President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to appoint North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to head the Department of the Interior.
“We are going to do things with energy and with land. The interior will be incredible,” Trump said Thursday at an event at Mar-a-Lago. A clip of the event was captured on CSPAN.
“I look forward to making the formal announcement,” Trump said. That announcement is expected on Friday.
Burgum, who served two terms as governor of North Dakota, was among the Republican candidates for president during the primaries before endorsing Trump.
As governor, Burgum has railed against what he sees as government overreach and bureaucracy under the Biden administration, especially in energy policy.
“I am honored and excited to serve and will have more to say following the official announcement,” Burgum said in a statement through his spokesperson Thursday.
The $18 billion Department of the Interior is responsible for, among other things, managing public lands, protecting wildlife, maintaining national parks and monuments, and overseeing most tribal programs.
A point of tension in recent years has been over how much oil and gas development the department’s Bureau of Land Management should allow. President Joe Biden pledged not to offer new leases to oil and gas producers. Trump sought “energy dominance” during his first term, and he and his allies campaigned for a return to that approach this year.
North Dakota is the third largest oil producing state in the country, with some production coming from federal lands on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
North Dakota has filed multiple lawsuits against federal agencies under Burgum’s leadership. A handful of the lawsuits challenge the Interior Department, including one against the Bureau of Land Management, which seeks to force the agency to retain more oil and gas lease sales.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum delivers remarks during the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference at the Bismarck Event Center on May 16, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
Burgum declined to comment on a possible Cabinet appointment in a call with reporters from North Dakota on Tuesday. But he did talk about the need for a more coordinated approach to national energy policy.
“If any government wants to change these problems, there needs to be a more coordinated approach at the federal energy level than what we have now,” Burgum said after a news conference Tuesday in Bismarck.
Burgum said the Trump administration wants to focus on large-scale changes, not incremental progress.
“They are thinking about significant, substantial changes,” Burgum said. “They are thinking about changing the direction of how the federal government works.”
He also said some of the powers given to intervening federal agencies could return to the states.
Born in the small town of Arthur, North Dakota, Burgum made his mark by investing in Great Plains Software, which he later sold to Microsoft. He then founded real estate development company Kilbourne Group, which is credited with revitalizing downtown Fargo, before seeking elected office for the first time in 2016.
When Burgum became governor in 2016, he was confronted by thousands of protesters camping near the Missouri River in North Dakota in support of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. The pipeline was built to transport crude oil from North Dakota.
Although Burgum and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe have opposing views on the pipeline crossing, many credit the governor with improving relations between the state and the five Native American tribes that share geography with North Dakota.
Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Chairman Mark Fox, left, speaks with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum at Memorial Hall during a signing event for an alcohol tax revenue sharing agreement between the state of North Dakota and the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in March August 22, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
Mark Fox, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, told the North Dakota Monitor earlier this year that Burgum as a cabinet member would be a valuable ally for the tribes.
“There’s so much he could help facilitate,” said Fox, who also supported Burgum’s bid for the presidency.
As governor, Burgum has championed the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, which is under construction near Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. Burgum has pushed federal officials to address deferred maintenance at the national park.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said Burgum’s love of nature and national parks makes him well-suited to lead the Department of the Interior, one of the largest landowners in the world.
“He loves the country. He likes horse riding. He likes to hike,” Cramer told the North Dakota Monitor. “It’s really a great fit for Doug and he’ll do a great job for all of us, and he’ll make North Dakota proud.”
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