{"id":2495,"date":"2024-11-15T14:32:49","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T14:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/hill-republicans-rejoice-over-burgum-pick-for-interior\/"},"modified":"2024-11-15T14:32:49","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T14:32:49","slug":"hill-republicans-rejoice-over-burgum-pick-for-interior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/hill-republicans-rejoice-over-burgum-pick-for-interior\/","title":{"rendered":"Hill Republicans rejoice over Burgum pick for Interior"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for Interior secretary, he announced at a gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida Thursday night.<\/p>\n

“I won’t tell you his name, might be something like Burgum, Burgum, … he’s gonna be announced tomorrow for a very big position,” Trump said Thursday evening. “he’s going to head the Department of Interior, and he’s gonna be fantastic. Good Doug.”<\/p>\n

A two-term governor of a Western oil-rich state with five tribal nations, Burgum is already receiving a warm reception from Republicans on Capitol Hill, who for four years have slammed President Joe Biden’s energy policies. Democrats will be unhappy with his promises to ramp up fossil fuel production but could be less critical of him because of his experience.<\/p>\n

Republicans who sit on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee were quick to praise the nomination.<\/p>\n

Current ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said of Burgum: “He recognizes how important our federal lands are for energy and mineral production, grazing and recreation. As North Dakota\u2019s governor, he\u2019s shown he can balance environmental stewardship with record energy development.”<\/p>\n

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said Burgum “has been a great partner as we\u2019ve worked to build North Dakota\u2019s energy leadership, and in this role, [he] can help to not only restore American energy security, but make America energy-dominant.”<\/p>\n

The nomination will likely come as welcome news to many other senators, like Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who hoped Trump would pick a Westerner.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys who know the issues,\u201d Sullivan said earlier this week. \u201cYou gotta have a Westerner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both of Trump’s Interior secretaries in his first term also heaped praise on Burgum. One of them, Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who now serves in the House, said Burgum was an ally.<\/p>\n

“When I was secretary he was a trusted partner advancing the president\u2019s priorities on energy dominance, rolling back the regulatory overreach of the Obama Administration, and ensuring we strike the right balance regarding the multiple uses of our federal lands,” in a post to X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If he’s confirmed, Burgum, a businessman who became North Dakota governor in 2016 and had a short-lived campaign for the presidency in 2024, will control the country’s public lands and wildlife conservation and have broad authority over oil and gas drilling leases.<\/p>\n

As a presidential candidate and Trump surrogate who was once considered for vice president, Burgum has called for expanded energy and mineral production on public lands and has been a chief messenger against Democratic energy and public lands policies.<\/p>\n

Democrats are likely to pounce on Burgum’s calls for increased energy production during the confirmation process. But at least one top Democrats is taking a wait-and-see approach with Burgum.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould be worse for sure,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Natural Resources Committee. “I look forward to trying to work productively with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Environmental advocacy groups, however, are already coming out against Burgum’s nomination, claiming he will sacrifice public lands and wildlife for the fossil fuel industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cBurgum will be a disastrous Secretary of the Interior who\u2019ll sacrifice our public lands and endangered wildlife on the altar of the fossil fuel industry\u2019s profits,\u201d said Kier\u00e1n Suckling, executive director at the Center for Biological Diversity.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike Musk, Burgum is an oligarch completely out of touch with the overwhelming majority of Americans who cherish our natural heritage and don\u2019t want our parks, wildlife refuges and other special places carved up and destroyed.”<\/p>\n

Suckling said, “We\u2019re ready to fight Burgum and Trump\u2019s extreme agenda every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andres Picon contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for Interior secretary, he announced at a gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida Thursday night. “I won’t tell you his name, might be something like Burgum, Burgum, … he’s gonna be announced tomorrow for a very big position,” Trump said Thursday evening. “he’s going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}