Ahead of Doug Burgum’s confirmation hearing tomorrow at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, End Citizens United (ECU) President Tiffany Muller released the following statement along with three questions Burgum must answer:
“Doug Burgum was at the center of Donald Trump’s $1 billion shakedown of Big Oil executives, and now he’s on the precipice of overseeing the follow through of that promise as Secretary of Interior. This quid-pro-quo corruption cannot stand and Burgum must come clean about his plans in his confirmation hearing.”
Three Questions for Secretary of Interior nominee Doug Burgum:
1. What will Burgum give the oil industry in exchange for its financial support of Trump?
- Burgum helped arrange the meeting between Trump and oil industry executives wherein Trump asked for a billion dollars to be spent on his campaign, in exchange for a rollback of regulations.
2. Will Burgum recuse from decisions involving Continental Resources? Will he divest from investments in fossil fuels?
- Burgum is a personal ally of Harold Hamm, head of Continental Resources, and lauded Hamm in a State Of The State Address.
- Burgum owned acreage leased by Continental Resources for extraction.
3. Will Burgum ban wind power on federal lands? Will he ban offshore wind projects?
- The Bureau of Land Management manages 20 million acres with wind potential, five percent of utility scale wind power is produced on public lands. Trump pledged to ban wind farmsand implied he favors banning offshore wind as well.
###