Trump selects Burgum as Interior Secretary
Donald Trump, the president-elect, announced on Thursday that North Dakota governor Doug Burgum will be his choice for Interior Secretary. Burgum is a former wealthy software executive.
Trump, dressed in a tuxedo, said that the Department of Interior would be headed by him. He added that an announcement would be made on Friday.
Burgum has presented himself as a conservative businessman who is traditional. He was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president before quitting. Now he is a Trump loyalist, attending fundraisers and promoting Trump on TV.
Trump made his longest remarks yet since his victory speech at the presidential election, when he praised his cabinet members and praised Elon Musk (tech billionaire), Sylvester Stallone (actor), and his new picks.
Trump said that nobody knew how we would win.
Trump's selection of a number of loyalists who have little or no experience in the cabinet has stunned some allies, and made it clear that Trump is serious about reshaping and testing America's institutions.
More Oil and Gas Production
The Secretary of Interior will be responsible for directing policies that guide the use of more than 500 million acres of federal land and tribal lands, which is a fifth the surface area of the United States.
Biden has made the agency a central part of his climate change agenda, boosting the approvals for offshore wind and solar projects and creating a leasing program for conservation lands in the same manner as they are leased for development.
Burgum will be expected to increase oil, gas, and mineral production in federal waters and lands.
This would involve increasing the number of new leases in the Gulf of Mexico, and on federal land in oil producing states such as Wyoming and New Mexico.
Biden had promised to stop federal leasing for new oil extraction, but the courts prevented him from doing so. Interior leadership under Trump could scrap Biden's five-year offshore drilling plan, which had a historically low number of auctions scheduled, and step up acreage offered at Congressionally-mandated onshore sales.
About a quarter (25%) of the U.S. gas and oil production is attributed to drilling activity in federal waters and on federal lands.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, data shows that the number of drilling permits on federal lands declined 16% between fiscal 2020 (the last year of Trump’s first administration) and fiscal 2023. The area of new onshore leases dropped by 95%. Reporting by Steve Holland and Alexandra Ulmer; editing by Edwina gibbs.
(source: Reuters)
