Incoming US president Donald Trump has picked Doug Burgum to lead the Interior Department, incorporating a czar-like role to oversee – among other things – pushing federal government initiatives to encourage more energy production.
Trump had repeatedly praised the North Dakota Governor and self-made multimillionaire’s energy expertise during the campaign, saying he “probably knows more about energy than anybody I know”.
Burgum will lead a new National Energy Council, giving the new appointee a seat on the National Security Council, and according to a statement from Trump on Monday he will “oversee the path to US energy dominance”.
In his statement, Trump said the council will seek to help the US expand all types of energy production, in part as a response to the needs of energy-hungry AI data centres and servers.
The council is an executive body, and according to a White House statement, acts as the "president’s principal forum for national security and foreign policy decision making with his or her senior national security advisors and cabinet officials".
The appointment of Burgum will also solidify Trump’s campaign call to ‘drill baby, drill’, and expand US oil and gas (O&G) production. Under Joe Biden’s leadership, the US became the world’s largest O&G producer, reaching new record output levels in 2024, thanks in part to the shale boom initiated during Trump's first term.
Commenting before the pick had been made official, Paul Hasselbrinck, senior energy analyst at Offshore Technology’s parent company, GlobalData, said: “Given Trumps picks so far, prioritising fealty over anything, [Burgum's] profile could be the most likely candidate to oversee his energy agenda”.
Burgum, a Trump loyalist, guided the president-elect on energy issues through his campaign trail. He is a staunch advocate for the fossil fuel industry and has often criticised clean energy policies such as subsidies for electric vehicles.
He has advanced O&G activities in his state, especially promoting development in the Bakken region and supporting the Dakota Access Pipeline. He has also called for expanding O&G drilling and rare earth metal mining on Bureau of Land Management lands.
Simultaneously, Burgum believed in making North Dakota carbon-neutral by 2030.
His plans to achieve this, however, vastly differ from conventional approaches. He stated in an interview with Future Farmer in 2021 that his plan “includes no mandates, no regulations and no pressure for any individual company or producer to change to what we are already doing [with fossil fuels]”.
Trump has also chosen oil and gas industry CEO Chris Wright as his next energy secretary, with the incoming leader seemingly intent on fulfilling his election promise to increase exploration and production.
Wright will head up the US Department of Energy once Trump is inaugurated in January.
