North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — an outspoken critic of the Democrats’ climate law — could soon be in charge of a department tasked with spending a large chunk of Inflation Reduction Act cash with few options for halting its distribution.
Burgum, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, repeatedly took aim at the IRA during his unsuccessful six-month run at the Republican presidential nomination last year.
He argued that the 2022 law triggered inflation for infrastructure projects due to “ideological restrictions and red tape,” such as requirements for using only U.S.-made equipment, prevailing wages and registered apprenticeships.
“Some of it makes no sense,” Burgum said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in July 2023, when he first said he would attempt to repeal the law if elected. He asserted the measure had blocked his state from using federal funds to buy pumps for a water infrastructure project from Germany.
