Congressional Hearing Summary Nomination of Doug Burgum Secretary of the Interior
On January 16th, 2025, the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources Committee held a hearing entitled, “Hearing to Consider the Nomination of the Honorable Doug Burgum to be Secretary of the Interior” lasting approximately three hours. The atmosphere was supportive by all the Republican members, but the Democratic and Independent members voiced concerns over Governor Burgum’s views regarding energy.
Overall Impression
Summary: The hearing began with Chairman Senator Lee (R-UT) discussing poor land management and bureaucratic delays caused by the failures of the Biden administration. Ranking Member Heinrich (D-NM) stressed the important role the next Secretary of the Interior will play in the country’s energy future. All senators raised a variety of issues relating to increasing energy demand, conservation efforts, tribal agreements, federal land use, climate change, and housing. Governor Burgum shared in his opening statement that he plans to carry out Trump’s view of “energy dominance” and emphasized the necessity of this for the prosperity and security of the country. Although Burgum faced some opposition on his energy views, he received approval from both sides for his conservation efforts and willingness to work with Indian groups on federal lands.
Republican Position: Generally, Republicans agreed on the need to lessen the burden from the regulatory system through permitting reform. Republican members also voiced concerns over government overreach regarding restriction of land use due to federal ownership.
Democratic Position: The Democrats were generally concerned by Governor Burgum’s commitment to decarbonizing fossil fuel production over investments into renewable sources of energy with many expressing worries about climate change.
Bipartisan Position: All senators agreed that increasing dependence on the grid and energy demand requires further investment in innovation. However, the discussions on which energy types should receive the most focus created some contention with Democrats advocating for renewables and Republicans calling for fossil fuels. All members agreed on the need for federal lands to receive proper maintenance.
Witnesses
The Grid:
A key focus of the hearing was the important role the Department of the Interior will play in supporting the country’s grid system especially with increasing energy demands from what Burgum described as the “AI revolution.” When Senator Hoeven (R-ND) asked about how he plans to achieve energy dominance, Burgum spoke of his concerns about the current permitting system and how it is standing in the way of U.S. AI development. He discussed how the inability to gain permits in a timely manner will lead us to lose the “AI arms race with China.”
Divisions between parties became apparent in the discussion on how to better support the baseload energy for the grid to power datacenters. The Governor’s background leading the state of North Dakota, which has a large portion of its energy come from wind turbines, gave hope to the Democratic and Independent senators that he would place more importance on developing renewable energy sources. However, this was not the case. Governor Burgum engaged in a tense back and forth with Senators King (I-ME) and Wyden (D-OR) who were concerned by his statements on the unreliability of renewable energies and preference for investments into the decarbonization of fossil fuels.
Governor Burgum: “If we can decarbonize traditional fuels cheaper than we can subsidize some of the renewables then that should be looked at.”
Senator King stated that Governor Burgum’s definition of baseload which includes only traditional energy sources is not a “sustainable path for our country,” but Burgum argued that storage for wind and solar energy is not reliable enough to legitimately support the grid.
Governor Burgum discussed how he feels there is too much emphasis on renewables in the grid, which is creating an imbalance that needs to be corrected. Senator King referred to the openness of Secretary of Energy nominee Chris Wright to all forms of energy and expressed his disappointment that Governor Burgum does not share this same passion.
The interactions with Senators King and Wyden ended with both the senators being apprehensive about their ability to work with Governor Burgum. However, Governor Burgum received support for his approach to energy and the grid from the Republican members with Senator Risch (R-ID) being hopeful that he will play a role in stopping a large-scale windmill project in Idaho.