Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), President-elect Donald Trump’s choose to guide the huge Division of the Inside, invoked President Theodore Roosevelt in pitching himself for the job of managing lots of of hundreds of thousands of acres of federal lands and waters.
“In our time, President Trump’s energy dominance can be America’s big stick that will be leveraged to achieve historic prosperity and world peace,” Burgum mentioned throughout his affirmation listening to Thursday, referencing the twenty sixth president’s quote from a 1900 letter to “speak softly and carry a big stick.”
It was a web page from the playbook of Trump’s first Inside Division chief, Ryan Zinke, who pledged — and failed — to go away a conservation legacy that rivaled that of Roosevelt.
If confirmed to guide the Inside Division, Burgum will play a key position in finishing up Trump’s plan to spice up fossil gas drilling and different extraction throughout federal lands, in addition to to dismantle environmental laws. The billionaire software program entrepreneur and two-term governor touted Trump’s so-called “energy dominance” imaginative and prescient throughout his opening assertion Thursday earlier than the Senate Vitality and Pure Sources Committee.
“The American people have clearly placed their confidence in President Trump to achieve energy dominance,” Burgum mentioned. “That’s the foundation of American prosperity, affordability for American families and unrivaled national security.”
Al Drago/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos
Burgum mentioned the US produces power “cleaner, smarter and safer than anywhere in the world,” and that the Trump administration would prioritize business innovation over regulation.
“When energy production is restricted in America, it doesn’t reduce demand, It just shifts production to countries like Russia and Iran, whose autocratic leaders not only don’t care at all about the environment, but they use their revenues from energy sales to fund wars against us and our allies,” Burgum mentioned. “President Trump’s energy dominance vision will end those wars abroad, will make life more affordable for every family in America by driving down inflation. And President Trump will achieve those goals while championing clean air, clean water and protecting our beautiful lands.”
Burgum obtained a heat welcome from each side of the political aisle and largely escaped hard-hitting questions from committee Democrats. Although Democrats pressed the Cupboard nominee on quite a lot of points, together with local weather change, renewable power and the safety of nationwide monuments, they didn’t ask about his private monetary ties to grease tycoon and GOP mega-donor Harold Hamm or his state’s help of a Utah lawsuit aimed toward wresting management of hundreds of thousands of acres of public land from the federal authorities.
On nationwide monuments, Burgum signaled that the Trump administration is more likely to once more goal websites protected underneath the Antiquities Act. The 1906 legislation was signed by Roosevelt and offers presidents unilateral authority to designate nationwide monuments on federal lands. Eighteen presidents have used the Antiquities Act to designate 167 monuments.
“Its original intention was really to protect, as it says, antiquities, areas like, I would say, Indiana Jones-type archeological protections,” Burgum mentioned.
Trump and different Republicans have accused President Joe Biden and different current presidents of abusing the legislation’s language, which states monuments must be “confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management.” It’s an argument that conveniently ignores the truth that many early monuments, together with ones Roosevelt created, spanned lots of of hundreds of acres.
Throughout his first time period in workplace, Trump shrank the scale of two sweeping nationwide monuments in Utah — the biggest rollback of nationwide monuments in U.S. historical past — following a controversial monument evaluate that Zinke led.
Burgum informed Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), chair of the committee, that he seems ahead to working with him on the problem of nationwide monuments. Lee has decried monument designations in his state and has a protracted historical past of opposing federal management of public lands within the West.
Throughout the listening to, Burgum sympathized with Republican senators who voiced frustration with what they view because the federal authorities’s use of guidelines, land designations and wildlife administration plans to limit power exploration and different improvement on federal lands.
One in every of extra stunning moments got here when Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) requested Burgum if he would proceed supporting out of doors recreation by way of funding for the decades-old Land and Water Conservation Fund, or LWCF, which makes use of offshore fossil gas income to determine and defend parks, wildlife refuges, forests and wildlife habitat. Throughout his first time period, Trump’s administration repeatedly tried to intestine funding for LWCF.
The Countdown To Trump Is On
Already contributed? Log in to cover these messages.
Burgum, a hunter and out of doors fanatic, mentioned he absolutely helps boosting out of doors recreation alternatives, noting it’s good for each human well being and the financial system. However when pressed about LWCF, Burgum indicated he hadn’t heard of the favored program.
“Some of those acronyms I’m less familiar with, so I’d look forward to learning more about them,” he mentioned.
