Cooler but still well above normal this week

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

 for the incoming Trump administration. See 

: The 2024 Republican presidential primary. The former governor of North Dakota ran on his experience as a successful businessman before 

 and becoming a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, then the front-runner, landing on the VP shortlist.

 The Department of the Interior oversees public and federal lands and their natural resources, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

If confirmed as secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum would become a key player in implementing one of the Trump administration's overarching goals: 

The Department of the Interior manages roughly one-fifth of the lands and waters of the United States, giving Burgum — the former governor of an oil-rich state — significant leverage to increase domestic oil and gas production, which is already at an all-time high. But the massive department also oversees national parks and monuments, endangered species protections and relations with federally recognized Native American tribes.

During the first Trump administration, the Department of the Interior 

 to make it easier to drill on federal land, 

significantly weakened the power and scope

. Deb Haaland, secretary of the Interior during the Biden administration, reversed many of these actions and focused on boosting conservation and renewable energy.

Burgum is expected to reverse course again. Burgum's pro-drilling stance is fairly well established, and as Trump's 

proposed head of the newly proposed National Energy Council

 — a body that will oversee regulatory processes across government agencies — he'd have considerable power to push fossil fuel extraction. 

His views on conservation issues are murkier. 

His confirmation hearing, set for Thursday at 10 a.m. EST, could provide a clearer sense of his priorities.

Before jumping into politics for his 2016 governor run, Burgum worked as a software executive. In 2001, he sold his company, Great Plains Software, to Microsoft for $1.1 billion. As governor, he presided over record oil production in North Dakota, though most of this occurred on private, not public, lands. He also pledged to make North Dakota carbon neutral by 2030, largely through carbon capture and storage, not a dramatic increase in renewables.

Burgum will likely face questions from senators about privatizing public land for drilling. Federal lands currently account for roughly one-quarter of the United States' greenhouse gas emissions, and dramatically boosting fossil fuel production there could increase climate-warming gases.

On the conservation front, Burgum could be asked about whether he'd support weakening the Endangered Species Act, shrinking or eliminating national monuments established by the Biden administration, and drilling in sensitive areas, like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Politics and Government News

Homepage

Jonathan Lambert

Author

Doug Burgum, former North Dakota governor and businessman is President Donald Trump's pick to be Secretary of the Interior. The confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thurs., Jan 16, 2025.

Trump's pick for secretary of the Interior Department is Doug Burgum. Here's what to know

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox