President-elect Donald Trump named former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) as his next Environmental Protection Agency chief amid a flurry of nominations this week, and enlisted former oil and coal lobbyists who held Cabinet positions in the Republican’s previous term to vet candidates for the next administration.
But the job of energy secretary — and a new “energy czar” post, a powerful White House position to coordinate the administration’s efforts to slash regulations and ramp up oil and gas drilling — remain unfilled.
Among the top candidates for either role is North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), a billionaire businessman from a top oil-producing state who mounted an ill-fated challenge against Trump for the GOP presidential nomination earlier this year.
Burgum is a “big-time favorite for energy secretary,” according to a source with knowledge of the transition discussions who requested anonymity to speak openly on the subject. A second source close to the discussions confirmed Burgum was under serious consideration for one of the jobs.
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On Friday, the Financial Times reported that Trump was eyeing Burgum for the energy czar job specifically.
Burgum had been widely discussed as a potential vice presidential candidate before Trump settled on Ohio Sen. JD Vance. Burgum said last week that when Trump called him after picking Vance as his No. 2, he addressed the governor as “Mr. Secretary.”
“It’s a sign of respect for the whole state of North Dakota that my name is popping up on a short list for various positions. He and I were on the same page that you can’t do transition planning,” Burgum told the local TV station KFYR last week. “You really shouldn’t even be talking about it until after you win an election. And, and of course, now, yesterday and today those discussions are going in earnest.”
Another contender for one of the top energy jobs is Dan Brouillette, the same two sources said, confirming reporting in The New York Times. He served as Trump’s energy secretary from 2019 to 2021. (His predecessor, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, had resigned amid scrutiny over his involvement in the former president’s efforts to push Ukraine to investigate the business dealings of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.)
Just days before the November election, Brouillette abruptly quit his job as chief executive of the Edison Electric Institute, the lobby group representing the nation’s largest electric companies. During his 10-month stint at its helm, Brouillette failed to hire key staff and struggled to coordinate with some of its members, the trade publication E&E News reported.
Former JPMorgan Chase managing director Paul Dabbar, who served in the last Trump administration as the Energy Department’s undersecretary of science, is also under consideration for the agency’s top job, one of the sources said.
The United States is currently producing and exporting more oil and gas than at any point during Trump’s first term in office. In vowing to “drill, baby, drill,” Trump has fielded requests from the industry’s top lobbying groups to gut regulations meant to reduce planet-heating emissions from pipelines, automobiles and drilling fields.
Republicans in Congress remain split over pledges to gut the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s landmark climate law, which has overwhelmingly funded projects in red states. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who won a contested vote Wednesday to serve as the next Senate Majority Leader, has consistently billed himself as a supporter of an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy and has proudly touted the growth of renewable power in his state.
While the GOP is widely considered likely to target tax credits for buying electric vehicles, the booming solar industry is likely to have an advocate in Elon Musk, the solar (and EV) mogul now serving as one of Trump’s closest advisers.
“Solar power will be the vast majority of power generation in the future,” the billionaire Tesla chief executive posted Tuesday on his social media site.
As expensive offshore turbine projects have stalled out over the past two years and as inflation has ratcheted up construction costs, Trump’s longstanding criticism of wind power likely bodes worse for that energy source.
However, one source of zero-carbon power — the country’s second-largest — could see growth under the next administration.
Like most Republicans, Trump supported nuclear energy during his first term, signing key legislation and executive orders to bolster research and deployment of new reactors. He also offered Poland a historically large loan to fund the country’s plans to build its first atomic power station with American technology.
Democracy In The Balance
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Trump has waffled in his support for nuclear power in recent interviews, calling new reactors “very good, very safe” in an August appearance on a conservative talk show before complaining on Joe Rogan’s podcast shortly before the election that atomic energy costs too much and carries “dangers.” In a separate interview with the comedian and former UFC commentator, Vance offered full-throated support for building more nuclear plants.