A Bipartisan Senate Confirmed Doug Burgum—Their Job is Not Over
By: Laura M. Esquivel, Senior Legislative Representative
Photo: Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0
At the end of January, the U.S. Senate confirmed North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to lead the Interior Department in a bipartisan vote. Compared to some of Trump’s more erratic picks for Cabinet positions, Burgum’s hearing seemed almost genteel, easily bantering with both Republican and Democratic Senators.
But don’t be fooled. While many of Burgum’s answers didn’t drip with extremism, he is no friend to our environment. Burgum’s long record of support for the oil and gas industries, close ties to billionaire donors to both Trump’s presidential bid and Burgum’s own campaign for Governor, and his record opposing actions of the previous Interior Department to protect public lands make him unfit to serve as Interior Secretary.
One of the Secretary’s most fundamental responsibilities is safeguarding our public lands for the diverse interests of the American people and protecting them from extractive industries looking to drill, mine, and log for profit. This includes public lands management, protecting endangered species, maintaining national parks, and overseeing tribal relations.
However, President Trump doesn’t understand that responsibility. He sees our public lands as profit sources for his billionaire friends. He’s already issued a flurry of executive orders rolling back public lands protections and creating more favorable conditions for extractive industries to declare a free-for-all. Burgum will be charged with implementing these orders while at the Interior Department. Here are four reasons why that’s a problem and why we expect Congress to conduct rigorous oversight of Burgum’s actions during his tenure at the Department of the Interior.
1. Burgum has serious conflicts of interest.
Governor Burgum is a multi-millionaire with substantial oil and gas industry ties. Some of his personal wealth comes from a land deal with energy giant Continental Resources, owned by billionaire Harold Hamm, one of Trump’s largest campaign donors and a friend of Burgum’s. That deal came under scrutiny from government ethics experts while Burgum was Governor. During the Trump campaign, Burgum used his personal relationship with oil executives like Hamm to organize a meeting between Trump and oil barons where Trump promised to relax environmental laws and regulations in exchange for $1 billion in campaign donations.
During his gubernatorial campaigns, some of Burgum’s largest donors came from the oil and gas industry. After winning the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2016, he raked in more than $100,000 in donations from oil and gas industries. As Governor, he was a major defender and proponent of oil and gas interests—including the approval of a controversial carbon capture project and playing a role in shutting down protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
It’s not just ties to big donors. Burgum’s own family benefits from fossil fuel interests. He leases his family properties for oil and gas extraction to Continental Resources and Hess. His wife owns up to $250,000 in individual stock in fossil fuel companies, including utilities, pipeline companies, and gold mining ventures. Americans need to be assured that public servants are working for the public good—not personal gain or corporate profits.
2. Burgum Did Not Face Rigorous Oversight from Senators Regarding Trump’s Executive Actions
Doug Burgum’s hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was held on January 16, four days before President Trump issued his executive orders laying out his Interior Department plans to prioritize oil and gas on public lands, while simultaneously gutting programs and progress to support renewable energy development. He didn’t have to face tough questions about their legality and implementation, nor explain how these policies support a so-called “all of the above” energy strategy he – and Donald Trump – promised to pursue.
These orders are designed to rob the American people of millions of acres of public lands and auction them off to the highest bidder for industry to plunder. This sweeping “energy dominance” agenda imperils lands in the western United States and Alaska and federal waters off coastal communities across the United States. Lawmakers should have had the opportunity to question Burgum directly to explain how he would implement the President’s executive orders while complying with the mission of the Interior Department’s conservation goals.
3. Burgum sees our nation’s public lands as our nation’s piggy bank.
Burgum repeatedly said in his Senate hearing that he sees our public lands and waters as merely America’s “balance sheet,” assigning a purely monetary value to some of our nation’s most iconic public spaces. Our public lands include more than 640 million acres of land that showcase the country’s diverse landscapes and ecosystems, comprise sacred and cultural sites, and are the centerpieces of a vibrant outdoor economy that drives nearly $887 Billion in annual consumer spending and provides jobs for over 7.6M people. These are not areas whose highest use should be to provide more profit for oil, gas, mining, and logging companies to get even richer amid their already record-breaking extraction, export levels, and profits. They must be protected for the use of current and future generations – not managed and exploited for industry gain. In his hearing, Burgum made it clear that he favors the latter.
4. Burgum has a terrible record on environmental, energy, and consumer issues.
One of Governor Burgum’s first executive orders was to shut down the indigenous-led, peaceful protests at the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Following the clearing of the protest camp, he signed several laws increasing legal penalties for protestors. The pipeline is currently operating without a key federal permit, and it is awaiting a final environmental assessment from the Army Corps of Engineers, which is expected in early 2025. Energy Transfer, the company behind the pipeline, donated to Burgum’s campaign following his actions against protesters.
As Governor, Burgum sued the Biden Administration over its public lands protections and has a history of opposing conservation efforts on public lands. During his time in office, North Dakota filed or joined legal challenges opposing several of the Biden Administration’s actions to protect the environment and public health, including a lawsuit forcing the Bureau of Land Management to hold more lease sales on public lands. He opposed the Biden Administration’s lifesaving air standards and opposed efforts by the Interior Department to put conservation uses for our public lands on par with the exploitation of resources. After challenging so many of the Interior Department’s conservation efforts and public lands protections, Burgum will now direct the very agency he’s taken to court.
Oversight and accountability don’t stop with Burgum’s confirmation. Congress has the constitutional duty to hold him accountable and ensure that his actions as Interior Secretary are in the best interest of people across this country to whom our public lands belong – not corporations. People don’t want more drilling in cherished places. They don’t want dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure running under family ranches through protected spaces. They don’t want fracking near fishing streams and hiking trails. The ‘energy emergency’ that has dominated Burgum and Trump’s energy policy is a myth, and it certainly should not be the justification for opening a drilling and mining bonanza on our public lands. The true emergencies are the ones unfolding daily in individuals’ lives as they contend with increasingly devastating wildfires and storms, toxic air and water, and species extinction that threaten our way of life. Every Interior Secretary should believe in these problems and recognize their responsibility to help solve them.
It is now up to Congress to ensure Secretary Burgum follows the rule of law, safeguards our natural heritage, and holds him accountable when he fails to adequately carry out his responsibilities to be a good steward of our public lands. Earthjustice Action, our partners, and our supporters will expect no less.
