Donald Trump's pick to lead the Interior Department, Doug Burgum, said on Thursday he will vigorously pursue the president-elect's goals of maximizing energy production from U.S. public lands and waters, calling it key to national security.
Burgum's comments to lawmakers during his nomination hearing signal a coming sharp turn in policy after President Joe Biden attempted for years to limit oil and gas drilling by reducing federal lease auctions and banning future development in some offshore waters to fight climate change.
"America produces energy cleaner, smarter and safer than anywhere in the world. When energy production is restricted in America, it doesn't reduce demand, it just shifts production to countries like Russia, Venezuela, and Iran – whose autocratic leaders don't care about the environment," Burgum told a U.S. Senate panel considering his nomination.
Maximizing energy output can lower consumer prices, and can be done while ensuring clean air and water, he added.
The U.S. is already the world's top oil and gas producer thanks to a years-long drilling boom, mainly on private lands in Texas and New Mexico, fueled by improved technology and strong world demand since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Burgum said the U.S. currently has an imbalance of intermittent power sources like wind and solar, and needs to offset that with an increase in baseload generation - like natural gas-fired power plants - that can produce electricity regardless of weather conditions.
Burgum, who served as governor of North Dakota - a big oil and wind power producer - is also being considered to head a new national council to coordinate policies to boost U.S. energy output after Trump takes office.
He declined to say if he would support the wind power industry if confirmed by the Senate to lead the Interior Department. Trump has vowed to put an end to the industry, which he says is too expensive and can harm whales offshore.
North Dakota ranks third among U.S. states, after Texas and New Mexico, in crude oil reserves and production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Trump's pick to lead EPA says agency not required to regulate CO2
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said he believes climate change is real and a threat but that the agency he is poised to oversee is just authorized, not required, to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.
Former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin, speaking at his Senate confirmation hearing, said a 2007 decision by the Supreme Court gave the agency statutory authority to regulate the heat-trapping greenhouse gas but did not obligate the EPA to take action.
Zeldin told the hearing that he believes climate change is real, a departure from his predecessors who led the EPA during the first Trump administration from 2017 to 2020 and from Trump himself, who has repeatedly called climate change a hoax.
"I believe that climate change is real," he told the committee, but did not respond directly to questions about whether the U.S. needs to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, a major driver of carbon emissions.
The outgoing administration of President Joe Biden had prioritized climate policies and tied them to economic growth and job creation. Trump has vowed to roll back the Biden administration's climate-focused agenda, including EPA regulations aimed at slashing carbon dioxide, methane and other emissions from cars, power plants and other industrial sources.
Zeldin said he favored an approach that favors all energy sources and stressed in his opening statement that the incoming administration has a mandate from American voters to protect the environment, but without harming economic growth.
Zeldin touted his record focusing on protecting the Long Island Sound as well as his support for bipartisan legislation to clean up ocean plastic.
The Republican, who represented a section of New York's Long Island, often voted against legislation on green issues including a measure to stop oil companies from price gouging.
In his final year in Congress in 2022, Zeldin earned a 5% rating by the League of Conservation Voters scorecard that tracks the voting records of members of Congress on environmental issues.
Watchdog groups have flagged that Zeldin's consulting firm had been paid to write op-eds on environmental policies for fossil fuel companies and interests.
Zeldin rejected the suggestion that he could be influenced by special interests.
(Reuters - Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Editing by Nia Williams and Diane Craft) (Extra reporting by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Alexander Smith and Paul Simao)
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