Billy Bob Thornton's oilman in "Landman" mirrors a real-world confidence returning to the U.S. oil and gas industry.

Why it matters: The hit drama's second season — which premiered yesterday on Paramount+ — coincides with a supportive White House and rising public support for drilling after years of environmental backlash.

Driving the news: The American Petroleum Institute is backing a seven-figure ad campaign featuring real landmen during Paramount+ and CBS broadcasts of "Landman."

What they're saying: "'Landman' reflects a pivot point of how the industry is viewed and the necessity of how it's seen by the American people," API President Mike Sommers told Axios in an exclusive interview.

State of play: You'd expect to hear that from the oil industry's top lobbyist. But Sommers has a point.

• More Americans across the ideological spectrum support offshore drilling and hydraulic fracturing today compared to 2020, according to June polling from Pew Research (though it's still under 50%).
• Democratic politicians are also acknowledging fossil fuels — two from just last week: Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) of gas-rich Pennsylvania pulled out of a regional climate initiative, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) approved a contested natural gas pipeline.

Between the lines: "This kind of show is part of the Joe Rogan zeitgeist," said Dominic Boyer, a Rice University anthropologist. It's "where men can be men, out in the oil fields."

Reality check: Having an amorphous zeitgeist in your favor doesn't mean reality is smooth sailing.

• The industry is grappling with tariffs, middling oil prices, fluctuating production and general Trump administration chaos.
• What's more, this zeitgeist is uniquely American and doesn't necessarily reflect attitudes in other parts of the world.

Friction point: A clip of Thornton's character Tommy Norris doing a massive — and in many ways misleading — takedown of wind power has 1.3 million viewers on YouTube.

The other side: "Like all compelling misinformation, Billy Bob's rant was 39% true," said Jason Grumet, head of the American Clean Power Association, picking a random percentage that was nonetheless not zero.

• "This is the most dangerous kind of rant. If it's zero percent true, the idiocracy doesn't sell."
• A Texas-based clean energy trade group issued a point-by-point rebuttal to the clip.

What's next: Sommers said this shift isn't a temporary pendulum swing, but instead a permanent and positive realignment in Americans' view on oil and gas, given soaring demand by AI and other drivers.

Tommy Norris may not agree.

• In the Season 1 finale, Thornton's character shares a moment with a drug cartel kingpin played by Andy Garcia. "There's no future in the product you sell," a severely bloodied Thornton tells the drug dealer.
• After a puff on his cigarette, he adds: "Mine's running out of future, too."

What we're watching: Season 2!

Full story

🇧🇷 One thing to watch as COP30 enters week 2 is whether talks will endorse any kind of "roadmap" away from fossil fuels.

• Why it matters: All these things are voluntary and aspirational, but it would still be a nod toward actually, like, implementing the 2023 summit's call for a "transition."
• State of play: "With the actual cartography of this thing still vague, one proposal on the table is for COP30 to create some sort of standing taskforce to work with countries to set end-date and implementation plans for existing reliance on fossil fuels," the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, a U.K. think tank attending, said in a note this morning.
• The intrigue: It's unclear whether the roadmap idea the Brazilian hosts are pushing will get a nod in formal summit text, or some kind of less official ad-hoc document, or what.
• What we're watching: A mid-summit state of play note from Brazilian officials floats creating a roadmap to "accelerate the implementation" of nations' emissions and finance pledges. Various climate ministers would produce it before next year's summit. (H/t Climate Diplomacy Brief.)
• Go deeper: Thousands March for Climate Action as U.N. Talks Enter Second Week (NYT)

💵 TotalEnergies is investing $5.9 billion for a 50% stake in Czech power company EPH's "flexible power" platform of gas- and biomass-fired power plants, and batteries.

• Why it matters: The deal — which forms a joint venture with EPH assets in several countries and plans for more — deepens the oil and gas giant's movement into the power sector. Go deeper

🤝Via Reuters, Saudi Aramco will ink LNG deals with U.S. exporters Woodside Energy and Commonwealth LNG when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits Washington this week.

💼 The Clean Economy Project (CleanEcon) has registered theGROUP and Rich Feuer Anderson (RFA) as outside lobbyists, filings show.

• Why it matters: CleanEcon is a major new advocacy group — and the next act for ex-senior policy hands at Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy, which has scaled back its work.
• State of play: They're adding GOP ties. TheGROUP's Pam Thiessen and David Cleary, who both held high-level GOP staff roles on Capitol Hill, will rep CleanEcon. RFA's Matt Kellogg, Emily King and Justin Sok are also all former senior GOP aides.

👋 Via E&E News, "Nearly a fifth of EPA's workforce has opted into President Donald Trump's mass resignation plan as he pushes to reduce the federal government's payroll." That's roughly 2,620 employees.

⚖️The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other biz groups filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to halt pending California mandates on corporate climate risk and emissions disclosure.

• Why it matters: Absent "immediate intervention," the "unconstitutional efforts to slant public debate through compelled speech will take effect and inflict irreparable harm on thousands of companies across the country," the emergency motion claiming First Amendment violations states.
• The other side: Columbia climate law specialist Michael Gerrard tells the LA Times that the filing is the "latest example of businesses and conservatives weaponizing the First Amendment."
• What we're watching: The application seeks an injunction while the appellate court battle over the rules plays out.

Here's a look at what our Pro Deals reporters have recently been covering, starting with exclusives...

🌡️ Exclusive: Fabric8Labs, a San Diego-based electrochemical additive manufacturing startup, raised $50 million led by NEA and Intel Capital, CEO Jeff Herman says. Go deeper

🌳 Exclusive: Carbon Direct is acquiring Pachama, a player in the nature-based carbon credits market, the companies tell Axios. Go deeper

🐣 A dozen startups building new tech to help with AI's soaring energy needs pitched investors and potential partners during an invite-only industry summit last week. Go deeper

⛏️ KoBold Metals, the AI mineral discovery startup, is raising $200 million, and has closed on $163.43 million of it. Go deeper

🛫 Sustainable aviation fuel producer LanzaJet says it's started producing jet fuel made from ethanol at commercial scale at its factory in rural Georgia. Go deeper

🚚 FedEx co-led Harbinger's $160 million Series C and ordered 53 of the startup's medium-duty electric delivery trucks. Go deeper

Subscribe to Axios Pro Deals for a steady diet of exclusives and smart analysis.

"Nobody builds a 100-story tower in Manhattan without some anchor tenants. So no one should be building power plants without knowing there are data centers which actually need it."

He's quoted in a must-read FT piece on regulators' high-stakes efforts to figure out which data center proposals are real and which ones are illusions.

A new wrinkle on AI and energy: Goldman Sachs analysts see AI indirectly adding 3 million bpd to global oil demand by 2040 due to higher GDP.

• The bank's new note projects overall oil thirst rising through 2040.