This week, Trump Interior Secretary and oil industry darling Doug Burgum delivered another gift to President Trump’s big oil and gas industry donors by beginning to undo a key Biden-era public lands protection policy that put conservation on equal footing to extractive uses on Bureau of Land Management Lands.
“Trump Interior Secretary and noted oil industry sellout Doug Burgum is letting the Bureau of Land Management off the hook from having to do anything to preserve public lands — setting up President Trump’s big polluter donors to pillage our sacred public lands for profit,” said Accountable.US Executive Director Tony Carrk. “The Trump administration is methodically removing any barrier keeping the big oil and gas industry from laying waste to America’s natural beauty and threatening our clean air and water. It’s exactly what oil and gas lobbyists wanted after making record high donations to the Trump campaign and pipelining millions more into the war chests of Trump’s allies in Congress. The Trump administration should instead listen to strong bipartisan public sentiment that America’s public lands should not be treated like ‘assets’ for making oil billionaires even richer.”
In May, a draft strategy memo from the U.S. Department of the Interior was leaked that outlines President Trump’s intent of opening up public lands to development in service to oil, gas and coal production that echoes language used by Secretary Doug Burgum who bluntly considers public lands “assets” on a “balance sheet”.
In addition, President Trump has declared an “energy emergency” that has no basis in reality in order to limit environmental reviews of oil and gas projects on public lands and to fast-track industry permitting and approvals for such projects. That is why Accountable.US joined nearly 170 groups representing millions of members and supporters in urging Senators to support S.J.Res.71, the privileged resolution led by Senators Kaine and Heinrich, to terminate the Executive Order declaring an Energy Emergency that is threatening to raise costs on families, and weaken our economic competitiveness.
- Reversing the public lands rule is a major wish list item from the oil and gas industry whose lobby groups Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and Western Energy Alliance (WEA) opposed the rule, as well as to anti-conservation groups like Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation.
- Repealing the commonsense rule is a giveaway to the oil industry. Notably, Secretary Doug Burgum was in the room at Mar-A-Lago when Donald Trump made a promise to give big oil CEOs policy wins if they financed his campaign. Repealing this rule is the latest example of Trump’s big oil donors cashing in.
- Burgum has a close and cozy relationship with at least one of the big oil companies included in the Mar-A-Lago meeting. Burgum has leased his private land to Continental Resources and been paid in royalties. Continental Resources and its past chairman Harold Hamm were also major financial backers of Burgum’s failed campaign for president.
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.
Newswire Editor | Radio Free (2025-09-12T18:09:41+00:00) Watchdog: Trump Interior Department Moves To Scrap Key Public Lands Protection In Latest Giveaway to Trump’s Big Oil Donors. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2025/09/12/watchdog-trump-interior-department-moves-to-scrap-key-public-lands-protection-in-latest-giveaway-to-trumps-big-oil-donors/
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