A look at Doug Burgum, the inner choice of Trump, the relationship with Big Oil

Bismarck, ND (AP) – When the northern Dakota oil association was going to hold a banquet honoring senior framework of hygienic fracturing last year, he turned to Governor Doug Burgum. The Republican with two mandates, now the choice of President Donald Trump to lead the Interior Department, co-organized the event – At the Governor’s Manor.

And when the lobbyists of the energy industry were looking for aid to adopt the greenhouse gas rules of the Biden administration, they also turned to Burgum. In an email at the Burgum office to ask for the legal weight that the state could provide, a lobbyist of the industry argued that the “fight against the fight against regulations required” a punch “of the industry and government.

Although it is not surprising that the governor of Third largest state of oil production would have a close relationship with producers of fossil fuels, the files obtained by the Associated Press impregnated the administration of Burgum with the industry even though the governor took the lease of family land to the oil companies. And his help occurred at a time when Burgum was based on these same connections to build his national profile in the Republican Party.

Now that it has been confirmed to manage the interior department, Burgum will have a vast control over federal lands, including the issue of oil and gas leases, as well as a Trump’s mandate to extract such resources, Even if the United States produces record quantities of fuels fuels.

These bonds concern democrats and environmentalists who say that its zeal to extend the borehole was “disturbing”.

“Are you going to protect our resources, or are you going to” drill, baby, forest? “” Senator Mazie Hirono, a Democrat in Hawaii, asked at the Burgum confirmation hearing this month.

THE Burgum selectionwhich briefly continued the presidency in 2023 before enduring Trump represents a brutal pivot of Biden accent during the fight against climate change. This also indicates that Trump intends to continue a proposal made last spring when he urged oil and gas CEOs to donate $ 1 billion to his campaign in exchange for the dismantling of the Biden environmental agenda .

The White House did not respond to a request for comments, and a spokesperson for Burgum refused to make it available for an interview.

“Governor Burgum has worked tirelessly to build a prosperous economy in Northern Dakota,” said spokesman Rob Lockwood in a statement. “This economic growth included natural resources in sustainable development. As governor, he met job creators and leaders who have generated opportunities for the inhabitants of Dakota in the North. »»

By virtue of the partisan brilliance of Washington, and faced with stricter federal ethics rules governing conflicts of interest, Burgum is committed to selling his interest in his family lease with the resources of the oil giant Shale, as well as another with Hess, a chevron subsidiary. He also undertook to sell shares held in a handful of energy companies, some of which with which he interacts as governor, which earned up to $ 200,000 according to his financial disclosure of 2023.

Fenced with an industry titan

There may not be a better demonstration of the close ties of Burgum with oil and gas producers than his friendship with Harold Hamm, the founder of Continental Resources who is responsible for a large part of the fracturing boom Hydraulics of North Dakota. The billionaire Oklahoma Wildatter advises Trump on energy policy and is widely considered playing a role in helping Burgum guarantee the appointment to direct the interior.

Hamm did not respond to a request for comments made through his business.

During his speech in the state of the state in 2023, Burgum compared Hamm to Teddy Roosevelt for his “grain, resilience, hard work and determination” which he said “changed the Dakota of the North and our nation ». The cry came after Hamm had made a donation of $ 50 million Towards an honoring Roosevelt library in western Northern Dakota – a passionate Burgum project.

The documents obtained by AD reveal that several months later Hamm Burgum endowed a set of cuff links In addition to a note thanking Burgum for his “friendship” and his desire to take a break in the “exhausting task” to come to the presidency to speak at a conference on the energy that Hamm had organized in Oklahoma City.

These are not his only manifestations of patronage. Although Burgum, independently CEO rich in the rich software companyHas a little chance of winning the Republican presidential primary, Hamm’s continental resources contributed $ 250,000 in the summer of 2023 to a Super CAP supporting Burgum, according to campaign funding. He also contributed to the Burgum campaign for the governor.

E-mails between Burgum and Hamm offices often reveal the two press releases.

In a May 2020 email, Hamm’s executive assistant asked if Burgum had time to speak with Hamm and shared an information document that was moving against wind energy, exploding wind turbines like a burn On “our special places and the sacred lands” while excoriating tax alternatives for the wind, energy providers as “inadmissible”.

“That does nothing to make America great again!” The document indicates.

Although Burgum set an objective in 2021 to make the Dakota of the neutral northern carbon by 2030, he adopted Hamm’s tone. During his Senate confirmation hearing this month, he was disdainful of renewable energiesLike wind energy, suggesting that such sources were not reliable compared to fossil fuels.

At the beginning of 2023, while Hamm was preparing to publish a dissertation, the continental lobbyist Blu Hulsey sent an email to ask if Burgum could write a presentation text praising the book, according to the newly obtained files. Burgum is contented happily, praising memories, which the governor called “an inspiring story worthy of sharing”. Burgum added that Hamm’s impact was “immeasurable”.

Ethics experts say that there are other aspects of their relationship that pose a greater conflict of interest. As governor, Burgum has never revealed that his family had rented around 200 acres of agricultural land in Continental for a well, as indicated above by CNBC. When Burgum presented himself to the presidency and faced larger transparency requirements, he revealed to win up to $ 50,000 in continental fees in 2023.

Despite this relationship, Burgum regularly took measures that benefited Hamm’s business. As chairman of the Northern Dakota Industrial Commission, which regulates the petroleum and gas industry, it has voted almost a dozen times or more on measures that had favorable results for continental, according to files.

“Northern Dakota is a leading energy production state,” said Lockwood, Burgum spokesperson. “Tens of thousands of families and mineral owners have similar arrangements. As public disclosure show: the cited agreement began for many years before becoming governor. »»

Burgum also used the governor’s office to support a proposed pipeline who received $ 250 million in Hamm’s financial support. If it is finished, it will transport the CO2 gas warming the earth which is the by-product of the production of ethanol fuel in northern Dakota, where it will be stored deeply underground. It was presented as a means of decarbonizing the atmosphere, but also met Raid resistance of landownerswho fear that their property will be seized to complete the project.

Sarah Vogel, a democrat and former agriculture commissioner of the Northern Dakota who was previously seated in the Commission, said Burgum was more like an industry cheer party than a regulator.

“I don’t think he had a state of mind of a regulator. He had a state of mind of a promoter, which probably made him loved in the petroleum and gas industry, “said Vogel.

Other executives have links with Burgum

Hamm is not the only oil or lobbyist manager to have cultivated links with Burgum, emails and office hours. Ryan Berger, a western lobbyist Petroleum, sent an email to Burgum staff last year in search of a meeting for the CEO of Western, Vicki Hollub, after Burgum animated a panel to which she participated during a conference on the petroleum industry.

“In an ideal world, a face to face during lunch or dinner would be incredible,” wrote Berger in an email in May 2024. He added that Hollub recently discussed energy problems “directly with President Trump” And “we thought you would benefit from hearing it” to see “if there are mutually shared policies and perspectives that could be amplified this year”.

Berger refused to comment on the email. Lockwood, the spokesperson, refused to say that Burgum had a meeting with Hollub.

The files revealed that a who’s who of petroleum leaders had appeals planned with Burgum. The include: CEO of Chevron and Exxon; Marathon oil officials had an audience with Burgum in 2022; And the governor also spoke before the dinner of the board of directors of the Hess Corporation. The Burgum family also has an oil lease with Hess who paid him up to $ 1,000 in 2023, according to his financial disclosure.

Burgum refused an invitation to contact an American Petroleum Institute in Washington Convention, according to the files, but agreed to speak during a private dinner for the American Exploration and Production Council in 2023, which Attracted the senior executives of Conoco Phillips, Devon Energy, Hilcorp and others.

When Burgum was one of the main competitors last year to be the choice of Trump vice-presidency, he co-organized a banquet At the Governor’s manor at the Northern Dakota Oil Council which attracted heavy strikers, lobbyists and industry industry leaders. Burgum, Hamm and Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy, who is now Trump’s choice for the Energy Secretary, addressed the participants when they dined on the beef, the gilded cakes and the shoemaker to Tamel Bourbon.

The day of the inauguration, after being appointed by Trump to lead the interior, Burgum refused An invitation to A party at the Posh Hay-Adams hotel which was organized by Hamm and a number of commercial oil associations and oil companies.

The presence of Burgum may not have been missed. Many of these executives and lobbyists, who will have business in front of the interior department, have shown that they knew how to join it.

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Slodysko reported to Washington.