New energy council signals Trump to prioritize energy production

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of the Interior, announced Friday afternoon that he will also coordinate a new council on energy policy, a sign that the new administration will make energy production a core part of its domestic policy.

Few details about the new National Energy Council were available Friday as activists and lawmakers weighed in on Eastern’s surprise announcement at 4 p.m. But the move likely reflects Trump and his next administration’s focus on energy production, including fossil fuels.

“They are signaling early on that this is one of their priority areas,” Frank Maisano, senior principal at energy-focused law and lobbying firm Bracewell LLP, said in an interview.

Burgum said, “He will join my Administration both as the Minister of the Interior and as the Chairman of the newly created and very important National Energy Council, which will include all Departments and Agencies involved in permitting, production, production, distribution and regulation. “Transporting ALL forms of American Energy,” Trump said in a written statement.

“This Council will oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by eliminating bureaucracy, increasing private sector investment in all sectors of the Economy, and focusing on INNOVATION rather than long-standing but completely unnecessary regulations.”

Trump said the council’s goal of increasing U.S. energy supplies would benefit the domestic economy and allies abroad and help strengthen “AI superiority.”

“The National Energy Council will foster an unprecedented level of coordination among federal agencies to advance American energy,” Burgum said in a written statement. “By establishing U.S. energy dominance, we can jump-start our economy, reduce costs for consumers, and generate billions in revenue to help reduce our deficit.”

It was not clear what the mission was Ministry of Energy will be in such an arrangement. The current secretary of the Biden administration is former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm.

‘Drill, drill, drill’

Throughout the presidential campaign, Trump frequently promised to increase oil and gas production. The issue was one of two he told Fox News host Sean Hannity he would try to address as a “dictator” on the first day of his administration.

Trump told Hannity during a December speech in Iowa that he would not be a dictator “except on day one.” “I want to close the border and I want to drill, drill, drill.”

Lisa Frank, executive director of the advocacy group Environment America, said comments like these herald something like a new council to oversee energy policy.

“President Trump has made it very clear that one of his top priorities is ‘drill, baby, drill,'” Frank said. “I’m not surprised at all. That was a very important part of his campaign, and energy decisions were made in different ways by all kinds of different institutions, and that can be a little bit difficult to manage if you’re trying to push an agenda. .”

Under outgoing President Joe Biden, the administration has promoted a “whole-of-government approach” to climate change, with various departments and agencies within the federal bureaucracy tasked with addressing the issue. White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi has been tasked with coordinating a consistent climate approach across the executive branch.

Burgum’s role may be similar, but the goal will likely be very different.

“This is similar to what the previous administration did, but the previous administration focused on climate,” Maisano said. “Just energy instead of climate.”

Another key difference is that Burgum will also be tasked with running a separate entire Cabinet-level department with an annual budget of about $18 billion.

Frank said it can be difficult to balance the Interior Department’s priorities, which include managing public lands, protecting endangered species, maintaining national parks and policing tribal relations, with an attempt to greatly expand fossil fuel production.

“The really tough decisions about balancing these two agendas, if confirmed, will be in Secretary Burgum’s hands to some extent,” he said. “Do we want more drilling in our national parks? Do we want this on our families’ farms? Where you want your children to hunt, do we want it too? Do we want fracking near the best trout streams? “These will be very difficult questions for both him and the American people.”

all of the above

Burgum is seen across the political spectrum as a supporter of all of the above approaches to energy; This means it wants to expand both fossil fuel and sustainable energy sources. Environmental groups say its record on climate is mixed.

Frank said his state ranks ninth in wind energy production but also last in reducing carbon emissions over the past two decades.

“He is familiar with all aspects of energy, as he should be as the manager of the aforementioned energy situation,” Maisano said.

Some Democrats and left-leaning groups immediately opposed Burgum’s selection. Democrats on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee sent a series of tweets on Friday calling the governor a “Big Oil Burg” for his ties to the oil and gas industry.

But others reacted harsher to Burgum’s selection as Interior chief than to some of Trump’s other picks for Cabinet positions.

Patrick Donnelly, the Great Basin director for the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, tweeted Thursday evening that it seems unlikely the Trump administration will roll back the expansion of renewable energy.

Clean energy projects expanded during Trump’s first term, Donnelly wrote. He added that Burgum is “not a climate denier” with a track record of stifling renewable energy.

“My bug is terrible, but he’s not a complete lunatic as far as I know,” Donnelly said. a previous tweet. “It could have been worse.”

This article was published by Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.