Trump Interior nominee Burgum to head new Energy Council

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who was formally announced Friday as President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department, will play a key role in pushing the incoming president’s agenda to increase oil, natural gas and coal production on public lands.

In a statement, Mr. Trump said Mr. Burgum will also serve as chairman of the newly formed National Energy Council, which will consist of all departments and agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, transportation and regulation of all forms of American energy.

“This council will oversee the path to U.S. energy dominance by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the economy, and by focusing on Innovation over longstanding, but totally unnecessary regulation,” Mr. Trump said.

The president-elect argued that energy independence will drive down inflation and expand the country’s diplomatic clout to end wars around the world.

Mr. Trump wrote that the “radical Left’s war on American energy has hurt our allies by forcing them to buy from our adversities, who in turn use those profits to fund wars and terror,” U.S. energy “dominance,” he added, “will also allow us to sell energy to our friends, including all European nationals, which will make the world a safer place.”

In his term as governor, Mr. Burgum was a big booster of oil and natural gas drilling, leading to an economic boom in his state. Most of the drilling, however, occurred not on federal property but on private land such as the Baker oil field.

As secretary of the interior, Mr. Burgum will work to reverse President Biden’s focus on conservative and renewable energy policy, implemented by current Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

A multimillionaire former software company CEO and two-term governor, Mr. Burgum launched his own long-shot bid for the White House in June 2023. He made energy and natural resources the key platform of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

After taking the stage in the first two presidential debates, Mr. Burgum did not qualify for the third. He dropped out of the race last fall  and quickly endorsed Mr. Trump.

Mr. Burgum became a surrogate for Mr. Trump on the campaign trail and in the media. He also made the short list of potential Trump running mates, a slot that eventually went to Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.

If confirmed, Mr. Burgum is expected to emphasize increased energy production, economic growth and production of traditional fossil fuels. But the passage of Mr. Biden’s trillion-dollar health care, tax and climate law could present a complex challenge for Mr. Trump and Mr. Burgum.

The law’s provisions have deeply embedded clean-energy investments that would make a full repeal or extensive rollback challenging. With a Republican majority of 53 seats in the incoming Senate, Mr. Trump lacks the supermajority of 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.