Energy-Dominance Exponent Coasts Into Interior

EJ TransitionWatch: Energy-Dominance Exponent Coasts Into Interior

By Joseph A. Davis

The former governor of North Dakota, one of the biggest oil- and gas-producing states in the United States, is now in charge of the federal agency that controls the lion’s share of the public lands of the United States, with say-so over drilling on public lands and offshore waters.

Doug Burgum was confirmed Jan. 30 as the Trump administration’s secretary of the interior, gaining a wide margin of votes in the Senate, after sailing through a largely friendly Jan. 16 hearing before the Senate Energy Committee, which gave him its approval on Jan. 23.

 

Burgum will run Interior, which through

its various agencies manages most

federally owned U.S. land —

some 500 million acres.

 

Now he’ll run Interior, which through its various agencies manages most federally owned U.S. land — some 500 million acres — plus 1.7 billion acres of the outer continental shelf.

 

A surrogate for ‘energy dominance’

Not so long ago, Burgum was a Republic presidential primary challenger to Donald Trump. But he dropped out early and quickly became a Trump campaign surrogate, even standing outside a Manhattan courthouse supporting the president during his hush money trial.

Then-Gov. Burgum greets Trump in Fargo in 2018. Burgum took up the president's call for U.S. “energy dominance” during confirmation hearings in January. Photo: U.S. Air National Guard/Senior Master Sgt. David H Lipp via Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (public domain).

By the time he appeared before the Senate panel, he was echoing Trump’s insistence on “energy dominance,” even as the U.S. is already the world’s largest producer of crude oil and its largest exporter of natural gas.

Burgum, who has close oil industry ties, seemed to acknowledge the reality of human-made climate change, which he called a “global phenomenon.” But he maintained more fossil fuel production was needed, calling it the “foundation of American prosperity,” with any limits on it threatening U.S. national security.

Burgum will have a chance to stretch those limits, with Interior managing most U.S. offshore leasing. While former President Joe Biden put most of the U.S. coast off-limits to leasing and drilling through executive action Jan. 6, shortly before leaving office, Trump announced on Inauguration Day that he would undo that ban.

Offshore drilling opponents say Trump can’t easily undo Biden’s order, and the outcome is likely to be settled in court. It will hinge on the interpretation of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Meanwhile, Trump is a fierce enemy of wind farms — both offshore and onshore.

During his first term, few offshore wind farms were approved. Trump’s antipathy to what he calls “windmills” appears to stem from losing a case in which he tried to stop an offshore farm from “ruining” the view from one of his golf resorts in Scotland.

During Burgum’s confirmation hearings, Sen. Angus King, the Maine independent, asked the future secretary to help convince Trump to ease his opposition to wind, expressing concern over one offshore project in Maine. Burgum agreed that he would “certainly be taking a look at all of those and if it makes sense, and they’re already law, they’ll continue.”

 

Embroiled in Standing Rock protests

Also under Interior’s oversight is the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with many of the public lands the department administers taken from tribal nations and connected to tribal lands.

Burgum has a history with tribal lands, coming into his governorship in 2016 during the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The oil operation crossed tribal land and the Missouri River tributary system under Lake Oahe. Those waters were not only sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, part of the Great Sioux Nation, but a key drinking water source.

The protests drew Native Americans from all over the United States and forged them into a unified political movement — allied with the wider environmental movement.

 

It was noteworthy that Burgum’s

nomination drew what seemed

to be extensive tribal support.

 

So it was noteworthy that Burgum’s nomination drew what seemed to be extensive tribal support, prominently noted at the hearing. Burgum reportedly tried to de-escalate the physical confrontations at the water protectors’ camp.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who introduced Burgum at the hearing, shared letters of support from various tribes — including the Standing Rock Sioux. Hoeven said over 185 tribes supported Burgum. At the hearing, Burgum vowed to continue a strong consultative relationship with tribes on a nation-to-nation basis.

[Editor’s Note:  For more, see our Issue Backgrounders on public lands and offshore wind, as well as EJToday headlines on Burgum.]

Joseph A. Davis is a freelance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. who has been writing about the environment since 1976. He writes SEJournal Online's TipSheet, Reporter's Toolbox and Issue Backgrounder, and curates SEJ's weekday news headlines service EJToday and @EJTodayNews. Davis also directs SEJ's Freedom of Information Project and writes the WatchDog opinion column.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 10, No. 5. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.