Burgum ran in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. He then became a vocal supporter of Preesident-elect Donald Trump and was shortlisted for the GOP vice presidential nomination.
President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday night that he will nominate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to be secretary of the Department of the Interior.
“He’s going to head the Department of Interior, and it’s going to be fantastic, Trump said in a speech during an America First Policy Institute dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort. He said there will be a formal announcement on Friday.
“We’re going to do things with energy and with land interior that is going to be incredible”, Trump said.
As secretary, Burgum will play a key role in pushing Trump’s agenda to increase oil, gas and coal production on public lands.
Interior is a sprawling department responsible for managing 20% of U.S. surface land, as well as federally owned mineral rights. This gives Interior control over nearly a quarter of all energy development in America, on- and off-shore.
Burgum is known as a big booster of oil and gas drilling. Though his state’s boom has mostly occurred on private land such as the Bakken oil field. Historically, interior secretaries have generally come from western states with large tracts of federal public land, while North Dakota is only about 4% federally owned.
