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The White House is offering “concierge, white glove service” to fossil fuel companies seeking regulatory fast-tracks, while simultaneously slowing approvals for renewable energy projects, according to reporting by the Washington Post.
Brittany Kelm, senior policy adviser to the National Energy Dominance Council, described the council in a podcast as a “little tiger team” specifically designed to shepherd fossil fuel projects through the permit and bureaucratic maze. She said the team helps connect firms to the political appointees within agencies, monitors progress, and intervenes when projects get stalled. In one instance, she claims a permit that once might have taken 45 days was issued in just four.
The Trump administration created the National Energy Dominance Council earlier this year, placing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in charge, with a mandate to expand fossil fuel output and critical mineral extraction. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is slow-walking and in some cases blocking renewable energy projects. For example, all renewable projects on public lands must now be personally approved by Secretary Burgum, creating an intentional bottleneck.
Oil & Gas Government Shutdown Tracker
The Center for Western Priorities has launched a tracking tool to monitor the approval of federal onshore oil and gas drilling permits issued during the ongoing government shutdown.
President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have declared all federal employees who work on oil and gas as “essential,” while keeping national parks irresponsibly and illegally open despite furloughing thousands of park rangers and other federal land managers.
The tracker will be regularly updated and expanded to include federal oil and gas leases, if and when leases are issued during the shutdown.
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The federal government cannot claim to respect Tribal sovereignty while approving a project our people overwhelmingly oppose... This executive order retracts years of Tribal consultation on the Ambler industrial road and is another tactic of colonization. This would be genocide of the Inupiaq culture and people.”
