Trump Picks Doug Burgum to Lead Interior, RFK Jr. for HHS

November 15, 2024

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by Isaac Arnsdorf (Washington Post) Donald Trump said during his speech at Mar-a-Lago he would name North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to lead the Interior Department. A formal announcement will come on Friday, he said. READ MORE

Related artices (see also White House for information about other appointments)

Excerpt from E&E News Energywire: The pick of Burgum, whose state ranks third in the nation for production of crude oil, underscores Trump’s commitment to increasing drilling access across federal lands.

“We are going to do things with energy and land — Interior — that is incredible,” Trump said Thursday night at the America First Policy Institute gala, where he announced his plans to nominate Burgum. “He’s going to head the Department of Interior, and he’s going to be fantastic.”

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Burgum is a wealthy former software executive who was elected governor in 2016. He came into political office with no energy sector experience.

But North Dakota is among the states most transformed by the shale drilling boom that started around 2010 and spread around the country. Burgum recognized how important oil and gas had become for the state and the nation, said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council in an interview before the Interior announcement Thursday.

Ness said Burgum was a quick study.

“It’s quite been interesting to watch him over time become just an absolute oil and gas expert, in terms of how to move energy policy and what it means to our country,” he said.

Burgum touts the advantages of domestic oil and gas production and says he believes in “innovation over regulation.”

Burgum was a harsh critic of the Biden administration’s efforts to tackle climate change. But his views don’t mimic those of Trump, who dismisses human-made warming as a “hoax.” Burgum is far less combative, avoiding the topic of how fossil fuels drive climate change. He pledged to make his state carbon-neutral by the end of the decade.

He wants to achieve carbon neutrality not by cutting back on fossil fuel use but by burying the carbon dioxide they produce underground — a technology the Biden administration is also pushing. It’s at the center of EPA’s proposed rule to slash power plant carbon emissions.

Under Burgum, North Dakota became the first state granted primacy by EPA to oversee specialized injection wells for CO2, and the state is the endpoint for pipeline developer Summit Carbon’s planned $8 billion project to transport CO2 from dozens of Midwest ethanol plants.

“He’s not going to be all fossil fuel, but he’s not gonna be about an energy transition either. He’s about trying to essentially create ‘fossil fuel light’ through carbon capture,” said Scott Skokos, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council, in an interview before Burgum’s nomination announcement. “That’s what I would say is the No. 1 policy you’re gonna see from him.”

Burgum has also been an advocate of hydrogen and hydrogen hubs, another contrast with Trump, who has derided hydrogen cars as prone to exploding. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Power Switch: Doug Burgum is now at the center of American energy and climate policy.

In addition to tapping the North Dakota governor as Interior Department chief, President-elect Donald Trump today picked him to fill a new energy czar position. That could give the wealthy former software executive sweeping influence over federal agencies to advance Trump’s energy agenda, writes Heather Richards.

Trump said in a statement that the proposed National Energy Council that Burgum will helm “will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy.”

Burgum takes on the roles at a time when the technology industry’s voracious energy demand for AI-driven data centers could further strain the electric grid and upend U.S. climate goals.

Burgum was elected North Dakota governor in 2016 and made oil and natural gas production a priority. If confirmed by the Senate, Burgum — who had a short-lived campaign for president this year — would oversee a sprawling department of roughly 70,000 employees that manages the nation’s public lands and its vast energy resources, write Heather, Mike Soraghan and Shelby Webb.

While North Dakota ranks third in the nation for production of crude oil, it does not include much federal land or minerals. Less than 4 percent of the state is federally managed. Burgum’s affinity for fossil fuels and lack of conservation experience has enraged environmentalists.

Kierán Suckling, executive director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said Burgum will “sacrifice our public lands and endangered wildlife on the altar of the fossil fuel industry’s profits.”

Still, Burgum’s energy views differ somewhat from Trump’s stance that climate change is a “hoax.” While he largely avoids the topic of what is primarily driving climate change (answer: human activity), Burgum has pledged to make North Dakota carbon-neutral by decade’s end. His strategy for achieving that goal is using carbon capture and storage technology, which the Biden administration is also betting on to meet its climate targets.

Under Burgum’s leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency granted North Dakota the primary responsibility for overseeing specialized underground wells in which to inject carbon dioxide — the first state to win that right. And North Dakota is the endpoint for an $8 billion carbon pipeline project to transport CO2 from Midwest ethanol plants.

Plus, Burgum has also advocated hydrogen energy. In contrast, Trump has slammed hydrogen-powered cars as prone to exploding.

For a deeper dive into Burgum’s record on energy, working with Tribal communities and conservation, check out this story by Heather, Scott Streater, Jennifer Yachnin and Hannah Northey. READ MORE

Excerpt from Washington Post: The president-elect said Burgum would lead a new National Energy Council comprising all agencies and departments involved in the production, regulation and transportation of “ALL forms of American Energy.”

“This Council will oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the Economy, and by focusing on INNOVATION over long-standing, but totally unnecessary, regulation,” he added.

Trump has been transparent about what he expects from Burgum: an evisceration of the rules and policies that speed the nation’s shift away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner energy sources. The president-elect’s plans include revoking limits on planet-warming pollution from cars and power plants, ending a “pause” on new exports of liquefied natural gas, and abdicating America’s leadership role in global climate negotiations.

Trump’s priorities on energy are so expansive that his appointees are unlikely to address all of them in the next four years, said Andrew Wheeler, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency for 2½ years during the first Trump administration.

“There is a long laundry list,” Wheeler said Thursday at a Washington event held by the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. “There is going to have to be a triage.”

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In appointing an energy czar, Trump followed in the footsteps of two Democratic presidents. President Barack Obama first established the role of a White House climate and energy adviser to help broker a deal on greenhouse gas standards for cars and trucks, and President Joe Biden tapped a climate czar to coordinate his administration’s ambitious climate agenda.

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Among Trump’s biggest targets are restrictions on power plant emissions and auto industry mandates that push companies to manufacture more electric vehicles.

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Trump has said that he wants to eliminate all of that funding, which he calls the “green new scam.”

But the subsidies are driving major investment in red states, where Republican governors are using the tax breaks to lure factories that make electric vehicles and other clean-energy components, as well as oil company investment in nascent technologies that capture and store carbon dioxide.

Among those planned investments is a major pipeline in Burgum’s home state. Burgum is working to help the oil tycoon Harold Hamm, a close ally and fellow Trump confidant, move the project forward. The pipeline would be used to ship and store greenhouse gases that are trapped during fossil fuel production and stored underground. Burgum’s appointment could give Hamm influence over policy related to drilling on public lands.

Ending the clean-energy subsidies, meanwhile, would require congressional approval, and several Republican lawmakers have already cautioned Trump against their wholesale elimination. The GOP’s narrow majority in the House could make any changes to the incentives a heavy lift.

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Also in Burgum’s portfolio will be overseeing the rebirth of the domestic nuclear energy industry.

Shortages of other forms of zero-emission energy have renewed interest in nuclear plants, with tech companies eager to lock down as much of it as they can to fuel their energy-hungry data centers. READ MORE

Excerpt from Renewable Fuels Association: President-elect Donald Trump has announced that North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, in addition to joining his administration as Interior Secretary, will chair the new National Energy Council. The following is a statement from Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper.

“We applaud the formation of the National Energy Council and the appointment of Governor Burgum as its chairman. He fully understands the importance of adopting an all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes renewable fuels, carbon capture and sequestration, and other innovative approaches to energy and economic security. We look forward to working with him in this new capacity. For far too long, federal agencies have operated in siloes when it comes to energy policy and regulation—we are excited by the prospect of bringing better coordination and collaboration to these important issues.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico: Burgum, a self-made multimillionaire, had been wary of taking on a role of “energy czar,” according to people familiar with his thinking, and instead had sought a position that came with formal power. This role atop the new council will combine the authority of the cabinet position with the broad reach across the top other agencies.

“There was buzz about Trump having an energy czar,” said Bob McNally, president of energy consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group. “We just saw a czar appointed.”

David Goldwyn, chair of the energy advisory group at the Atlantic Council think tank and a former State Department official in the Obama administration, said combining the two roles for Burgum showed how much influence he would have in the administration, but it could also could stretch him across the broad energy portfolio.

“I cannot recall another [similar] circumstance, other than perhaps when Henry Kissinger was both national security advisor and secretary of state,” he said. ”But both of those jobs have serious administrative and coordination responsibilities. So the deputy jobs both at interior and on the new Council will be very important.”

Trump said in his announcement the effort would expand all types of energy — including growing U.S. electricity supplies to cut consumer costs and meet the demands of the raft of new energy-hungry AI data centers.

The National Energy Council “will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy,” Trump said.

The council will also “ensure that America has the power to serve all of our needs without the devastation of blackouts and brownouts, and to WIN the battle for A.I. superiority, which is key to National Security and our Nation’s Prosperity,” Trump added.

The energy council could be a more institutionalized version of initiatives by earlier White Houses to create an all-of-government approach to coordinating policy, but it could also lead to tension between Burgum and other department heads.

“Anytime you establish a policy coordination body at the White House, there will be natural tension with principles in agencies,” Rapidan’s McNally said. “It’s like herding cats a little bit, but it should minimize tensions so you either get to consensus or tee up pros and cons for the president to make a decision.”

The dual role idea won plaudits from North Dakota GOP Sen. Kevin Cramer, a Burgum ally, who said he had been wary of limiting him to a czar position.

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Trump has made clear that a focus of his second administration would be to complete permitting reform that has struggled to gain bipartisan traction in Congress during the Biden administration. Fossil fuel companies and renewable energy companies alike have complained that critical infrastructure they need to get fuel and electricity to market takes too long to win federal approval.

Plans by tech companies to roll out a fleet of AI data centers in recent months are starting to drive a huge increase in electricity demand. That’s prompted utilities to warn that the huge power consumption from those plants could strain the power grid and lead to power shortages. Microsoft and other companies investing in AI to explore using nuclear power plants to meet their growing energy needs.

The architecture of Burgum’s role in the National Energy Council appears to mirror the roles Gina McCarthy and John Kerry occupied for Biden — plus a base for Burgum at Interior. READ MORE

Excerpt from Heatmap Plus: But Ramaswamy and RFK Jr.’s presence is providing cold comfort compared to the selection of North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum – a vocal supporter of the project – to be Interior Secretary.

“We’re screwed,” wrote Dawn Shepard, a North Dakotan opposed to the project, on Facebook after the selection was announced. “He will get all Carbon Capture projects approved. I thought Republicans and Trump, included, didn’t believe in climate change. Trump’s not keeping his word.”

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“Those appointments are definitely a big thumb on the scale of the pipeline going through,” said Mark Hefflinger of Bold Alliance, one of the activist networks fighting the pipeline project.

In my conversations with activists and the company, it doesn’t appear there’s any easy way for the Interior Department – which oversees all federal land use – to grease all of the skids for Summit, so to speak. But there are a number of factors in its favor now: the pipeline will still require Army Corps of Engineers permits for water body crossings and those tend to require environmental reviews that heavily involve Interior. At the same time, all sides expect the Interior Secretary and likely Energy Secretary Chris Wright (an oil magnate) to champion beneficial Inflation Reduction Act tax credits for carbon capture, sequestration, and utilization in tax talks early next year.

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Trump’s comments on the matter have been vague, indicating he’s … well, being very Trump about this. “Well, you know, we’re working on that,” Trump said when asked about the pipeline at an Iowa primary event last year. “And you know, we had a plan to totally — it’s such a ridiculous situation, isn’t it? But we had a plan, and we would have instituted that plan, and it was all ready, but we will get it — if we win, that’s going to be taken care of. That will be one of the easy things we do.”

Ultimately it may be with many issues: whoever’s in the room last with Trump could decide the pipeline’s fate.

All the while, most state-level regulators have finished or are completing approvals of the pipeline, with the exception of South Dakota where Summit on Tuesday resubmitted its permitting application to the state’s Public Utilities Commission.

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But unlike how some farmers skeptically view agri-voltaics (e.g. dual use solar), the thought of a pipeline beneath the earth gives Bones (Walt Bones, the former head of South Dakota’s Agriculture Department) – a former farm regulator – no qualms. And the reasoning is simple: He doesn’t believe the pipeline, which will be buried, will impact his farming at all. And ethanol – unlike solar or wind – will feed demand for more farming.

“Basically zero impact to our land. We’ll still be able to farm over it. We’ll still be able to graze over it with our cows,” he said. “I know what the value is … [it’ll] guarantee the future viability of corn.” READ MORE