Trump’s Interior Pick Calls Energy a Tool for Peace, Prosperity

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department will champion America’s energy wealth as a means to achieve both “historic American prosperity” and “world peace” in his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday.

Author of the article:

Bloomberg News

Jennifer A. Dlouhy

Published Jan 16, 2025  •  3 minute read

Doug Burgum Photographer: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg Photo by Hannah Beier /Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department will champion America’s energy wealth as a means to achieve both “historic American prosperity” and “world peace” in his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday. 

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The incoming president’s “energy dominance vision will end wars abroad and make life more affordable for every family by driving down inflation,” Doug Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota and a onetime Trump rival for the Republican presidential nomination, said in written testimony prepared for delivery before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

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If confirmed, Burgum would be a key figure in executing Trump’s plan to escalate domestic energy production, including by expanding the oil and gas industry’s access to federal lands and waters managed by the Interior Department. On Thursday, he’s expected to face tough questions about his plans to balance those energy development imperatives against other public land priorities, including conservation and recreation. 

The outgoing Biden administration has sought to elevate conservation, even codifying a regulation that effectively puts that on equal footing with energy development. President Joe Biden also has moved to insulate special areas from oil and gas drilling, imposing protections on much of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and new designations of national monuments. 

Earlier: Oil Sector Lobbies Trump to Spare It from Tariffs and Regulation

Trump has outlined a sharp pivot from that approach, promising voters before his November election that he would “free up the vast stores of liquid gold on America’s public land for energy development.” The president-elect has also pledged to end climate policies he calls Washington’s “green new scam” and lower energy costs.

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The Interior Department oversees energy development, grazing and other activities on federal waters and some 500 million acres of public land, territory responsible for roughly a quarter of the country’s oil production. 

Oil industry leaders have pressed Trump to make more of that land available for development, setting the stage for an expected increase in the sale of offshore drilling rights and efforts to ease limits on activity within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. At the same time, oil executives have shown little interest in dramatically boosting output that ultimately could suppress prices, instead favoring strict fiscal discipline and a focus on shareholder returns.

Burgum, who has also been picked to lead a new national energy council, built his wealth running an accounting software company that was sold to Microsoft Corp. for $1.1 billion. But he came from humble beginnings, having grown up in the 400-person town of Arthur, North Dakota, and later working as a chimney sweep and at a grain elevator before he leveraged his family farm to start Great Plains Software.

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In a financial disclosure filed before the hearing, Burgum reported assets totaling at least $84 million and as much as $360 million.

Senator Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said the governor’s history shows he’s “a risk taker,” willing to “do things differently than most.”

In oil-rich North Dakota, that’s been evident in Burgum’s efforts to back the state’s crude development as well as a planned shift to carbon neutrality by 2030. In Burgum’s role as governor, he’s also had frequent contact with the Interior Department on issues tied to Native Americans, water rights and energy development. 

During his opening remarks Thursday, Burgum is set to recall the counsel of President Theodore Roosevelt, who’s remembered for his rich conservation legacy. Where Roosevelt urged America to “speak softly and carry a big stick,” now, it’s “President Trump’s energy dominance” vision that “can be America’s ‘big stick,’” Burgum says in his submitted testimony. 

The hearing comes as conservative interests press for the US to divest public lands, with a campaign stretching from federal courts to the US Capitol building. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court rejected a legal bid by Utah seeking the “disposal” of public land — in a lawsuit supported by North Dakota — and on Capitol Hill, Republicans have advanced legislation meant to expedite a public lands selloff. 

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Environmental activists have urged senators to question Burgum on his own commitment to conservation — not just energy development. 

“Governor Burgum has identified Theodore Roosevelt as a personal hero, and in that spirit, we hope to hear him affirm support for conservation and ensuring public lands stay public,” said Lydia Weiss, a senior director of government relations at The Wilderness Society.

Burgum could also come under pressure to outline a vision for renewable energy development on public lands — including the role of wind turbines in federal waters. Trump has been a relentless critic of the energy source, on Wednesday asserting on Truth Social that “windmills are an economic and environmental disaster” and he doesn’t want even one built during his administration. 

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