Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is due to appear before a Senate committee on Thursday as lawmakers consider the Republican’s nomination as chief manager of America’s public lands and waters.
President-elect Donald Trump appointed Burgum in November as secretary of the Interior and to lead the new National Energy Council, which is charged with promoting the development of oil, gas and other energy sources.
The Interior Department oversees half a billion acres of federal land and vast areas off the coast. Combined, these areas produce about a quarter of U.S. oil, or more than 1 billion barrels of crude oil annually, making them a flashpoint in the debate over how to tackle climate change.
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President Joe Biden’s administration has scaled back sales of new oil and gas from public reserves as part of its efforts to curb climate change. Nevertheless, oil production reached record levels under the Democrat as high prices encouraged drilling on lands that had previously been leased.
Burgum is an ultra-rich entrepreneur in the software industry who grew up on his family’s farm. The two-term governor of oil-rich North Dakota endorsed Trump after ending his own presidential bid in 2024.
The Energy Council he would chair could play a key role in Trump’s efforts to sell more oil and other energy resources to allies in Europe and around the world.
Trump is hostile to renewable energy, including offshore wind. It is uncertain how that rhetoric will translate into the policy of the Ministry of the Interior.
North Dakota is one of many states that has seen rapid expansion of wind energy in recent years. As governor, Burgum outlined plans to make the state carbon neutral by 2030. And he touted a pipeline that would be used to capture greenhouse gases responsible for climate change and store them underground.
Burgum has described such projects as lucrative business opportunities. Carbon capture skeptics say the technology has not yet been widely tested and the fossil fuel industry could continue largely unchanged.
The Department of the Interior’s mandate extends beyond fossil fuels to include grazing, mining, fish and wildlife conservation, the National Park System, and trust responsibilities for more than 500 Native American and Alaska Native tribes.
Trump’s first term saw bitter fighting over actions that rolled back protections for endangered species and accelerated approvals for highways, pipelines and other projects. Those steps were largely blocked by lawsuits or reversed under Biden.
Thursday’s hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee comes after protesters Wednesday repeatedly interrupted proceedings for another member of Trump’s energy team — Secretary of Energy candidate Chris Wright.
Wright pledged to promote all sources of American energy and acknowledged that burning fossil fuels causes climate change.
