← Videos · Energy & Permitting

Doug Burgum Testifies at His Senate Energy and Natural Resources Confirmation Hearing, Jan. 16, 2025

January 16, 2025 · CNBC Television · 3:06:50

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Doug Burgum testified before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on January 16, 2025, at the confirmation hearing on his nomination to be Secretary of the Interior, carried in full by CNBC Television. In his opening statement, as the hearing transcript records, Burgum traced his path from Arthur, North Dakota — a town of about 400 people — through the family grain elevator and a software startup he said he ‘bet the farm’ on, to eight years as North Dakota’s governor. He told the committee that his governorship had put him in contact with many Interior bureaus: North Dakota shares geography with five sovereign tribal nations, and as governor he chaired the state land board, the Industrial Commission overseeing energy production and the state’s geologic resources, and the state Water Commission. Burgum framed the administration’s energy case at the hearing in one line the transcript records: ’the American people have clearly placed their confidence in President Trump to achieve energy dominance,’ which he called the foundation of American prosperity, affordability, and national security. The Senate confirmed Burgum on February 1, 2025, by a vote of 79–18, as this site’s chronicle records.

Why it matters

This hearing is the founding document of Burgum’s tenure: the tribal-engagement record, the land-board and industrial-commission experience, and the energy-dominance framing he stated here are the commitments his record as Secretary — and as chair of the National Energy Council — is measured against on this site.

Scoreboard watch

This is a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard: Burgum’s January 16, 2025 confirmation-hearing commitments — energy dominance as the foundation of prosperity and security, and tribal partnership through engagement and respect — each as stated at the hearing, to be checked against his conduct in office.

Sources: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, confirmation hearing on the nomination of Doug Burgum to be Secretary of the Interior, January 16, 2025 (full hearing as carried by CNBC Television, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by Mr. Burgum and committee members at the hearing; transcript reviewed in the site’s private research store.