Doug Burgum confirmed as interior secretary | FOX 7 Austin

Doug Burgum confirmed as interior secretary

Billionaire Doug Burgum has been confirmed as the interior secretary. 

On Thursday, lawmakers voted 79-18 in favor of Burgum to lead President Donald Trump’s administration and its ambition to boost fossil fuel production. 

Who is Doug Burgum? 

Dig deeper:


Burgum, 68, is a wealthy software industry entrepreneur who came from a small North Dakota farming community, where he worked at his family’s grain elevator. 

He served two terms as the state’s governor and launched a presidential campaign in 2023 but dropped out and quickly endorsed his boss. 

Burgum eagerly assisted the energy industry during his time as governor, when he was also profiting from the lease of family land to oil companies, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota and US secretary of the interior nominee for US President-elect Donald Trump, during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (Credit

What will Burgum do in the role? 

Trump has picked Burgum to chair a new National Energy Council which is tasked with achieving American "energy dominance." 

Burgum would also have a seat on the National Security Council which is a first for the interior secretary. 

Trump has directed Burgum to make it even easier for energy companies to tap fossil fuel resources, including from public lands. 

The U.S. currently produces more crude oil than any nation in history, according to the Energy Information Administration. More cost-effective technology in recent decades drove drilling booms in states including New Mexico, Texas and North Dakota, where vast expanses of rural farmland have been industrialized by oil and gas companies. 

The Interior Department has jurisdiction over a half-billion acres of federal land and vast areas offshore. Those areas produce about one-quarter of U.S. oil annually. 

The interior secretary also oversees the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management and other subagencies.

The other side:


Environmentalists and some Democrats showed alarm over the new administration’s ambitions as greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels continue to bake the planet. 

Burgum’s confirmation

Bugrum said the U.S. can use energy development as leverage to promote peace and to lower consumer costs during his confirmation hearing. 

He raised concerns about the reliability of renewable power sources promoted under former President Joe Biden, and said the U.S. needs to generate more electricity from sources such as coal and nuclear that can run constantly.

What they're saying:

"He’s going to take the common-sense action of unlocking our lands for oil and for gas production," Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said He added that more than 600,000 acres of land in Wyoming have been approved for energy production but were not offered for development by the Biden administration.

The other side:


Democrats in response accused the Trump administration of abandoning an "all of the above" energy policy to favor fossil fuels. 

"They said wind is dead on the offshore. They are trying to do as much of this as possible to create demand for coal, for fossil gas," Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz said during a Thursday floor speech.

The Source: Information for this article was gathered from The Associated Press. This story was reported from Los Angeles.

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