Doug Burgum, Trump’s Interior Pick, Targets ‘Energy Dominance’

Walleye bread, peach cobbler and wine donated by North Dakota’s top energy lobby group were on the menu in May when Doug invited oil and gas executives to his home. Burgum, then governor.

The guest of honor: Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of Continental Resources, one of the nation’s leading independent oil companies.

He often attended the political events of Mr. He is Burgum. Mr. Burgum again spoke at a banquet honoring Mr. Hamm, writing a glowing blurb for his memorial and comparing him to an official speech by former President Theodore Roosevelt.

Now, Mr. Burgum is President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to lead the Department of the Interior and coordinate energy policy across government agencies. When he went before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday, Mr. Burgum’s ties to oil and gas executives like Mr. Hamm is expected to ask questions. Democrats and activists say they are concerned about how much the industry is influencing politics.

“Governor Burgum’s close friendship and financial ties to billionaire oil and gas executive Harold Hamm present a stark contrast to the nominee to oversee the federal oil and gas leasing program,” said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, a watchdog group.

Mr. Trump campaigned on the promise of “drill, baby, drill.” He said he wants to facilitate the extraction of natural resources, build new oil and gas pipelines and export terminals and stop the development of wind energy, which competes with fossil fuels.

During last year’s election campaign, Mr. Burgum, 68, acted as a mediator between Mr. Trump and fossil fuel executives who poured more than $75 million into his quest to retake the White House. He said that as interior secretary, he plans to achieve “energy dominance”.

The United States already produces and exports large amounts of oil and gas.

The Department of the Interior has a budget of about $18 billion and is responsible for managing millions of acres of public lands and waters, protecting wildlife, maintaining national parks and monuments, and overseeing most tribal programs.

A former multimillionaire Microsoft executive, Mr. Burgum was elected governor of North Dakota in 2016, running against what he called the “good old boy” establishment of the Republican Party. Once he won, oil companies including Continental Resources became the top donors to his inauguration, The Associated Press reported at the time. He eventually served two terms, leaving office in December.

In recent years, ties between Mr. Burgum and oil executives such as Mr. Hamm, according to public meetings and other documents obtained by Fieldnotes, an oil and gas research group, and provided to The New York Times.

The link is not only political. Mr.’s family leases land from Continental Resources and Hess Corp., other oil and gas companies. Burgum, to lease oil and gas, according to corporate filings and federal financial disclosures first reported by CNBC. Mr. Burgum earned between $15,000 and $50,000 from the lease, the report said.

Nonprofit media organizations, The Dakota Monitor and ProPublica, reported last year that Mr. Burgum was elected about 20 times to the state Industrial Commission, which oversees the energy regulatory oversight, on matters that benefited Continental and Hess.

Asked last year about the lease agreement, Michael Nowatzki, a spokesman for the governor at the time, said it was before Mr. Burgum took office and added that “tens of thousands of families and mineral owners are have a similar program”. Mr Burgum said in a financial disclosure report, made public on Tuesday, that he would give up his family rental property if confirmed.

Continental did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the statement, Mr. Burgum earned more than $2 million last year from family businesses as well as investments in real estate and software companies.

Mark S. Jendrysik, a political science professor at the University of North Dakota, noted that half of the state’s budget comes from energy and said it is unusual for officials to have close ties to the oil and gas industry.

“It’s a small state, it’s hard not to have what people perceive as a conflict of interest,” said Mr. Jendrysik. North Dakota, he said, is “a single state, and the lines between the private and public sectors are blurred.”

Mr. Burgum, he said, was a well-liked and well-regarded moderate who took a standard Republican position against government regulation, particularly in the energy sector.

In 2023, Mr. Burgum made a long-shot bid for the presidency. He soon left and supported Mr. Trump, but along the way gave Mr. mine 250,000 dollars. Ham.

Rob Lockwood, an adviser to Mr. Burgum, dismissed concerns that Mr. Burgum to Mr. Hamm or other industry leaders could create a conflict in the role of interior secretary.

“American families can count on outdoor enthusiast Doug Burgum to deliver on President Trump’s vision of energy dominance, reducing inflation and strengthening national security,” said Mr. Lockwood in a statement.