Did he really?  Was he channeling his inner snake oil salesman? Trying to demonstrate that Mr. Barnum had it right about we the people?  Or cluelessly re-enacting the image of a long ago empress who was thought not to have cared one iota about the needs of common people…

…During a keynote lunch speech at the conference presented by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, Halliburton Co. CEO Dave Lesar talked about addressing public concerns about hydraulic fracturing, which extracts natural gas by blasting a mix of water, chemicals and sand underground.

He raised a container of Halliburton’s new fracking fluid made from materials sourced from the food industry, then called up a fellow executive to demonstrate how safe it was by drinking it, according to two attendees.

The executive mocked reluctance, then took a swig.

What he drank was apparently CleanStim, which when Halliburton announced it in November was undergoing field trials. A Halliburton spokeswoman didn’t respond to a question asking how that executive is doing now, or who he is. Instead, she referred a reporter to a web page on CleanStim. The Houston company, which has operations in about 80 countries, has said the product shouldn’t be considered edible.

“I thought if this stuff was so benign, why wouldn’t the CEO drink it himself? That frankly was my first thought,” said Environmental Defense Fund’s Mark Brownstein, who saw the demonstration. “My second thought, more seriously, is on the one hand, I’m pleased to see Halliburton is taking steps to remove toxic chemicals from hydraulic fracturing fluid. I wonder why if they have this technology why it wouldn’t become standard practice…

“60 Minutes” report on the pros and cons of shale gas drilling
“Fracking” the cause of two minor quakes?
EPA: Natural Gas Driller Tainted Texas Aquifer

Read the rest of the story here.