President-elect Donald Trump has revealed his pick for the next Secretary of the Interior: Doug Burgum, the Republican Governor of North Dakota, who has served two terms.
“If confirmed by the Senate, Burgum would manage the more than 500 million acres of federal land as well as the fossil fuels and minerals that lie beneath the surface — making him a critical component in Trump’s promise to boost oil and gas output,” POLITICO noted. They emphasized North Dakota’s significance, highlighting that it ranks as the third-largest oil producer in the nation and has over 4 million acres of land governed by federal regulations.
At an event at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night, Trump hinted at the forthcoming announcement, saying, “He’s going to be announced tomorrow for a very big position. We’re going to do things with energy and with land, Interior, that is going to be incredible. … He’s going to head the Department of the Interior and he’s going to be fantastic. … We’ll make the formal announcement tomorrow.”
Burgum, who briefly ran in the 2024 Republican presidential primary before stepping aside and supporting Trump, was praised by the President-elect last May. Trump remarked, “probably knows more about energy than anybody I know.”
In mid-2023, Burgum voiced strong opposition to new regulations introduced by the Biden administration’s federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These proposed regulations aimed to tighten controls over onshore oil and gas leases on federal lands by significantly increasing costs. The changes included raising the minimum lease bond by 15 times, limiting areas for leasing, and increasing the minimum bid amount fivefold. Burgum’s response was direct:
“These proposed changes are just the latest in the Biden administration’s long list of misguided policies that discourage domestic energy production. By raising costs for oil and gas producers who want to develop minerals on federal lands, BLM will drive away producers and drive up energy costs for consumers, who will be forced to pay higher prices for fuels imported from countries that don’t produce energy as cleanly as the United States. We should be selling energy to our friends and allies instead of buying it from our adversaries and putting our country’s economy, energy security and national security at risk.”
While some environmental advocates remain skeptical about the appointment, others have expressed cautious optimism. Collin O’Mara, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, acknowledged Burgum’s efforts in North Dakota to maintain a balance between energy development and conservation. “I think he’ll be a very strong champion of the energy dominance agenda. But in North Dakota, he tried to find some level of balance to make sure that important conservation areas, important areas for tourism, weren’t harmed in the process,” O’Mara said.
