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Interior Secretary Wants More Energy Development, Less Conservation

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By

Kurt Repanshek

Published Date

February 4, 2025

With a flurry of secretarial orders on his first day at work, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stressed the Trump administration's desire to push for more energy development on federal lands while discarding the Biden administration's concerns for climate-change impacts and endangered species.

“We are committed to working collaboratively to unlock America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family while showing the world the power of America’s natural resources and innovation. Together, we will ensure that our policies reflect the needs of our communities, respect tribal sovereignty, and drive innovation that will keep the U.S. at the forefront of energy and environmental leadership," said Burgum. 

In a release the secretary, claiming that the United States has an "inadequate energy supply" and needs to "protect against this active threat to the national and economic security of the American people," said Interior "will immediately identify all emergency and legal authorities available to facilitate the identification, permitting, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, distribution, exporting and generation of domestic energy resources and critical minerals."

Conservation and environmental groups said easily overlooked in the orders was Burgum's directive that his assistant secretaries "review and, as appropriate, revise all withdrawn public lands," language they contend is aimed at redrawing borders of national monuments.

“This dangerous order could roll back decades of protection to sacrifice hundreds of cherished national monuments and other protected public lands to fossil fuel and mining corporations,” said Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Iconic places like the Grand Canyon watershed, national monuments, wildlife refuges and countless other public lands are now all on the table for industrial development. We’ll fight like hell for their protection.”  

At The Wilderness Society, staff said that language would "apply to hundreds of national monuments managed by the Interior Department."

“First impressions don’t get much worse than this. The new secretary hasn’t even had time to break in his chair at the Department of the Interior, and yet the Trump administration is already driving day-one actions to implement a drill-first agenda, including launching a secretive 15-day review of national monuments," said Dan Hartinger, senior director of agency policy for TWS. “People in this country love public lands, consider them key to our shared national identity and want to see them managed in a balanced and responsible way. They don’t want to see these places neglected or wrecked by drilling or mining. Hiding the ball on a review of national monuments shows the White House and Interior know full well how unpopular these actions are. We hope Secretary Burgum will reconsider this approach and listen to the public about how essential protected public lands are to their local communities and ways of life.”

Burgum, noting that Trump had signed executive orders (EOs) revoking a number of Biden initiatives to battle climate change, support clean energy industries, and protect public health, orderd his staff to ensure "any actions taken to implement the revoked EOs are terminated, including but not limited to, terminating any contract or agreement on behalf of entities or programs abolished in the revoked EOs."

The new Interior secretary also directed his staff to outline steps to "suspend, revise, or rescind" Biden administration orders, opinions, memos, or department manuals specific to:

  • Conservation and Landscape Health 
  • Management and Protection of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska
  • Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation
  • Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat 
  • Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat
  • Migratory Bird Permits; Authorizing the Incidental Take of Migratory Birds
  • Department-Wide Approach to the Climate Crisis and Restoring Transparency and Integrity to the Decision-Making Process

Burgum also asked for his assistants to outline "the steps to be taken that would accomplish, at a minimum," revisions of "all relevant critical habitat designations promulgated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that such actions are based on the best scientific data available and that they take into consideration the economic impact and impact on national security."

That directive led Noah Greenwald, the endangered species coordinator for the Center for Biological Diversity, to say "Burgum is on his way to becoming the worst Interior Secretary in history with this mindless attack on America’s endangered plants and animals and our irreplaceable wildlands. Even as imperiled species dwindle and vanish across America, this order will fan the flames of the extinction crisis. Americans don’t want to wipe out wildlife or pour gasoline on the climate emergency, but Burgum and Trump seem determined to burn it all down anyway.”

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