President-elect Donald Trump announced Friday that North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum will lead the newly-established National Energy Council while serving as interior secretary.
The council, Trump wrote in a statement, “will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy.”
Trump, 78, revealed that Burgum, 68, would be his interior secretary pick during remarks at a Mar-a-Lago fete Thursday night.
“He’s going to head the Department of Interior, and he’s going to be fantastic,” the president-elect told supporters of the North Dakotan, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Burgum’s short-lived presidential campaign heavily focused on his energy experience while governing North Dakota and his years as the successful owner of Great Plains Software, which he sold to Microsoft for over $1 billion in 2001.
Trump has indicated Burgum was on the shortlist to be the GOP vice presidential candidate, before Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) was selected.
Burgum was long considered the favorite to head the Department of Energy, with Interior suggested as a secondary possibility.
There was also speculation that Trump would create a special “energy czar” position for Burgum, similar to the “border czar” role being filled by former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan.
Trump has vowed to slash American energy prices in half within his first year back in the White House. He also said he would instruct workers to “drill, baby, drill” and embrace hydraulic fracking to reduce America’s reliance on foreign energy.
“This Council will oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the Economy, and by focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation,” Trump said in his Friday statement.
“With U.S. [sic] Energy Dominance, we will drive down Inflation, win the A.I. [sic] arms race with China (and others), and expand American Diplomatic Power to end Wars all across the World.”
