Doug
Burgum

Claims to fame: Billionaire, Governor of North Dakota, and finalist for Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick.

You should know: Doug Burgum has personal ties to the oil and gas industry and has opposed several key climate policies and actions of the Biden Administration.

His take on climate: “There are some people in this country who would like to regulate [the coal] industry out of business. I think that’s wrongheaded. It’s bad policy. It would hurt our country.” (Office of Doug Burgum)

The fine print: While billionaire Governor Doug Burgum has set a goal for North Dakota to become carbon neutral by 2030, he has also been a proponent of the fossil fuel industry in North Dakota and nationwide. He has personally made tens of thousands of dollars from an oil lease on land his family owns. Earlier this year, Burgum used his close ties to the industry to help organize the infamous meeting between oil and gas industry executives and Donald Trump, in which Trump promised to slash environmental regulations in exchange for a $1 billion donation to his campaign.

Our take: “Billionaire Doug Burgum already demonstrated the lengths he’ll go when he helped organize the infamous dinner where Trump offered Big Oil executives their wishlist in exchange for $1 billion. The Secretary of Interior is charged with protecting the country’s most iconic, unspoiled, and treasured public lands while working with local and Indigenous communities. Instead of comparing Burgum to other Trump nominees, the question should be how much is Burgum willing to hand over to oil CEOs and other Big Polluters — all so they can pad their already record profits. If Burgum cares about our public lands, he will disavow the MAGA Project 2025 agenda and Trump’s extreme campaign to eliminate protections in order to ‘drill, drill, drill’.” – Leah Donahey, LCV Senior Federal Advocacy Campaigns Director, Nov. 15