Trump Gives Secretary of the Interior Nominee a Three-Word Directive
President-elect Donald Trump has entrusted Doug Burgum, North Dakota’s governor and a figurehead from the oil-rich state, with a clear directive in nominating him to lead the Interior Department: “Drill, baby, drill.”
This mandate, highlighted in the announcement of Burgum’s selection for Secretary of the Interior, signals a potential resurgence of the legal battles over public lands and waters that marked Trump’s earlier term. Environmental groups, already alarmed about climate change, have pledged resistance to this agenda.
Burgum, a multimillionaire tech entrepreneur with roots on a family farm, enters the fray as a popular two-term governor. His self-identification with conservationist Teddy Roosevelt suggests an openness to collaboration rather than dismantling the agency he would lead, according to public lands experts.
Such a stance could smooth the path for his confirmation, enabling the new administration to expedite the expansion of public land use for development and commercial interests.
“Burgum strikes me as a credible nominee who could do a credible job as Interior secretary,” noted John Leshy, who served as the Interior Department’s solicitor under former President Bill Clinton.
“He’s not a right-wing radical on public lands,” Leshy added, now professor emeritus at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
The Interior Department oversees roughly 20% of U.S. land, balancing responsibilities that range from wildlife conservation and recreational activities to natural resource extraction and fulfilling treaty obligations to Native American tribes. Most of this land lies in the West, where disputes with private landowners and state officials frequently arise, at times escalating into violent clashes.
If confirmed, Burgum would inherit a U.S. Supreme Court case from Utah that challenges federal control over Interior Department lands. North Dakota’s attorney general has supported the lawsuit, but Burgum’s position on Utah’s claims remains unclear. On Thursday, Justice Department attorneys asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the case, emphasizing that Utah forfeited its rights to the disputed lands upon statehood in 1894.
Trump’s energy policy, which heavily prioritizes fossil fuels, mirrors his 2016 campaign rhetoric—though with a shift away from coal, a struggling industry he was unable to revive. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly referred to oil as “liquid gold,” while omitting significant mention of coal.
Currently, 26% of U.S. oil production comes from federal lands and offshore areas managed by the Interior Department. Industry representatives and Republican lawmakers are eager to see those numbers increase, urging Burgum to expand oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Alaska.
The oil industry also hopes that Trump’s efficiency reforms, spearheaded by Elon Musk, will lead to faster environmental reviews.
Under Biden’s administration, the frequency and scale of lease sales were reduced, and environmental protections weakened during Trump’s tenure were reinstated. As a candidate in 2020, Biden promised stricter regulations to combat climate change but later compromised with the 2022 climate bill, which mandated that offshore oil and gas leases precede renewable energy projects.
“Oil and gas brings billions of dollars of revenue in, but you don’t get that if you don’t have leasing,” said Erik Milito of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents industries involved in offshore oil and wind energy.
Although Trump has vowed to halt offshore wind projects, Milito expressed optimism that Burgum could clear the way for all energy initiatives, stating it would be “green lights ahead for everything, not just oil and gas.”
It remains uncertain whether Burgum would revive contentious policies from Trump’s first term, such as relocating senior officials away from Washington, D.C., curtailing the Endangered Species Act, or reducing the size of Utah’s national monuments established by Barack Obama. Biden officials reversed many of these measures, restoring the monuments and rescinding numerous Trump-era regulations. Onshore oil and gas lease sales dropped significantly—from over a million acres annually under Trump to just 91,712 acres last year—while renewable energy projects surged.
Though energy leases take years to develop, oil companies control millions of untapped acres. Meanwhile, North Dakota and other Republican-led states have challenged Biden’s public lands policies, accusing officials of using climate change measures to obstruct development, grazing, and other activities.
North Dakota’s oil production has soared over the last two decades, largely due to advancements in drilling technology. Burgum, a staunch advocate for the industry, last year signed a law repealing the state’s oil tax trigger—a price-based tax increase that industry leaders had pushed to eliminate.