Doug Burgum, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to lead the Department of the Interior, said Thursday he considers America’s public lands and waters part of the nation’s financial “balance sheet,” which includes potentially trillions of dollars worth of oil, gas and minerals. I said I would. Just waiting to be extracted from beneath the surface.
Mr. Burgum, who served two terms as governor of North Dakota, argued that the United States faces an energy crisis even though it produces more oil than at any time in history and is the world’s top oil exporter. Liquefied natural gas. He said that if confirmed, he intends to implement President Trump’s vision of “energy dominance” (shorthand for producing more fossil fuels), which he called “the foundation of American prosperity.”
Testifying before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Mr. Burgum assured lawmakers that he cares about conservation, but declared that curbing energy production was a national security threat to the United States.
“If energy production is limited in the United States, demand will not go down,” Mr. Burgum said. “It just shifts production to countries like Russia or Iran. “The authoritarian leaders of these countries care nothing about the environment and use the profits from energy sales to fund wars against us and our allies.”
Democrats have tried but failed to get Mr. Burgum to pledge to support continued development of renewable energy sources like wind power, and no one has pressed him on how he will address climate change. Emissions from burning fossil fuels produced on federal lands and waters account for nearly 22% of U.S. greenhouse gases.
Asked by Independent Senator Angus King of Maine whether he thought climate change was a problem, Mr. Burgum said, “I believe climate change is a global phenomenon.”
Republicans expressed relief that Burgum would reverse the Biden administration’s policies to reduce oil and gas development and extraction. In recent weeks, the Biden administration has banned drilling on more than 265 million acres in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the northern Bering Sea.
Mr. Burgum accused the Biden administration of advancing “unpredictable and destructive” oil and gas lease sales designed to curb drilling, adding that under the Trump administration such auctions “will never be regular, predictable and at sustainable levels of energy.” “It will happen,” he said. “It is produced in our country.”
And he has allowed that some of the country’s nearly 500 million acres of land and 2 billion acres of coastal waters should be protected because they contain “valuable materials,” but mostly to raise revenue and help cripple the nation’s economy. It can be mined or drilled. debt.
“The rest is America’s balance sheet,” said Mr. Burgum, a millionaire and former Microsoft executive.
“If we were a company, they would look at us and say, ‘Wow, we’re really limiting our balance sheet,’” he said. Mr. Burgum also called for a federal assessment to value the oil, gas, minerals, timber and other resources of the United States and its waters. He said he spoke about the idea with Scott Bessent, President Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary.
“I think understanding those numbers is key,” Mr. Burgum said.
The Department of the Interior has a budget of about $18 billion and is responsible for managing millions of acres of public lands and waters, protecting wildlife, maintaining national parks and monuments, and overseeing most tribal programs.
Mr. Burgum served two terms as North Dakota governor before resigning in December. If confirmed to head the Interior Department, he would have to make it easier for energy companies to tap into natural resources, build new oil and gas pipelines, close export terminals and halt development of wind energy that competes with fossil fuels.
At the same time, Mr. Burgum described himself as someone who cares about public lands.
Mr. Burgum called outdoor recreation “my passion as someone who has spent my entire life being an avid outdoorsman,” and noted that as governor he created the Office of Outdoor Recreation to maintain access to hunting and fishing.
Mr. Burgum promised to “follow the law,” but he also dismissed a question from Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono about whether Mr. Trump would follow orders if he wanted to drill at Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Mr. Burgum said he had “never heard anything” about drilling there.
Mr. Burgum has had longstanding relationships with oil and gas executives, including Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of Continental Resources, one of America’s leading independent oil companies.
Mr. Hamm has frequently attended Mr. Burgum’s political events. Mr. Burgum spoke at a banquet honoring Mr. Hamm, wrote a glowing blurb in his memoir and likened him to former President Theodore Roosevelt in a public address.
During last year’s election campaign, Mr. Burgum, 68, served as a liaison between Mr. Trump and fossil fuel executives who poured more than $75 million into his bid to reclaim the White House. Bonds between oil executives like Mr. Burgum and Mr. Hamm have increased in recent years, according to public meetings and other documents, some of which were obtained by Fieldnotes, an oil and gas research group, and provided to The New York Times.
The link isn’t just political. Mr. Burgum’s family leased farmland to Continental Resources and Hess Corporation, another oil and gas exploration company, to drill for oil and gas, according to business records and federal financial disclosure reports first reported by CNBC. Mr. Burgum earned between $15,000 and $50,000 in royalties from the lease, according to the report.
The Dakota Monitor and ProPublica, two nonprofit news organizations, reported last year that Mr. Burgum voted about 20 times as a member of the state Industrial Commission, which oversees energy regulation, on issues that benefit both Continental and Hess.
Watchdog groups have questioned whether Mr. Burgum’s ties to the oil industry pose a conflict of interest. No lawmakers raised the issue Thursday.
