MAINE ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS • February 18, 2025
Donald Trump’s pick to be Secretary of Interior is Doug Burgum. The former governor of North Dakota ran in the 2024 Republican presidential primary but dropped out and became a big Trump supporter. Burgum is being rewarded with overseeing the Department of Interior (DOI), which manages hundreds of millions of acres of your public lands. Trump and Burgum see not national treasures to be conserved but resources to be exploited. Like Trump, Burgum is a huge booster of oil and gas drilling. He is expected to reverse protections for our public lands, wound the Endangered Species Act, shrink or delete national monuments, and push drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. On Monday, he sent an email update about big news from DOI. There was no mention of the 2,300 Interior professionals who were fired last Friday. Instead, he trumpeted the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. His hearing is February 20. He will be confirmed by the MAGA-dominated US Senate. How will Sen. Susan Collins vote?