BISMARCK, N.D. — When North Dakota’s petroleum affiliation was going to carry a banquet honoring high fracking executives final yr, it turned to Gov. Doug Burgum. The 2-term Republican, now President Donald Trump’s decide to steer the Inside Division, co-hosted the occasion — on the governor’s mansion.
And when vitality trade lobbyists have been on the lookout for assist taking up Biden administration greenhouse gasoline guidelines, additionally they turned to Burgum. In an e-mail to Burgum’s workplace in search of the authorized heft the state may present, an trade lobbyist argued that “combating” such laws required “a one-two punch” from trade and authorities.
Whereas it isn’t stunning that the governor of the third-largest oil producing state would have an in depth relationship with fossil gas producers, data obtained by the Related Press reveal Burgum’s administration eagerly assisted the trade even because the governor was cashing in on the lease of household land to grease corporations. And his help got here at a time when Burgum was leaning on these very connections to construct his nationwide profile within the Republican Occasion.
Now that he is been confirmed to run the Inside Division, Burgum could have huge management over federal lands, together with the issuance of oil and gasoline leases, in addition to a mandate from Trump to extract such assets although the U.S. is producing file quantities of fossil fuels.
These ties concern Democrats and environmentalists who say his zeal to develop drilling was “troubling.”
“Are you going to guard our assets, or are you going to ‘drill, child, drill?’” Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat, requested throughout Burgum’s affirmation listening to this month.
The collection of Burgum, who briefly pursued the presidency in 2023 earlier than endorsing Trump, represents an abrupt pivot from Biden’s emphasis on combating local weather change. It additionally alerts that Trump intends to comply with via on a proposal made final spring when he urged oil and gasoline CEOs to donate $1 billion to his marketing campaign in change for the dismantling of Biden’s environmental agenda.
The White Home didn’t reply to a request for remark, and a spokesman for Burgum declined to make him obtainable for an interview.
“Governor Burgum labored tirelessly to construct a affluent economic system in North Dakota,” spokesman Rob Lockwood mentioned in a press release. “This financial development included sustainably creating pure assets. As governor, he met with job creators and leaders who generated alternatives for the folks of North Dakota.”
Below the partisan glare of Washington, and confronted with stricter federal ethics guidelines governing conflicts of curiosity, Burgum has pledged to promote his curiosity in his household’s lease with the shale oil large Continental Assets, in addition to one other one with Hess, a Chevron subsidiary. He has additionally pledged to promote inventory held in a handful of vitality corporations, a few of which he interacted with as governor, that are price as a lot as $200,000 in response to his 2023 monetary disclosures.
There’s maybe no higher demonstration of Burgum’s shut ties to grease and gasoline producers than his friendship with Harold Hamm, the founding father of Continental Assets who’s liable for a lot of North Dakota’s fracking growth. The billionaire Oklahoma wildcatter advises Trump on vitality coverage and is extensively seen as taking part in a job in serving to Burgum safe the nomination to steer Inside.
Hamm didn’t reply to a request for remark made via his firm.
Throughout his 2023 state-of-the-state speech, Burgum likened Hamm to Teddy Roosevelt for his “grit, resilience, onerous work and dedication” that he mentioned “modified North Dakota and our nation.” The shout-out got here after Hamm had donated $50 million towards a library honoring Roosevelt in western North Dakota — a ardour challenge of Burgum’s.
The paperwork obtained by AP reveal that a number of months later Hamm gifted Burgum a set of cuff hyperlinks together with a be aware thanking Burgum for his “friendship” and willingness to take a break from the “grueling activity” of working for president to talk at an vitality convention that Hamm had hosted in Oklahoma Metropolis.
These weren’t his solely shows of patronage. Although Burgum, an independently rich former software program firm CEO, had a dim probability of successful the Republican presidential main, Hamm’s Continental Assets contributed $250,000 in the summertime of 2023 to an excellent PAC supporting Burgum, marketing campaign finance disclosures present. He additionally contributed to Burgum’s marketing campaign for governor.
Emails between Burgum and Hamm’s workplaces reveal the 2 communicated typically.
In a Could 2020 e-mail, Hamm’s govt assistant requested if Burgum had time to speak with Hamm and shared a briefing doc that railed towards wind energy, blasting wind generators as a blight on “our particular locations and sacred lands” whereas excoriating tax breaks for wind vitality suppliers as “unconscionable.”
“This does NOTHING to Make America Nice Once more!” the doc states.
Although Burgum set a objective in 2021 to make North Dakota carbon-neutral by 2030, he has adopted Hamm’s tone. Throughout his Senate affirmation listening to this month, he was dismissive of renewable vitality, comparable to wind energy, suggesting such sources have been unreliable when in comparison with fossil fuels.
In early 2023, as Hamm ready to publish a memoir, Continental lobbyist Blu Hulsey emailed to ask if Burgum may write a blurb praising the e book, the newly obtained data present. Burgum fortunately complied, heaping reward on the memoir, which the governor known as “an inspiring story worthy of sharing.” Burgum added that Hamm’s influence was “immeasurable.”
Ethics specialists say there are different facets of their relationship that pose a higher battle of curiosity. As governor, Burgum by no means disclosed that his household leased roughly 200 acres of farmland to Continental for properly drilling, as beforehand reported by CNBC. When Burgum ran for president and confronted higher transparency necessities, he revealed making as a lot as $50,000 in royalties from Continental in 2023.
Regardless of this relationship, Burgum routinely took motion that benefited Hamm’s firm. As chairman of North Dakota’s Industrial Fee, which regulates the oil and gasoline trade, he voted practically a dozen occasions or extra on measures that had favorable outcomes for Continental, data present.
“North Dakota is a number one vitality producing state,” Lockwood, the Burgum spokesman mentioned. “Tens of 1000’s of households and mineral homeowners have related preparations. Because the publicly obtainable disclosures present: the cited settlement started a few years earlier than he grew to become governor.”
Burgum additionally used the governor’s workplace to assist a proposed pipeline that acquired $250 million in monetary backing from Hamm. If accomplished, it’ll transport earth-warming CO2 gasoline that’s the byproduct of ethanol gas manufacturing to North Dakota, the place will probably be saved deep underground. It’s been touted as a technique to decarbonize the ambiance, however has additionally run into stiff resistance from landowners, who worry their property might be seized to finish the challenge.
Sarah Vogel, a Democrat and former North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner who beforehand sat on the fee, mentioned Burgum appeared extra like a cheerleader of the trade than a regulator.
“I don’t assume he had a regulator’s mindset. He had a promoter’s mindset, which has in all probability made him beloved within the oil and gasoline trade,” Vogel mentioned.
Hamm isn’t the one oil govt or lobbyist who has cultivated ties with Burgum, emails and workplace schedules present. Ryan Berger, a lobbyist for Occidental Petroleum, emailed Burgum’s workers final yr in search of a gathering for Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub after Burgum moderated a panel she participated in at an oil trade convention.
“In an excellent world, a face-to-face over lunch or dinner can be superb,” Berger wrote in a Could 2024 e-mail. He added that Hollub had lately mentioned vitality points “straight with President Trump” and “we thought you’d profit from listening to from her” to see “if there are mutually shared insurance policies and views that might be amplified this yr.”
Berger declined to touch upon the e-mail. Lockwood, the spokesman, declined to say if Burgum had a gathering with Hollub occurred.
The data revealed {that a} Who’s Who of oil executives had calls scheduled with Burgum. The embody: CEOs of Chevron and Exxon; Marathon Oil officers had an viewers with Burgum in 2022; and the governor additionally spoke earlier than the Hess Company’s board of administrators’ dinner. Burgum’s household additionally has an oil lease with Hess that paid him as a lot as $1,000 in 2023, in response to his monetary disclosure.
Burgum turned down an invite to deal with an American Petroleum Institute conference in Washington, the data present, however agreed to talk at a personal dinner for the American Exploration and Manufacturing Council in 2023, which drew high executives from Conoco Phillips, Devon Power, Hilcorp and others.
When Burgum was a number one contender final yr to be Trump’s vice presidential decide, he co-hosted a banquet on the governor’s mansion with the North Dakota Petroleum Council that drew fracking trade heavy hitters, lobbyists and executives. Burgum, Hamm and Chris Wright, the CEO of Liberty Power who’s now Trump’s decide for vitality secretary, addressed attendees as they dined on beef, walleye desserts and bourbon caramel-topped cobbler.
On Inauguration Day, after he had been named by Trump to steer Inside, Burgum declined an invite to a celebration on the posh Hay-Adams Resort that was hosted by Hamm and a lot of petroleum commerce associations and oil corporations.
Burgum’s presence could not have been missed. A lot of these executives and lobbyists, who could have enterprise earlier than the Inside Division, have proven they know the way to attain him.
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Slodysko reported from Washington.