We hit this (what seems to be a) paradoxon in a research project a few years ago, where we modelled production facilities that needed heat and cold at the same time (industrial bakery producing freezed goods, different pipes).

Since our goal was the optimization of energy flows, being able to use e.g. energy recovery of "waste heat", we could easily get paradoxical results, when counting with "hot" and "cold' energies.

The thing is, any medium can potentially carry energy (and in fact does), but if it is "usable" to you, depends on the difference to the environment you want to use it in/against.

400° hot oil? Net plus J in an oven, but net minus J for a chiller.

Yet, generating a certain amount of that hot oil took x Joule. Same goes for cold water or saline solution.

I think the plaintiff's argument was actually very fitting.

Mine is still not technical though.