Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wants to marshal his agency to speed production of oil and gas on public lands, cut regulations and “right-size” national monuments, according to a draft strategic plan viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News.
The draft document calls for targeting “our National assets for the benefit of the American people” by, among other things, increasing development of “clean coal, oil, and gas” with “faster and easier permitting.” Interior aspires to “streamline processes,” with the goal of also ramping up “revenues from grazing, timber, critical minerals, gravel and other non-energy resources.”
The working plan offers a look at how Burgum, who is also chair of President Donald Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council, is running an agency whose day-to-day business of overseeing public lands has been overshadowed by the White House’s efforts to cajole, pressure or force a historic downsizing of the federal workforce.
Burgum’s draft agenda ticks off several of the areas capturing the attention of the president and his top officials since January, including energy development, slashing regulations, reshaping national monuments and increasing law and order through a boosted police presence. Interior late Wednesday said it would limit environmental reviews of energy projects on public lands to a maximum of 28 days, leaning on Trump’s declaration of an “energy emergency.”
