Former North Dakota governor and millionaire software executive Doug Burgum will serve as Secretary of the Interior in the second Trump Administration. Burgum was easily confirmed by the U.S. Senate yesterday in a bipartisan vote.
In his role as Interior Secretary, Burgum will preside over the nation’s largest land- and resource-management agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Bureau of Reclamation. He replaces Deb Haaland, the first Native American Interior Secretary, who served the Biden Administration. Trump also appointed Burgum to lead the newly created National Energy Council, a non-governmental group that will guide energy-related policies implemented by various federal agencies.
That role has given Burgum the nickname of “energy czar” because of his outsize influence on energy policy and domestic production. Trump has pledged to “Drill, baby, drill” in pursuit of record levels of domestic energy “dominance.” Much of that drilling will take place on public lands that Burgum, as Interior Secretary, will oversee.
His sweeping influence over land that’s also enjoyed by millions of Americans who hunt, hike, fish, and camp on gives some conservation leaders pause.
“I’d describe our outlook as cautious but concerned” given Burgum’s close connection with the oil and gas industry when he was North Dakota governor, says the leader of a hunting advocacy group who asked not to be named because they expect to have a close working relationship with Trump’s Interior Department. “We think he’s a good choice because he knows the issues, he’s a political realist, and he’s fully aware of the trade-offs between full-on energy production and conservation implications.”
Unlike many of Trump’s appointees, Burgum faced no real opposition in winning Senate confirmation by a 79-18 margin. Ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, New Mexico Democrat Martin Heinrich, voted for Burgum because, as he puts it, “I have found that a healthy relationship with the Secretary of the Interior is critical to securing the best outcomes for the State of New Mexico.”
Heinrich noted that, as ranking member he is “focused on holding the incoming Interior Secretary accountable to keep public lands in public hands, address climate change, bolster outdoor recreation, and protect tribal sovereignty.”
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Burgum is a North Dakota native who built a successful software firm that he later sold to Microsoft for a reported $1.1 billion. He was elected governor twice, and declined to run for a third term. Instead, he ran for president, ending his candidacy in late 2023. He became a vocal supporter of Trump, who announced in November that he would appoint Burgum as Interior Secretary as well as chair of the National Energy Council. As governor, Burgum reportedly had a close relationship with North Dakota’s $40 billion energy industry.
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