|
The U.S. Senate voted 79 to 18 yesterday to confirm former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum as Interior Secretary, after his nomination sailed through the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Burgum is largely seen as a reasonable pick to run the Interior department, despite his tight connections to the oil and gas industry. In addition to helping Trump to secure campaign donations from Big Oil, he held a dinner for fossil fuel executives in North Dakota last year. He has repeatedly emphasized his support for "clean coal" over the course of his confirmation process, as well as pushed the idea that the U.S. has a deficit of "baseload energy" and a surfeit of "intermittent energy" as justification to pause renewable development and prop up fossil fuel extraction on public lands.
"Secretary Burgum has to decide if he will be a force for chaos or consistency on America’s public lands. When Donald Trump inevitably orders him to illegally revoke existing permits for renewable energy, will he have the spine to tell the president ‘no’? If oil and gas billionaires tell Burgum to ignore the bedrock laws that protect America’s lands, waters, and wildlife, will Burgum tell the oligarchs ‘no’?" Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer Rokala said in a statement.
|
“Finally, each of the senators who voted to confirm Doug Burgum today need to ask themselves the same questions. Will they exercise their constitutional duty to perform oversight? America will be watching.”
