This Week at Interior February 7, 2025

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This Week, at Interior...

Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum was sworn in this week as the 55th Secretary of the Interior following his confirmation by the Senate. The Secretary was welcomed aboard at the Steward Lee Udall Building by an enthusiastic gathering of Interior employees. With a career rooted in leadership and service, Secretary Burgum expressed his gratitude and outlined his vision for an Interior future driven forward by innovation versus being held back by regulation.

It’s such an honor to have been confirmed as the 55th Secretary of the Interior and I’m certainly deeply grateful to President Trump for nominating me and placing his trust in me to lead this great Department.

Success is always rooted in great teamwork, and I’m going to look forward to working with all of you to unlock the full potential of the Department of the Interior. I believe that the work that you’re doing, you chose to do it, because you believed it had purpose.  

But I also know that there’s a chunk of your job that you’re doing today that’s probably mind-numbing, and soul-suckingly boring (laughter) and our job is to find those pieces of your job and make them go away. We’re cutting red tape, not just for Americans, we want to cut it for all of you, so you can work on the stuff, the reason why you chose the field that you did.

So I want to thank each of you, all the many careers that are here and those who might be listening in, for your dedication, your passion, and your commitment to service. Together I know that we can move our important missions forward, and we’ll make a lasting impact on the future.

After his welcome ceremony the new Secretary got right to work, signing Secretarial Orders to address the national energy emergency, unleash American energy, and deliver emergency price relief for American families. He also announced the President's revocation of former Outer Continental Shelf withdrawals, along with new steps to achieve prosperity through deregulation, and directed the Department to take all necessary steps to unleash the State of Alaska’s abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources.

You can follow Secretary Burgum on social media @SecretaryBurgum.

And make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X.

That’s This Week at Interior.

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This Week: Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum is sworn in as the 55th Secretary of the Interior, and welcomed aboard at the Steward Lee Udall Building by an enthusiastic gathering of Interior employees; the new Secretary stressed the vital importance of Interior’s energy portfolio and the Department’s efforts to make America Energy Dominant; Secretary Burgum got right to work, signing several Secretary’s Orders to address the national energy emergency, unleash American energy, deliver emergency price relief for American families, and tap the State of Alaska’s abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources. 

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    04/11/2025

    This Week at Interior April 11, 2025

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    This Week at Interior

    President Trump this week signed Executive Orders aimed at achieving the Administration's goal of American Energy Dominance with a renewed focus on coal. One of the orders directs Interior to identify untapped coal resources on federal lands, while removing barriers to mining and leasing.

    The value of untapped coal in our country is one hundred times greater than the value of all the gold at Fort Knox, and we're going to unleash it and make America rich and powerful again.

    To advance the President Trump's order, Interior will implement a series of policy moves and regulatory reforms to position coal as a cornerstone of the nation’s energy strategy by ensuring federally managed lands remain open and accessible for responsible energy development. Secretary Burgum likened the actions to creating a new Golden Age of "Mine, Baby, Mine," saying that  

    Interior is unlocking 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.  

    Among the actions are ending the moratorium on federal coal leasing, reopening federal lands in Montana and Wyoming to coal leasing, removing regulatory burdens for coal mines, and providing royalty rate relief.  

    Interior this week announced the disbursement of more than $13 million in grants to support the reclamation of abandoned mine lands, furthering the Trump administration’s commitment to American Energy Dominance, environmental stewardship and economic renewal in coal communities. The funding is administered through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and it will support job creation and economic revitalization efforts in North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.  

    Interior this week announced the release of updated oil and gas reserve estimates for the Gulf of America's Outer Continental Shelf. The new data and analysis over the last couple of years reveal an additional 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent since 2021, bringing the total reserve estimate to 7.04 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That figure includes 5.77 billion barrels of oil and 7.15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced plans to significantly increase oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf, and just last week Secretary Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to hold the first Gulf of America oil and gas lease sale since its renaming in February.

    Secretary Burgum held his first All Hands meeting this week at Interior's historic Yates Auditorium. The Secretary saluted the notable accomplishments the Department has achieved in making the transition from the previous administration, and expanded on his vision that innovation, rather than regulation, is the cornerstone of American prosperity.

    The thing that has led our country for 250 years is innovation, doesn't matter whether it's the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution our ability to innovate in a way that allowed us to win World War One and World War II and lead the world and become the world leader, all of it was innovation based, and we have to get back to those roots. That's how we win. That's how America wins in this world, that's how we win again for our children and our children's children, is we win with innovation.

    U.S. Geological Survey crews were deployed late last week and this week to monitor flood impacts after storms dumped heavy rain across portions of the southeast and Midwest. Crews are still hard at work gathering flood measurements in Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio, as well as West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, where as much as ten inches of rain fell causing massive flooding. The gages provide information for the National Weather Service to predict when dangerous flooding might occur and allow for warnings to vulnerable residents, as flood crests will continue into early May.

    And our social media Picture of the Week, California's Battery Point Lighthouse. Perched on California's rugged northern coast, this historic beacon stands among the rocky outcrops of the California Coastal National Monument and has guided mariners since its first lighting in 1856.

    Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X! That's This Week at Interior!


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    News and headlines from Interior April 11, 2025

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