To answer this simple question, you need to know just one basic fact - they were in the pipeline business.
Similar to many (and perhaps all) billionaire types, David & Charles have had a basic Gimme Gimme philosophy, and like other major greed-heads, they spread multiple sophisticated spicy PR icings over their ravenous monetary appetites. Libertarianism seems to have grabbed a certain segment of the U.S. population, and some may actually try to follow its basic principles. From what I’ve observed, Senator Rand Paul seems to consistently act according to that philosophy, and whatever disagreements I might have with a particular outlook, I can respect someone whose actions match their stated beliefs, especially in light of a political class that regularly says one thing and then does the exact opposite (what I refer to in one of my songs as the Same Old Change).
Can someone be a genuine libertarian and run a pipeline business? Not as long as 2+2=4. Libertarians say that the government has no authority to interfere with the lives of citizens, and particularly should have no ability to seize someone’s property rights. How does a pipeline company snatch private property rights? With just two words: eminent domain.
I learned that term during my elementary school years, as President Eisenhower’s interstate highway system plan began to take shape. I saw a lot of road construction in that era, and heard from maybe 2 or 3 property owners who got angered by the deals they had to sign with the government, dissatisfied with the so-called Just Compensation they received which they thought was not truly just. However, I understood the basic concept, and as the interstate system came together, I truly appreciated how it improved travel options for us average folks. Over the years, I heard a few conservatives claim the government shouldn’t have had the right to STEAL the land for those highways, but most people seemed to like the results.
What most people didn’t know, however, and what I might not have known if I hadn’t gotten involved in the opposition to fracking, is how the government agency FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) has routinely handed eminent domain authority over to private pipeline companies. A number of years ago the phrase No eminent domain for private gain became a slogan for resistance to petrochemical pipeline operations, and I definitely agreed with that particular message from the moment I first saw it on a demonstrator sign.
A genuine libertarian would obviously oppose eminent domain, whether used by the government itself or handed over to private enterprise by the government, so a pipeline company using government power to take away individual property land rights represents the exact opposite of libertarian principles. Even basic conservatives would, in theory, oppose such action, but when was the last time you heard a prominent conservative or libertarian speak out against a pipeline company stealing a land-owner’s right of way? Somehow I feel certain that I know the answer to that question, which rhymes with LEVER, but if someone has an exemption to that rule, I would genuinely like to hear about it. I well remember reading about an Ohio property owner who, after getting shafted by the pipeliners, walked out of the courtroom saying, “I thought we lived in America.” Surprise, Mr. Conservative! If an oligarch wants a piece of your property, he/she might find a way to grab it!
In theory, a true libertarian running a pipeline company would, and should, be willing to pay whatever price the landowner asked for a right of way, but in reality, no pipeline company could make a sustainable profit doing so. Therefore, no one active in the pipeline business could possibly qualify as genuinely libertarian, even if the person’s name is Koch.
I do happen to have other things to say about the pipeliners, so if you’d like to hear those points, I have a song called They’ll Pipeline You on my December 2021 CD Workingman's Dave, and I recently did a lyric video for the tune which resides on YouTube. Warning: if the pipeliners want to shaft you, they might try to whet your appetite for the coming rod with a bit of tasty food and drink:
https://youtu.be/2RzbsGo1rjI