast reaches tens of millions, have given Diamondback an outsized media presence relative to its size.
The numbers behind the noise
Diamondback has backed up his rhetoric with capital allocation decisions that tell their own story. The company raised its 2026 production guidance to approximately 520,000 barrels per day. It also bumped capital spending by $150 million, a direct response to global supply disruptions that have created both risk and opportunity for Permian Basin operators.
One of Van’t Hof’s most striking claims is that over 10% of global oil supply is currently shut in. That’s a massive supply gap, and Van’t Hof is positioning US shale as the only realistic plug.
Founded in 2007, Diamondback operates as a pure-play Permian Basin company.
The regulatory certainty pitch
Underneath all the public sparring lies a fairly specific ask: regulatory certainty. Van’t Hof has emphasized repeatedly that the shale industry needs stable policy frameworks to justify the kind of long-term investment that boosting production requires.
Van’t Hof’s argument boils down to a simple proposition: if Washington wants US shale to serve as a buffer against global supply shocks, it needs to stop treating the industry like a political football.
What this means for investors
Diamondback’s aggressive posture, both rhetorically and financially, sends a clear signal about management’s view of the medium-term oil market. Raising production guidance and increasing capital expenditures during a period of geopolitical uncertainty is a bet that supply constraints will persist long enough to justify the spending.
For energy investors, the key question is whether Van’t Hof’s thesis about sustained supply shortages proves correct. If over 10% of global supply remains curtailed for an extended period, Permian operators with available capacity stand to benefit disproportionately. Diamondback, as one of the largest pure-play Permian companies, would be near the front of that line.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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