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[background noises] >> good morning. welcome to the senate natural resources committee. this is a hearing we are holding today to consider governor doug burgum of north dakota to be the secretary of the interior. it's an honor and privilege to serve in this capacity. such a pivotal moment for our nation and issues surrounding its energy needs and land management policies. i want to extend a warm welcome to governor doug burgum and his wife catherine print thank you for being here. thank you both for joining us today. you have a chance in a moment to introduce anyone else in the audience who is here with you today if you'd like too. governor burgum your nomination

to leave the department of interior comes at an urgent time as americans under the policies of the biden administration are suffering from skyrocketing energy prices drive up the cost of everything from gas, groceries, housing to healthcare, restrictive land-use policies that tend to stifle growth and generally the challenges facing american families are mounting and they are staggering. this past november voters decided to send a clear message. they demanded bold leaders willing to break from the status quo take a fresh approach one less likely to result in this awful pattern of inflation which we have found ourselves of the last four years. your nomination is garnered remarkable support from tribes, from organizations, businesses people with all stripes and backgrounds. particularly those most uniquely directly affected by the u.s. department of the interior and

its policies. dozens of letters of support nationwide underscore your reputation as a leader. one who is committed to change, committed to fostering relationships reflect widespread confidence in your vision and your readiness to lead this organization. the department of the interior plays a central role in addressing many of these challenges particularly in states like utah, my state or federal land management shapes nearly every aspect of our day-to-day life because the federal government owns two thirds of the land of 67% in my state. there are other members of this committee represent out there public land states to understand the relationship with pain the department even called to lead in their day-to-day lives. nearly one fifth of the land of the united states is under the

jurisdiction of the u.s. department of the interior at my state is much higher than that of course. this influences everything from energy development, the public land excess, tribal relations and wildlife management utah with the federal government controls more than two thirds of land the impact of these policies are profound. the decisions made in washington rippled through our economy andn communities in ways that are unmistakable and not always positive. unfortunately these policies have taken a troubling turn for the biden administration expanding national monuments in grand staircase without meaningful input from local communities it has jeopardized access and harmed the locals who call these places home. the public lands ruled restrictive management plans placed on necessary often insurmountable barriers in the way of responsible resource development and land access. on his first day in office

president biden issued a moratorium on oil and gas leasing severely damaging energy security locking away at resources we needed to power our homes and our economy. now, over time these decisions have revealed a pattern of disregard for multiple use a mandate federal land management is supposed to uphold into which it has been subject for nearly 50 years. the consequences of these policies extend far beyond utah wild fires and devastate california's clear mismanagement of public lands has consequences that often reach far beyond rural areas. federal agencies must reevaluate their approach to wildfire prevention. prioritizing force management strategies to mitigate the risk of catastrophic blazes. utah and other western states know too well the devastation these fires cause and addressing this crisis must be a very key

priority for the department. reversing course will of course require bold leadership and a willingness to embrace innovative solutions. the department of interior must take a hard look at the leasing restrictions of the last few years which have steered development towards low potential area blocking access to high valued resources like critical minerals. these are the building blocks for our economy and our national defense. we cannot afford to let bureaucratic delays jeopardize our future. housing shortages across the west present another daunting challenge that we have to face by working with state and local governments to identify underutilized federal land department could finally comment meaningfully alleviate the housing crisis in places like utah where the demand for affordable homes far exceed supply bills like my house this act would provide a long-term

strategy and a strong framework for such partnerships. showing federal land policy can drive solutions rather than creating obstacles. the colorado river a lifeline for millions across the west faces a growing threat of effective fumigation support from the department of the interior, states negotiate the rivers future will be critical to safeguarding that vital resource. our national parks also require at renewed attention these iconic landscapes are a source of pride and major economic driver for the gateway communities surrounding them. according to some holes there are one of the few features of the federal government people actually like so it's got to take care of them. the department must work to bounce accessibility with conservation, ensuring visitors can enjoy these treasures without compromising the future. this will require stronger partnerships with local stakeholders to address infrastructure needs and manage

visitor impacts. on regulatory front, the misuse of the endangered species act's iscause significant harm by helping development projects and undermining state authority. esa is an essential tool for protecting species and must be applied judiciously coordination with local governments to avoid unnecessary conflict. governor burgum your track record uniquely positions you to leave the department of interior during this challenging time. your vision and your leadership will be instrumental to restoring balance to federal policies ensuring public lands are managed with accountability and with care. utah stands ready to work with you in tackling these challenges and charting a new course that reflects the principles of federalism and respect for local communities. utah stands ready to work with you in tackling these challenges and charting a new course i

would invite you to visit utah as soon as you have a chance to see firsthand the opportunities and the challenges we face. that hearing we are having today marks the beginning of essential conversation about the future of the department of the interior. i look forward to hearing your perspective exploring ways we can work together to address these pressing issues thank you again for your willingness to serve i really look forward to our discussion today. going to turn the time over to ranking member from new mexico. >> thank you chairman and governor burgum welcome to the energy and natural resources committee. good conversation next week last week i am looking for to your answers today. i too want to begin by acknowledging the horrific wildfires in california over the last couple of weeks. and haven't spoken to many of my members on the dais i know you're going to get some questions about that and in

particular about firefighters how we make sure they are supported. department of interior has responsibility for an incredibly broad away of issues from conserving the places that americans love to spend time with their families, to protecting and recovering our most iconic wildlife species to delivering water to cities and farms across the west. in fulfilling her responsibility to tribal nations. pretty much any job that involves responsibilities that range from elementary school students in healthcare, to bison is a pretty big job. public lands were big go to camp, hike, hunt, fish and spend time with our families where veterans go to seek the peace and solitude their service to our country cannot always provide. while there are some who argued the very existence of public

lands places like yosemite are the national forests are unconstitutional. most americans know the idea of lands that belong to everyone. no matter where they live or who their parents are how thick or thin their wallet is is one of the most democratic ideas from our nation. i hope you'll join me in keeping public lands and public hands. the interior department is a leader in meeting our trust responsibility tribal nations in upholding the treaty commitment that we, as a nation to drive members. as a nation as we discussed in my office we routinely fall short of meeting those commitments. we can and we must do better. as a relentless pace of climate change brings bigger floods, hotter summers, higher winds as we have seen in california,

diminished snowpack which we are experienced in new mexico. it's also driving the long-term a ratification of the united states over the next 50 years is expected in mexico have 25% less water than we have had historically but we are not alone in that. the colorado river provides drinking water for 40 million people here gates and billions of dollars worth of crops provides essential habitat for fish and wildlife and will likely never return to those early 20th century flows that we used to be able to expect. through the bureau of reclamation the department of interior must play an active role in helping the west transition to that new water reality. and as you know the interior department is also an energy department. as we make the transition to cleaner energy economy land and water managed by the department will play an indispensable role

in producing the energy that we need. as well as facilitating to move that energy around the country from geothermal and hydrogen to solar and wind, the departments work as of the government very much for all these topics very. we are not going to your introductions from north dakota delegation. first will hear from center hoban. >> thank you chairman lee also ranking member heinrich appreciate that and think of holding this hearing today doug, welcome to you and catherine welcome to you it's great to see you guys think of incredible service on behalf of north dakota. it really isn't on her due to her energy and natural resources committee. senator cramer, welcome you as

well good to have you here. i'm not sure where to start i've known doug for more than 30 years. we have been working in various capacities for the duration. as well as being a very good friend both doug and catherine to myself and my wife. on behalf of her well reading. thanks for your willingness to serve. of course open. then as i know full of this beautiful action.

talk a little bit about our shared time together and friendship. came back there's this software company great plains software along with the list of relatives bought it and went to work and started hiring these kids these young people from across north dakota to develop a software company. i went to his office over 30 years ago he was in their companies eight by eight floppy disks into sleeves and they put them into boxes put them in larger boxes and their shipping on said what is this? what are you doing? i then learned all about if you know doug it's true all about pc software he built that company up, sold it or went public in 1997 with a part sold it to microsoft in 2001.

that became microsoft business solutions. microsoft business solutions had its genesis and great plains software. doug run microsoft business solutions for a number of years kept it there in fargo. it was the largest location for microsoft outside of bellevue, washington had working for him from across the state. left that after a while started summer companies bring winter philanthropy including some really great things for north dakota state university and other things revitalized in many respects downtown fargo with his real estate development. in 1997 when i was governor given the theodore roosevelt rough rider award the highest award. i remember cap him looking at me at the time jean john, i hope i'm not done accomplishing things. and obviously work, doug. ran for governor in 2016.

one, ran again and 21 overwhelmingly mostly because of catherine may think, but by big majority. did a great job as governor but ran for president was the first of the presidential candidates when he left the race to endorse president trump. president trump, right from the get-go and count multi the same thing he was excited about doug from the jump the guy at rant against you, really? i never anything but great things to say about doug and of course catherine, which we all understand. but he endorse president trump. what trump saw was someone who truly understands energy for the trump administration is such a big energy agenda he knew this was a guide to lead it's not just about leading the department of interior but leading the national energy council as with president trump

as seen in him. but that being said there's a a lot of things that interior touches. this is a guy that loves the outdoors he's got a ranch, he loves to be outdoors writing courses, rounding up cattle, he loves to hunt so he loves the outdoors heat loveseat national nationalpark system he is a his. he would even challenge you for trivial knowledge of history. an important knowledge of history but just any detail head to head you guys would be fun to listen to for a while. and so he loves the outdoors. he loves the park system talk to folks he's worked with in indian country. every single tribe in north dakota we have five reservations a lot more tribes than that every single tribe has endorsed him.

you. that says something for this is something about a guy is willing to sit down and talk to folks. this is a guy who fits this job for he really does. it covers all of the basis to help everyone on this committee will take time and visit with him. i'm understand him where he is coming from understand he will take time to understand your issues and work with you. you will find this is the right man, the right fit for this job. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you chairman lee ranking member and congratulations to both of you on your leadership of this important committee. let me start out by doing what i always do best at that is to agree with john hoeven. that worked very well for me in my career. what struck me right away he

starts talking like a governor look around the room it brings up angus, i'm in the former governors club you and have a lot of great things to talk about. there is so much to be said john the senate very, very well. i'm going to highlight a couple of things. to trump confidence in doug berg of you to call me a lot even call me when doug was his opponent and said i like that doug burgum guy a lot but he's so smart, he's so good comes got a big brain, he understands everything, that he does, he does he will be very, very valuable to you and your service. and i think as a consumer as governor burgum and first lady catherine are consumers of these incredible assets of ours are great rich properties are rick readers understanding the value

of that it brings to agriculture responsible extraction of minerals. one of things often times is not get talked about disease not just an oil man from oil and gas producing state. it is first and foremost a conservationist he is from the land of roosevelt. he absolutely relentlessly carried the ball to ensure the theodore roosevelt presidential library gets built and that it gets built in north dakota at the gate with the theodore roosevelt national park so it can become the symbol of responsible extraction of minerals the responsible production of federal assets in a way that exercises great care for the land and the water and the air as well as great economic opportunity for the people that on these assets. that is a remarkable balance that he brings to this.

with such a great honor for me too be here with him to talk about the multiple uses of our federal assets in ways that recognize their value in so many ways. i'll just wrap up with this because john just did such a great job. i want to read one short paragraph from one of the letters from the tribes. i don't many tribes throughout the country have written letters. over my years of public service in north dakota and working hard at relationships with tribal leaders in recognizing government to government relationships, the thing that has impressed me the most perhaps about what doug burgum as a governor was the respect he always showed for them. it has been reciprocated because he did the hard thing.

he earned the trust that had been lost. not by a former governors so much as just by history. by history. it is hard work to do that. i'm going to close mr. chairman want to read a paragraph from chairwoman from standing rock sioux tribe in north and south dakota. probably one of the bit more challenging relationships in recent years it has been over the desoto access high point in that tribe. with different leadership could have divided people in a big way.

but even through that, through all of that he earned their support i'm going to read the short paragraph in and with my thanks to you for allowing me this opportunity. my thanks to you doug for allowing me this blessing. governor burgum understands that native american dynamic which if you are non- native can be difficult to maneuver. but he does it well he understands the importance of honoring traditional values and culture promoting family first, remembering who we are and where we came from. the struggles we endure in the community wellness prestress my honor to be able introduce him today look forward to a successful confirmation and working together. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator kramer. and also senator hoeven. governor burgum the rules of the committee require quote at any hearing to confirm a presidential nomination the testimony the nominee

accordingly if you will please stand and reach her ahead of mrr the testimony about to give for the senate committee on energy and natural resource of the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? >> thank you. now before i have you begin your opening statement i'll ask three questions that are addressed each nominee you comes before the committee. for us to be a bill to appear before this committee other congressional committees to represent departmental positions and respond to issues of concern to the congress? >> yes. >> you aware of any personal holding investments or interests that could constitute a conflict of interest or create the appearance of such a conflict should you be confirmed and assume the office to which you have been nominated by the president? >> no. are you involved or do you have any assets that are held in a blind trust? >> no i do not.

>> i will invite you now to introduce your family before you give your opening statement. >> good morning. thank you, senator lee, senator heinrich, grateful to have the opportunity. thank you for your leadership on this committee. i do want to begin with gratitude as i always do the special thank you to my friend senator hoeven, senator cramer not just for the kind words this morning but their incredible service to the country into north dakota over their lifetimes. senator lee as you acknowledge i'm deeply grateful this for the support of all of my friends, family, especially her three kids my amazing and courageous former first lady and my wife catherine gentry was joining her today. it certainly an honor to be served as the 55th secretary of the interior. as senator hoeven said i grew up in north dakota at the tiny town of about 400 people we did not

even have paved streets when i grew up it was all gravel it was 400 if you counted everyone who is also saying in the good samaritan on that's how we got the 400. my father was a world war ii navy officer who served in the pacific. my dad died as a freshman in high school my mom back to work in higher education. i was blessed to learn from them about the service of leadership and sacrifice certainly from both of them about a love of the outdoors growing up i worked in a family grain elevator. every job i had probably through junior high to the end of college was when the required showing at the end of the day and at the beginning of the day i even worked my way through undergrad at north dakota state as a chimney sweep which i loved that job you could move up fast and always stay in the black. if i was a perfect career. after grad school as john mentioned i had an opportunity to go directly from undergrad to

stanford later is working in chicago is so my first apple ii computer that was the moment literally where i said i need to get into the software business i had inherited one or 60 acres of farmland for my dad i literally bet the farm on that tiny software it started called great plains with a dream and hard-working team members with routable global company with over 2000 team members serving businesses over 100 countries around the world press spent my entire professional career in the private sector until i was elected governor in 2016 for the last eight years and am blessed with the privilege of serving the citizens of the great state of north dakota. my time as a governor's been a valuable preparation for the opportunity and the privilege potentially service the role of secretary of interior as our state and my duties specifically as governor there put me in contact with the many bureaus inside the department. in north dakota we shared geography with five sovereign tribal nation state and tribal relationships in north dakota have sometimes been challenged. the current partnership is historically strong we

prioritize tribal engagement deep mutual respect, open communication, collaboration, and a sincere willingness to listen. i'm grateful to the many tribal nations inside and outside of north dakota for expressing their support for my nomination. as governor of north dakota i served as chairman of the land board which manages our states lands and minerals with fielding return for the state endowment fund significantly fund public education. i care north dakota industrial commission which will receive 16 agencies related to a variety of things including energy research, states geological research, energy production and transmission. the governor of north dakota serves at the chair of the state and water commission are resetting bones of dollars of water resource and project. all these are parallel responsibilities to interior and often interacted with interior agencies. north dakota's blessed with a rugged natural beauty including

the majesty of the theater roosevelt national park hummed at theodore roosevelt alcorn ranch is considered by many to be the cradle of modern conservation. we have beautiful badlands, like to note here on the record are balance are significantly battered then south dakota's in badlands. [laughter] are tremendously battered even close. in addition that great prayers, world renowned agriculture managing hunting and fishing for season outdoor recreation much much more. in north dakota we create a prosperous economy by sustainably developing our natural resources along with our respect for the land and the wildlife and at the same time having among the cleanest air cleanest water in the country. during our tenure north dakota experience among the lowest unemployment in the nation and the highest real gdp growth demographically went from when the oldest states to the youngest we had track at record levels of talent and investment capitol. i say this because it was under

been by the understanding we live in a time of tremendous, tremendous abundance we can access that abundance as americans by prioritizing innovation overregulation. if given the opportunity to serve as secretary of interior i will bring those experiences and those lessons learned to the leadership of the tens of thousands of dedicated professionals within the department of interior. which brings us to president trump's vision for a vibrant future we can achieve together. the american people up cooler place our confidence in president trump to achieve energy dominance. by energy dominance at the foundation of american prosperity, affordability for american families, unrivaled national security. today, america produces energy cleaner, smarter and safer than anywhere in the world energy production is restricted in america, i does not reduce demand shift production to countries like russia and iran as leaders not only don't care

at all about the environment, but use their revenues from energy sales to fund wars against us and our allies. president trump energy dominance vision will end the wars abroad will make life more affordable for every family in america but driving down inflation. president trump will achieve those goals while champion clean air, clean water protecting our beautiful land. next to the national park we are building theodore roosevelt presidential library and museum to honor the leader who advised america to walk softly, speak softly and carry a big stick. and our time president trump's energy dominance can be america's biggest stick. what we leverage to achieve historic prosperity and world peace. they department of interior in cooperation with the u.s. congress, this committee and the states will play a pivotal role in achieving the outcomes to make the world safer and america even better for our children, our grandchildren and generations to come.

i thank you for inviting me here today i look forward to your questions in our discussion. burgum will be in our first round of five-minute questions will alternate back and forth between republicans and democrats. i will go first in tenor heinrich and so and so forth an order of seniority and arrival at the hearing preowned stocks start by talking briefly about the antiquities act passed over a century ago by congress that gives the president unilaterally to declare national monuments at this restriction and that at tht requires national monuments occupy no more land that is compatible to the smallest area compatible with the interest to be protected by the monument.

these have become something of a political football parts of the country especially in my states president clinton to designate the grand staircase escalante national monument in 1986 president obama added the monument in 2016 shortly before he left office. both of these objections were made -- in both these designations are made over the objection of the people of utah and their elected representatives. president trump later reduced the size of both monuments in 2017 after he got elected to bring them more into conformity with the antiquities act requirement minimal boundaries. then in 2021 president biden re- expanded them exceeding disregarded local input. as i explained to president biden at the time the size of two delaware is within the state

not that there's beautiful to protect in the state the line was drawn so big local leaders were not consulted they were heard council was ignored. governor burgum i'd like to invite you to visit utah to meet with those of his voices were ignored by the by administration during the monument re- expansions. we work with me too try to fix that current mess and figure how to best proceed and to make sure the antiquities act designated monuments do not exceed the restriction within the statute itself? 1905 antiquities act was signed

into president roosevelt himself as you stated multiple times it states very clearly at the smallest area possible to protect those objects to be protected its original intention was to protect as it says antiquities. there is like indiana jones type protection these are essentially protect these areas as a country that is with the law was intended. i look forward to working with you. particular in the area local consultation. when the federal government overreaches into a state like yours that's already has over 60% of its land and public lands restricts that usages got tremendous impact on tribes, on the local communities and those around i think it's important that we strike the right balance. i look forward to working with you on this issue. >> thank you. i appreciate that. housing is another area i would like to address briefly. you said a particular acute housing shortage in the west. where the presence of federal land not just the presence but the predominance of federal land

available for housing frequently results in shortages it makes a lot of things difficult. it's not as though we have one part of the state that's all federal another part of the state that all nonfederal it is all intermingled it's a result that impacts all kinds of things. many of our communities and states like utah and nevada among others, find ourselves feeling like we are islands of floating islands within ac of federal land and that constrains growth makes our constraints and our housing supply that much more dire. i would love to work with the owner bill i've introduce that i worked on for several years called the houses act.

and to looking forward other creative ways to address the housing affordability crisis in the west, annual review, how could the department of the interior help address the housing crisis in areas like my state where the presence of federal land often inhibits community needs? >> understand with the great challenges were facing in this nation right now is housing affordability and then my discussion and friendship with governor spencer cox of your state know it is a high-protein for him and for the state. i think there are opportunities for us to accomplish both. like you said we are in the time of abundance. we have federal lands abutting urban areas we maybe have other areas that need to be protected like we have done in north dakota as governor but sometimes we have done land swaps we create state plan for private land to provide better outcomes

for both of those pieces of land. i think there are certainly opportunities here public lands in general. some like the national parks absolutely we need to support and protect every single inch of those. but, in other cases of multiple use scenario or our lands. i believe there are pathways we can find particular in states like yourselves and others that have 50, 60% or more of your land held by the federal government we can find appropriate solutions help address the housing. i look forward to working with you on that. >> thank you governor see my time is expired. we'll turn the time over to senator heinrich. >> governor, i want to continue on that same vein. i had a very long and detailed question written by my staff i'm going to depart from go to the heart of the issue which is i think what people are concerned about and this was a very hot issue this year because of legal action is the idea we would somehow in a wholesale way they best of our public lands. so talk a little bit about that. how we can stay true to a conservation history.

make sure the things we do in our public land especially bit economically, recreationally and they play such an essential cultural role in states like mine can be supported while making smart decisions about individual parcels. >> thank you, senator heinrich. we have to look no further than new mexico for the answer to the fact we can find the balance. i know senator hoeven and i mexico past north dakota's number two gas producer in the state yet your state's got a tremendous record of protecting cultural and historical lands in

providing that balance. so i think there are certain the opportunity to find that balance going forward were we could protect a land that we need to protect but also solve issues. whether it's housing or resource development that may be of interest to the tribe and the local communities. >> that is something we really pride ourselves on in new mexico. we have been able to strike a balance. we have been able to be an energy leader on many fronts. and at the same time we have created a number of national monuments that are not controversial. they are deeply supported by local leaders. bite veterans groups, by tribes, by hunters and fishermen alike. i would just simply ask that

before the department makes wholesale changes to conservation designations in the state of new mexico at least, that you would meet with myself and any local leaders who helped to create those designations in the first place. >> yes we look forward to those discussions. and if you have described the key to this is local consultation as it senator lee and other states have experience serving incidents where there is been complete and total opposition and no local consultation. again my experience as governor and working with tribes and work with local communities in north dakota whether it's raising associations, county commissioners, mayors, rural residents, i think the consultation is key. >> part of that consultation is also those tribes that have current and historic connections to those places as well, right? what's absolutely. as a former outfitter guide, i'm quite excited this senate in this body just past the explorer

act. it is the first major piece of outdoor recreation legislation senator barrasso was incredibly involved in that as with senator manchin permitting reform is something i worked on in that piece of legislation. it's kind of a recognition of the big economic driver of our public land that often does not get the same attention the energy and other uses cap. outdoor recreation in new mexico is responsible for something like 29000 jobs and billions of dollars of impact on a national scale it's over trillion dollar economy. talk again about how we can balance those competing issues as you did as governor and support the outdoor recreation economy it is a growing and particularly critical to our rural gateway communities. >> first i would just like to

say this is a really important topic but it's also a passion of mine is someone who spent my life as an avid outdoorsman i was very pleased to get the full endorsement of the outdoor recreation roundtable for the truck what represent the trillion dollar industry. it represents all these different aspects. i think the opportunity in most states i recognize this as governor. i created office of outdoor recreational as governor and to continue to invest whether that's access to fishing and hunting public access in public lands, got a number of great things going on in north dakota we have done there that have been really helpful including using technology but we took the posting requirements and are in. we got the land owners, the pheasant hunters, the water fowl hunters got everyone to agree on that. we create a tool even for hunting you can look on your

phone and find out whether land is posted or not posted. it might be posted note for deer hunting, yes for pheasant hunting and includes a phone number it's posted if you call and talk to me i might let you on but the landowner's name and phone numbers right there. we've been out to find tools to bring together land owners and sportsmen on private lands as well as public lands to try to make sure we can keep the outdoor economy rolling. >> thank you. quick senator daines? >> chairman, thank you. governor burgum welcome. welcome the first lady it's good to have you both here. if confirmed, you'll be a thin line of succession of the united states, governor. that goes in line when the departments became part of the

nine states government that's back in 1849. the oldest agency within interior is the bureau of indian affairs. i think it's only fitting before i can answer my questions in my remarks if i might submit a letter for the record from the coalition of large tribes of which some of my comments three of my 12 federally recognized are part you have five recognized tribes but, if i just read the letter they wrote in your support it says it has been incredible for colt tribes to have a close supporter nominated

the secretary's office. he is someone whom we have deep trust and confidence. we have gone to mother most complex difficult issues over many years he is exactly the kind of leader tribes need at the interior department. they close in the letter by saying this, governor burgum has a cult highest recommendation and endorsement to serve as the next secretary of the interior mr. [cheering] to submit the letter for the record. quick to that objection. >> governor, last week the fish and wildlife service denied montana and wyoming's petitions to d list the greater yellowstone ecosystem and the continental divide ecosystem grizzly bears because these two

populations have exceeded recovery targets by so much the service no longer believes the two populations are even distinct. we should be celebrating the fact the grizzly bear has recovered. as an example of a great species now that has recovered is prolific across ecosystems. sadly this ruling punishes montana's successful grizzly bear recovery efforts. it's really completely backwards. we should be celebrating the recovery. but instead were having to

sacrifice to adjust the losses by livestock producers as well as human safety. sadly many montanans have been killed, badly molted by grizzly bears. the people back home take this very, very seriously. literally got to the point along the rocky mountains front west of great falls the playgrounds of one of our schools have high fence to protect the children from grizzly bears and they go out for recess. the service keep moving the goalposts for delisting returning these barriers to state management or absolute belongs like was done with the wolves the service set recovery numbers at 50800 respectively for the greater yellowstone ecosystem and the northern continental divide ecosystem. the most recent estimate is now best science 2100 bears in the

two ecosystems. governor burgum would you acknowledge the data shows the recovery of the two populations commit to working with me to delist them? daines i am aware of the data this is a super important issue i know too montanans into people in wyoming and idaho. i am with you we should be celebrating when species come off the endangered species list as opposed to fighting everywhere we can to try to keep them on that list. because as you say the complications and the other thing you mentioned your remarks is also this state having been a governor i understand how dedicated the state fish and

wildlife representatives are for miami, all of the folks as the chair of western governors i came to understand how dedicated the state officials are there is a belief when they come up a withfederal protection there unprotected. no, they are managed as they are all the other species in the state by the locals who got the closest data. yes, pledge to work with on this issue. >> thank you governor. the biden administration's been slow walking three critical permits for coal mines in montana. the boat mountain mine south of around a paid rosebud mine supplies coal for coal strip in the spring creek mine in southeast montana are in desperate need to finalize permits. the bull mountain had to lay up hard-working montanans because the biden office of surface mining has refused to finish the reviews. my question is, went confirmed or will you prioritize completing these permit so montana families don't lose their jobs? quick senator daines, this is part of a larger crisis our nation is facing around electricity.

we have a shortage of electricity especially shortage of baseload. we know we have the technology to deliver clean coal. we are doing that in north dakota. senator hoeven and others began these efforts over two decades ago. we have an opportunity to d carbonized produce clean coal in with that produce reliable baseload. and so again we absolute would want to work with you on this issue. this is on the critical to our national security without baseload were going to lose the arms race to china. if we lose the race to china that has direct impacts on our national security in the future of this country. >> was determined one final statement and i will complete my questions. i want to quickly close by highlighting the importance of ability work with senator king of maine we cochair the national parks subcommittee. we are proud of the fact that no matter which way the gavel goes,

it goes back and forth over time in the u.s. senate. angus and king and i always cochairs to work together on behalf of the national parks. i'm working with him to reauthorize the national parks and public land at legacy legacy restoration fund. it's critical to address deferred maintenance challenge we face with a great public lands. president trump signed the greatest conservation in 50 years when he signed the great america outdoors act. i think vice adjournment heinrich for helping so much in the great american outdoors act by president trump was a great step forward.

>> were you aware of this testimony? >> senator, i'm not aware of this specific testimony, i know within fossil fuels the concern has been about emissions and within emissions we have technology to do things like carbon capture. >> you have military leaders

that acknowledge that climate is a major issue and for you to take the position to engage in -- result in burning of more fossil fuel is troubling. >> as secretary of interior, it is your duty to see that the department carries out its mission to protect and manage our national -- national nation's natural resources and cultural heritage. if you're ordered by the president to act in a manner that's counter to the department's mission or to the constitution such as drilling in bear ears national monument, will you do as the president asked because he wants to drill in that monument?

>> senator, as part of sworn duty, i will follow the law and follow the constitution and so you can count on that and i have not heard of any -- >> well -- >> anything about president trump want to go do anything other than advancing energy production for the benefit of the american people. >> we all know that the president wants to drill baby drill and in your testimony you say that he has energy dominance vision, so i would ask you that should you be confirmed that you will have these kinds of matters that you'll have to decide, are you going to drill in monument, are you going to protect our natural resources or are you going to drill baby drill and i raise that as a concern with you going forward. last year congress renewed our compact association and that

comes within the purview of interior and involves islands. i would like to get your commitment in accordance with bipartisan law that was enacted last year. >> well, senator, these pacific islands in addition to the 3 that you mentioned that are part of the compact but also the others that are under interior all critically important to national security for the united states of america, all of them have important military implications, all of these are place where is u.s. sailors fought and died during world war ii and with the aggression that china is showing and the pacific it's more important that we support them more than ever. i know that hawaii plays an important role including in things with medical care for those residents of those islands

and i think it's important that the federal government does its share as opposed to -- >> thank you, sounds like you have familiarity with the compacts for which i'm gratified. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator justice? >> my questions are going to be short and sweet but i can tell you just this, i think that we share in the fact that energy, energy is the key, energy, gosh, i don't have my mic on. okay. okay. good enough. i'm talking loud enough anyway. but nevertheless, energy is such a key, such a key that opens every door in my opinion, every

single door and america is starving to lead the way and i believe we share that thought, i believe we share the thought that electricity if we don't watch out will become a crisis like we can't imagine and we absolutely need to be prepared and move forward in that but we've got a problem along the way, permitting has gotten totally outrageous and absolutely we all wanted to be fair and proper and not endanger our environment. we all share in that but absolutely, i ask you, governor, i ask you, please tell us your thoughts on how we are going to approach this, how we are going to approach the issues with fish and wildlife and on and on and on, please tell us. >> well, i should say governor now senator so great that you're here in the senate and what a fantastic job you did as governor and pleasure serving along side with you as another energy state.

you've got everything just -- you get that we are in an energy crisis in our country and the first place is actually related to electricity, electricity is at the brink or grid at a point where it can go completely unstable. we could be just months away from having skyrocketing prices for americans and, of course, as we talked about in the ai arms race, we need electricity for manufacturing and ai is manufacturing intelligence and if we don't manufacture more intelligence than our adversaries it affects every job, every industry and you understand this and we have to get to work. the permitting right now and some 7 years or longer and, and completely cue is 95% intermittent sources and only 5% base load. we need base load to be able to allow the renewables to be part

of the system. we have to have the balance between the two of the grid which is like a giant measure which doesn't work. we have to get to work and permitting reform and speeding permitting right now we've stacked the deck where we are creating road blocks for people that want to do base load and we've got massive tax incentives for people who want to do intermittent and we can do that and still achieve objectives of having cleaner environment because the u.s. has done that. we are the one nation on the planet that's actually reduced co2 over the last 20 years. we are the ones that have done it. china has doubled co2 only2 omi. >> now just the fact ask up with more question and shift just a little bit. we all know the outdoors touches

our soul and i'm outdoorsman like crazy. i enjoy fishing across the nation and especially many any home state of west virginia and i welcome you to come to west virginia to experience just what i'm speaking of, but i will just say just this, we have an attack our sport of hunter and first fishing.and i know you share mye just as much i know my love. with all that being said, what will you do to ensure that we will perpetuate this unbelievable tradition to our youth, to our youth and all those to come, what will you do, sir? >> well, senator, in north carolina we've taken steps as i know other states have done to

create youth hunting seasons, youth hunter education, make it more believable. create more opportunities as we have also done for disabled and wounded veterans but when we have public lands and we've got public access, the greatest conservationist in our country and some are probably listening today, the rocky mountain elk foundation, ducks unlimited, you name any of these organizations, they are the ones that raise the money that actually pour dollars in conservation in the country. hunters, safari club, all of the different groups and, of course, president roosevelt, theater roosevelt, one of the founders, he was the hunter who set the ethic for conservation for the country and the two things go hand in hand. you cannot separate hunting from the love of outdoors, respect for wildlife and dollars that flow back in habitat and making sure that we've got a hunting, we've got the privilege of hunting for the public, doesn't

matter who you are in north dakota you can get a 20-dollar tag and go on a hunt just as amazing as you if you were going to africa. it is a miracle that we have in this country, one of the few countries that has done, something that we have to fight and protect to preserve. >> thank you, sir and i've only got -- >> in my book, this man, just think just for one second, he's super smart. his track record is unbelievable. he has experience off the chart. if anybody is the pick of the litter, it's got to be this man, he's done an amazing job but he's got courage like you can't imagine just think about this, he stood on one leg, at the debate and absolutely with a torn achilles and i've been a

coach forever in basketball and i've seen kids get a torn achilles and absolutely it is one serious injury and how you did this i will never know but nevertheless i give him kudos for courage beyond belief, thank you so much, sir. >> thank you, senator. >> maybe you will tell us some day. we can save that for another day. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i associate myself with sportsman look forward to working with you on those issues. i visited your wonderful state, camped there, visited michael bloomberg and with senator kramer and i must say man, the flattest place i've ever been in any life and the good thing about it if your dog runs away,

you can still see him after 3 days. but, i also want to complete you people talk about all above strategy, you did it, you implemented in north dakota. over 30%, 36% of your electricity comes from wind and i hope one of the projects you might undertake when -- if and when you are confirmed, he is well known for his opposition to wind power but you know that the benefits are there, of course, base load is also important, storage is important to balance the grid. i understand that but coming from a state where 35, 36% of your electricity came from wind, i hope that you can talk to the president about the fact that wind has its virtues and can contribute significantly because we are as you note facing a huge

energy challenge over the next 15 to 20 years to support the knowledge economy. we undertake that project. >> senator, senator king, certainly you've got great wind resources in maine, you've got great wind resources in florida. not every state is lucky to have that. the wind is -- well, the background helps on that, very few trees to stop the wind but i would say the -- the key here you mentioned is base load versus intermittent because you have to have the right balance and maybe tipped a little too far in one direction so i think that's the key piece. >> key short-term emergency. >> but you do see the value of wind power, a third of your state's electricity comes from that. >> and most of that we export and i think our neighbors are happy to have that but i would also say that, again, it is -- we need an all of the above strategies and what we've had in north dakota. >> and the balance.

>> we need more, we need more and the thing we are short of most right now is base load. >> well, maine has asset similar to yours offshore and the department of the interior executed several leases recently and i hope i can have your commitment to continue those leases and that i will produce enough energy for all the homes in maine, new hampshire and vermont. it's an enormous resource in the gulf of maine that can provide significant energy. capacity factor is significant higher than terrestrial wind. i hope that your department will continue with the projects that are already under way, will you commit to that? >> i'm not familiar with every project that the interior has underway but i will certainly be taking a look at all of those and they make sense and they're already in law, they will continue. i think the key is -- and i think president trump has been very clear in statements that

he's concerned about, the significant amount of tax incentives that have gone towards some forms of energy that have helped exacerbate this imbalance that we are seeing right now today. >> you talked briefly to your -- some of the other questions about permitting reform and i was involved in the discussions with senator barrasso, senator manchin and others about the permitting bill, unfortunately we couldn't get across the goal line at the end of last congress. i presume that permitting reform is not only for generation projects but transmission, you appreciate the difficulty of permitting transmission assets particularly in the west? >> well, yes, and i think that this is one of the -- one of the challenges of our time and it's one of the challenges that we need to undertake whether it's a transmission line, a pipeline, whatever happens to be trying to get built, it just take too long in our country and if we don't have -- if we don't have -- one thing to be able to generate that electric but if we don't have the ability to transmit it

to places where it's needed, that's going to be a problem. >> exactly. >> senator has mentioned act that we have introduced. one of the most successful initiatives of the trump administration, i remember, working with secretary zenke on that project. so i'm gratified to hear that support for that proposal. trying to point -- we talked about -- and that takes about the backlog of maintenance in the national parks, public lands. one of the problems is the department has chronically underfunded maintenance on an ongoing basis. in other words, we are being asked to create -- to fix a backlog frankly should not have twisted and i hope that you will work with a national park service and office of management and budget to be sure that a sufficient fund is allocated to ongoing maintenance so we don't continue to dig the hole deeper.

>> well, i agree with you on that. this is one of the things when i came in as business government i was shocked to find out that we in north dakota didn't have an appropriate formulas for funding deferred maintenance. everybody was happy to approve appropriations to build new buildings but it was tough to get a dime to take care of the ones we already have and i think that this is you want to take a look at procedurally within interior. i know that we've got over 2400 locations i'm told in terms of where -- where we have people stationed. we just got to make sure not just the national parks but across the whole department but we have to get the formulation right because we are creating liabilities for future generations if we are not taking care of that deferred maintenance. >> i can tell that the formula is not right so i encouraging you to take that stamp. thank you very much, governor, for joining us and look forward to hearing from you further in this hearing. >> thank you.

>> senator mccormick? >> governor, good to see you. great meeting i guess a week or two ago. i'm looking forward to that. i know we have that energy state governors. we would like to think the path energy dominance goes through keystone states. i'm glad to have you here before us today. when we met, we talk thed about an energy innovation summit that i'm planning to do later this year where we bring energy companies, ai companies as well as big investors and opportunity to really celebrate and is also make more progress on president trump's vision of energy dominance, happy to talk to you about that, look forward to working with you and just hoping i can start with getting your support to work with me closely and make that a reality. >> well, i think it's a great idea, senator, i think it is -- it's absolutely true the keystone state is the key and

there's such a resource there. i mean, wow, so few americans understand that pennsylvania is now producing 20% of our nation's natural gas and, of course, the fact that innovators and in the private sector invested the whole shell revolution that god created in this country has been a miracle. we went from being a -- one of the largest importers of energy to one of the largest exporters and at the time, russia, you know, they ran a campaign with all of the siops they have. we can't be naive. they pounded europe to shut down all the base load so they could buy natural gas from russia. then they invaded russia invades ukraine. russia makes banks like they've never before and tries to reopen their base load power plants. they are doing all that. if america hadn't come to the rescue with l&g exports from our

country to western europe, this thing could have escalating even beyond the tragedy that we see today in ukraine. >> i couldn't agree more. that really relates to my second question across great country can't get access to l&g. we need to expand exports and huge win and create a lot of great jobs for americans, a lot of great jobs for pennsylvanians, national energy council. how will you work with the administration to increase natural gas production and new export terminals, get new export terminals online in places like pennsylvania as quickly as possible.

at the time of russian invasion not only had western europe become dependent, we were off loading hundreds of thousands of barrels of heating oil. >> boston harbor. >> we have a national security issue and we've got to be able to get clean u.s. energy to every state in transportation network whether it's pipelines or transmission lines to do that. at a time of risk of global risk like we are now and global national security to not be -- to be in a position where we are exposed to supply change that depend on our adversaries

whether it's critical minerals with china or whether it's heating oil from russia or uranium from russia. >> pennsylvania has thousands of orphan wells that need to be plugged. many states have programs to plug well that is have worked pretty well over many years. i'm concerned that the federal funding that's available from that is being held up for a number of projects because of red tape and so secretary will you streamline these requirements so states like mine can quickly access the much-needed funding to plug these wells? >> well, this is -- i don't want to say a passion project because i'm passionate about a lot of things but the federal legislation which was put in place during -- after the pandemic was modeled after something we created in north dakota and i want to thank senator, senator kramer for their work on doing that.

pennsylvania, of course, you guys have been producing and drilling oil wells since 1880's. north dakota's first one was until 1951, we've got ours down now in north dakota to under 200. there are other states that have tens of thousands of orphan wells. the technology is there, we can clean it up and there's ways to do that and it can be great for the local economy, great for -- and you can count on my support. >> look forward working with you. >> part of it, the u.s. can be energy dominant but we have to maintain our -- the path that you're on. we do it cleaner, safer than anybody else in the world and we have to maintain that. >> thank you. senator cortez masto. >> governor, good to see you, thank you for meeting with me. welcome to your wife katherine,

good name. thank you very much. let me just -- we talked a little bit about this but i want to bring this to the public as well because senator lee and i do have a lot in common when it comes to public lands that most of the lands in the state of nevada, about 85% are owned by the federal government and he's right, we have to manage not only our housing issues but economic development unlike some of the states where you own most of the land and so we are always looking for that partnership with our federal partners and nevada has a successful track record when it comes to bringing different parties together to create that balance of releasing public land for that needed development, conserving land, addressing various land management needs and an example of that collaboration is my southern nevada lands bill and so i am hopeful that based on your comments already to my colleague that you believe in balance land use, the key to

that is local consultation and state consultation, i agree so i'm hoping that you will be willing to work with us as we address in nevada our housing needs which is an issue as well as economic development and work with me on my southern nevada lands bill in the state of nevada, would you commit to doing that? >> absolutely, senator. other than alaska, you're on top of the list in terms of having the most amount of, you know, federal land, you have some of the same challenges around affordable housing that senator lee is seeing in utah and with great success of population growth in southern nevada and great ideas of land exchange. you thought through it i can tell would look forward to working with you. thank you, i appreciate that. >> i want to thank on also a comment that you made tax incentives going towards some form of energy creates imbalance for base load. that's what i heard -- you made

the comment when we were together as well. in nevada it is important for us to absolutely have an opportunity to support public private partnerships in clean energy and i would imagine you support public private partnerships. >> if we spend tax dollar and match it 2 or 3 with the private sector, that's one of the things we did in north dakota, both grow our economy and extend the return on investment for every taxpayer dollar and deficit. with that said, there's a rule for the federal government to be part of incentivizing and supporting those public-private partnerships, would you agree with that? >> yeah, where appropriate, absolutely. >> in nevada because of inflation reduction act as well as the bipartisan infrastructure package, we have benefited not only in nevada with jobs and

growing our economy but in contributing to national security and bringing back manufacture to go this country because we have critical michael bloomberging going on in nevada thanks to those pieces of legislation, we have the complete ecosystem for battery not only manufacturing but restoring and recycling as well and our energy now is both gas as well as -- >> yeah, that is certainly the future and like i said before, all of the above, we are short of electricity in this country. we have to make sure that we have the balance because if we don't have the base load, the intermittent, until we get

storage and storage is still a few years out to where we are going to be able to operate at grid scale to be able to make that work, until we get to that time we really have to have two systems. >> i agree but if we don't have incentives continue that researching and make sure it's happening, it's happening in nevada right now. >> yes. >> i've been to the facilities. i see it. if we don't have those incentives, then we are never going to get there and so my concern is and what i'm hearing is under this administration a shift from those incentives for renewables back fossil fuels and that's not going to do really to anybody in this country a benefit to -- at the end of the day leaning into clean energy, being dominant in that space of clean energy, protecting our national security when it comes to -- to that clean energy as well. so i do think there is a balance

approach here but not one at the expense of another and i'm hopeful based on your experience as governor, you find the balance approach for energy and every state is different based on geography that you will work with states as well and not takeaway an opportunity where they can have that balanced approach for energy, would you be willing to do that, stand up to the administration when it's somehow not a benefit what they are trying to do to a state -- like a state like nevada? .. ..

the current policy is hurting every american. it has not happened yet. it is coming soon. priority

to make sure we restore a balance to the grid. unreliable that tells us a little bit out of balance. we've got to bring it back apart .and keep moving forward. great opportunities with nevada. i would say critical minerals you mentioned i like you brought them up. in the ira we passed all kinds of incentives for electric vehicles at a time when china is controlling critical minerals in the world. sensing our independence on that major adversary we are in a cold war with china. where in the cyber or everyday with emperor and the side were

with them, every day we're being attacked by these folks to pick what you don't support the credits for electric vehicles and that something you support the administration? >> i support economics. it's over $900 per ton of co2 avoided. and in north dakota we can give you a liquid fuel with zero a zerocarbon in it for 60 bucks. so we are doing that rick today. i know my time is up i look for to talking with you about this think you appreciate it. quick senator hoeven? >> interchange demonstrates the kind of high level discussion governor burgum brings to these issues he really will work through these issues applies an analytical approach to problem-solving. i think that's really important for both sides of the aisle for that something people are going to very much appreciate about him. federal law requires on public

lands every multiple use riesling in the blm promulgated rules violate that law in my opinion. do you support multiple use on federal lands. i note you do but a way to express it for the record and tell us why it is so important to have multiple uses. not just on the statement across the country. >> thank you. the answer is obviously yes. this is public lands aspects of blm with its recreation opportunity and access whether it's timber or oil, gas and mineral production that supports the local economy and supports our country. that's what this land was put away for the benefit the use of the american people. not every acre of federal land

is a national park or wilderness area. we have to aptly protect for their precious stuff. the rest of it is america's balance sheet. every american during a presidential campaign finds out gets pounded into their head we got $36 trillion in debt. a mercantile part of the national debt 36 trillion is on you. whenever talk about the assets. the assets aren't land and mineral. this department of interior has got close to 500 million acres of surface 700 million acres of sub service over 2 billion acres of offshore. we were a company they would look at us and say you are really restricting your balance sheet. do you know what this assets are worth? i don't i believe we ought to have a deep inventory of all the assets in america. we got to understand what her

towing, 200 trillion? we could be in great shape as a country. but if you said a while to eventually an asset sitting there but restrict assets, we don't cut a tree we don't use it for recreation. it's our responsibility to get a return for the american people but we do that in north dakota you started it as governor. in our little state we got a 12 billion-dollar endowment for k-12 for about 125,000 kids. we got endowment bigger than most universities in the country for our kate -- 12 system because we learned how to utilize the stuff. we still have among the cleanest air, cleanest water, greatest recreation in the nation. we could do all a bit. >> of it. >> it really is about working with people in all the different uses.

working on the the man one of the great energy tribes it's not being a governor or senator. it's a tribal chairman. you've got a whole other layer of federal bureaucracy on top of you and they show up and say hey, you guys are doing too much and they say we wouldn't be if you would give us a permit to do a gas gathering line. the same government that tells them they are flaring too much will not give them the permit to do the things we can do with the rest of the state so they get constrained. >> in addition to serving secretary of interior there is also the role as a leader of the

national energy council, very important. talk for the time we have left you might go over a little bit, determines a good guy. talk about how you implement a game plan to achieve that goal of energy dominus.president trump once for this nation? >> i do not want to get caught making a forward-looking statement. i think the intention you can read in president trump's public statements are very simple. he wants a cut red tape. he wants a more affordable energy for us pretty wants to sell energy to our friends and allies he dumped to buy it for adversaries. we got to make sure doing in a smart way. talks also about clean air, clean water. basically talk about the approach were talking about this committee. this will be deeply involved in helping set those policies.

it's all up above go get it done stop getting in the way of ourselves. the ai battle people do not understand what come with ai revolution is going to happen we have generalized intelligence to many factors going to affect our ability for every other power in china. china permitted more than two coal plants a week in the first half of 2023. they are already the world's largest admit it we are competing at someone is going to create more electricity produce more ai on this could be how we lose the cold war with them. we have to do it here we are country that believes that reclamation we believe in following labor laws china child labor note reclamation, don't care about the environment they are top competitor right now i'm terms of their ability to produce electricity. we've got to get going cut red tape and realized that if you shut down u.s. energy production

here and does not help the global environment doesn't help because somebody else produces it someplace else, less cleaner than we do. >> thank you pretender cantwell? >> think it mr. chairman, governor congratulations on your nomination. i hope to run through a couple of questions here so help me out in your brevity if possible. i know the ranking member and maybe even the chairman brought up her beautiful outdoor economy we have heard from your senator your big outdoorsmen yourself. not only become steward of over 20% of the land in the united states but some of the most beautiful iconic places in america. these are an economic juggernaut. in my shady thing about mount rainier that handford reach many other places.

accounts are 5 million jobs continues to grow an incredible clip that when you think about economic development it's overt more rural communities it doesn't take a lot to it infrastructure you're off to the races as to making it tourism and economic impact of these economies. i think in north dakota it was the third largest industry generating $1,000,000,000.14000 jobs. you create an office of outdoor recreation. good for you, good for you. think you get it. but, now first, i want to make from the public land will you support more input and outdoor recreation economies and gateways in communities? support the conservation legacy

bills that we have passed? >> first about your comments on outdoor recreation i agree completely on the importance of this. instantly good for the economy, it's also good for the health of americans but one thing we understand we need people get off their devices for get outdoors, get engaged, understand the importance of our land, our wildlife office aspects of it. we are facing a mental health and addiction crisis in our country. for many people is the connection back to the outdoors. support that completely look forward to working with you and your other issues as well. >> greatly support lw see if and continuing to support those funds? >> some of those acronyms i'm less familiar with. i look forward to learning more about them. >> will get you a question for the record. it's a vitally important we believe. we think we broke through

finally. the lead up to with oil and lease strategy or maybe are going to take this helm over with a group of people and say we need to do more on the oil and gas. part of our efforts have been to show the federal lands are very important and outdoor economy. how many areas we've already leased for oil and gas that are not being used. when we start there? why don't we start with those the leases that are already there went with that. >> i would use the term i am for following the law for the current administration for the first time since harry truman the quarterly sales were not held as required by law. did not happen for two years. didn't we had to sue the federal government to follow the law.

have the most resource opportunities for america that's a pretty simple formula to figure that out. given the scale of the amount of public lands we have. we can do a lot more without touching or being visible to any of the people who are concerned. >> he would prioritize the existing leases? >> i'm not sure if i understand. >> juxtaposed to the conversation we've had many times let's expand more leases that we don't have right now. we could get into very long discussion i was not for expanding oil and gas leasing into bear's ears as a protected area group. think the outdoor is a juggernaut i do not want to

nessus i do not want offshore drilling off the coast of washington. i've got a marine sanctuary why in god's name i have a cascadia fault like i could have been devastation to an economy paying dividends why would i want to do that? one of things will be helpful to hear from you if you believe in prioritizing on federal land of the leases that are already there as opposed let's get a big map and open up all federal land to new leasing. your point about efficiency, the most efficient is to go after we already have. >> before i can make an affirmative statement i agree with you it happed understand. what i've seen is my time as governor not that we have existing but we have restricting legal access for development, timber, oil and gas on public lands today but not holding the leases that should have been held.

they will submit something on fire will move forward in some of those issues. you believe and tribal sovereignty which doesn't mean you have one conversation. you actually the federal government plan for tappan. sometimes listen for hours to understand what the issues are. getting to people ahead of time and then working on things some of the scarcest the tribal

reservations or harbor for criminal organizations did not have jurisdiction for that is just one healthcare is another. >> thank you i'm sorry the germs been cut me off but thank you so much for that answer. i appreciate it. that's the kind of stewardship when he is our partnership between us in indian country. thank you. >> thank you partner going to go to senator murkowski on to interject there is no significant oil is no plan to drill for oil in the bears ears i'm not aware of any significant oil reserves. their cattle to graze in the area. recreation purposes are other things that go on there. i don't know who came up with this idea that somebody's getting ready to drill in the national monument. it's paranoid fantasy is not a

thing. the dispute here is about the process by which it was designated. unilateral presidential action there access to recreation, their ability to graze their cattle as they have on other reasons. let's just keep those facts straight. >> happy to hear you don't want to drill? >> there is no oil there. senator murkowski? >> we have got oil paired we have got oil. it is good to see you. it's good to have these conversations as you and i discussed, part of our challenge in alaska is not lack of resource. whether it's oil, gas, coal whether it's renewables with everything from yes wind that geothermal we have got it all.

we have a big challenge as you know is access. it has been noted several states the department of interior has a disproportionate impact. does not do my heart any good too often times referred to the secretary of interior as alaska's landlord. we pretty much have to go to interior to ask for permission to do anything. this is regardless of what our statehood compact says. the laws that have a direct impact to us. it's good to have conversation with you is the nominee for the department of interior. knowing you have the scope of knowledge and experience that you bring to these issues.

i love the fact you're talking about america's a balance sheet including assets that we have. such as lands and minerals. part of the challenge we have in alaska is often times we talk about our nations inventory of assets we are not on the map. we are not included in the survey. look at the business perspectives hard to you think you're going to keep them off that ledger off that balance sheet. as we are talking about these, recognize we not only have what we know we have we probably have three, four, five, 10 times more. we just need to be able to do that assessment. looking forward to that kind of engagement with you. we have a lot of work to do with

the department of interior. you and i have had a chance to go over many of these issues. so much of it is about access. the first question the first commitment i'm going to ask of you is one i can guarantee nobody around this panel has mentioned. this has to do with polar bears. biden administration is done a lot of things most alaskans don't appreciate classically added another thing to the list interior is not going to finish it's revised incidental regulations i tr were north slope activities. it's going to leave this renewal of current letters of authorization is unfinished business. you leave those authorizations is unfinished business type

means the business of what's going on in the north slope is put on pause, put on hold. i need your commitment you will work with alaskans particularly aren't basically all things polar bear. >> i would be happy to do that. as you know better than anyone, senator close to half of the land subsurface offshore is in alaska the interior you may view as a landlord out if you alaska is one of the biggest assets this country has one of the biggest responsibilities of interior and look forward to working with you. >> exactly what i was hoping you would say. recognizing the significance there. i do not want the department of interior to be a letter which are to be a partner a partner with us as we determine how we achieve the balance we talk about in this committee.

we are just as proud of our outdoor activity, you have had an opportunity firsthand. i love your story about the time you spent in alaska we have course welcome you back any time all the time. we have been able to access our resources. whether it's a timber, or oil, and still provide for a place most would say this is where i want to go before i die type of location. i need to alert you as well as my colleagues. you talk about abundance, we have it in alaska. when you cannot access it you are in a situation in my state people are living in this region. where the energy the natural gas

we have been relying on his dwindling we are talking as we speak about building an import terminal two imports, liquefied natural gas from canada to keep the lights on and keep homes warmed. unquantifiable reserves of natural gas. we just need to figure out how were going to be commercialized this. we need the help to unleash the opportunities that we have to not only allow alaska to have that energy independence that we so rightfully should have. not only our country but are friends and allies. hope you have another round i do not to submit questions to the record for you.

how to put it out on that record now good to go to welcome you here. he did not have to answer any of that i need you to come back to alaska soon. >> and went to yield to the senior senator from california. he's got a thing on the floors got to do. exeter padilla? >> consider padilla? river were >> thank you mr. joe governor going to engage on colorado could see again the service river as import negotiations need to state, consensus driven in the years ahead a recognition tapping into the governor second round going to try to get federal and state agencies working collaboratively to to like tribal sovereignty is tackle resource issues. come up before trust and treaty especially water. in california and the central obligations as a country public valley project is the federal lands and exciting announcements statement the state system that in california question and are truly interconnected. i entered asked that to you and working with you on the water management that are addressed

issues in california recent together going forward given the federal biological opinions have been carefully crafted and need to be maintained. thank you for your time. >> header cassidy? fires into california as the speaker today more than >> thank you for doing the job, 40000 acres burned 12000 we appreciate it. we both come from oil and gas structures plus tips destroyed producing states but one of the top priorities has been used people who have perished that number is probably going to grow. the most destructive natural federal, state, revenue sharing disasters of los angeles history on oil and gas lands help as a governor not at this scale rebuild coastline. during the time of this hearing but in 2024 viewed requested we will have lost several football fields worth of louisiana coastline which makes that major declaration for the us more vulnerable to hurricane hitting our coast. historical wildfires that ravaged across northwest notes last the rise act passed by north dakota. voice vote on this committee pumping we do that again. is that correct? can you briefly speak to the >> yes do you believe federal disaster aid should come with or importance of revenue sharing to north dakota knowing him federal without conditions? lands help mitigate whatever >> each situation with barry. impact actually may have.

>> absolutely. federal revenue goes two ways. nick sent on behalf of catherine we got it coming back a portion and i are empathy and sympathy of it back to state. to anyone who has lost their but a portion goes back to the homes, lost their loved ones. federal treasury for the federal we have friends that have lived treasury as you know we talked in the area have lost their about the depth that we have homes the homes they raise their kids in for 30 years every piece responsible, sustainable, smart development whether it's onshore of memorabilia they had gone or offshore is a great benefit going out with the shirt on their back. to conservation and in your case talking to those individuals a coastline. cannot pay for other things in directly. as it happens our daughter was in l.a. the event was canceled. our state revenues coming in or helping to paper education, catherine flunked out there so healthcare, roads. both of them had to evacuate as the fires were encroaching on >> is kind of eight middle-class that part of the city part of a a middle-classlower economic clt family sought firsthand. program. those things are touching services directly beside her jobs being paraded directly something we as a country need impact the quality of their to think. life. >> absolutely paid when done effectively and appropriately it lowers the burden of sales tax and property tax and income tax

a very different experience but please extend my offer to on the same hard-working support and assist in any way individuals. >> that's music to my ears. might constituents friends and when i speak to the folks that relatives of your family. do these big developments of one for the record there's never fellow said a used blue and had a lease sale i could plant a been strings attached to fishing trip with my son at the disaster relief. same time because it was so i certainly hope that this is te regular this date at this time first case. happened to be in new orleans had a great deal. i would ask as this plays out in so i want to say that. congress over the next several months if you are fortunate now dilatory practices have been enough to be confirmed as interior secretary he would not instituted not for the sake of anything other than an dilatory be the one deciding whether or increase the cost of development not to grant disaster and hopefully support that declarations the department is development. can i get a commitment fee is significant when it comes to much as you can do what we have wildfire response. lease sales they will be as would you commit to responding their scheduled and so people with as much support and making these decisions lacked certainty as to them? resources possible regardless of >> is someone who is participating in a lawsuit suing which a state or jurisdiction the federal government to try to the disasters in? get them to hold that lease >> absolutely prove it go a step sales when they are supposed to further we got to commit is be held by law you can count as head of interior it will be following the law when it comes going to take apparently fire to lease sale time. and malate was not big enough

that was horrible wonder plus >> the operative statement it shall be following the law. that's a good thing. lives lost devastation was there did not create a response now on that, we know some federal lands from before modern nationally or at the federal environmental standards there response. this incredible largest for the are abandoned gas will they leak dollars come up this could be methane for example. i'm very interested in working the most expensive wildfire urban wildfire all of us to say on a bipartisan basis a bicameral basis of how we can have a federal program which is what could we be doing paying to cap oil. differently? i am excited that tim sheehy is louisiana has about 1500 of a new senator. he is the first i know of who them. has worked as a professional i'm sure it north dakota you might address the issue two. >> north dakota we took part of firefighter on a wildfire he and others are going to work across the revenues coming into the the aisle to come up with a state from oil and gas tax revenues per week have a solution. >> we are already working on reclamation fund. some proposals on a bipartisan that is been replenished. basis to improve the federal that goes back into do that by government's ability to help the situations like these. >> if i could goes back to forthe private sectors doing thr share. >> one thing hear from the private sector is the issue of actually goes back to the grid. liability protection. a wild father whether it's at will they be sued the bg bees

north dakota south dakota eat oxygen, fuel load and you need pgb's outup if something goes bt spark. this abandoned oil and gas well? give high winds that come for a i don't know to the answer to it bulb ground power lines coming were trying to export the in contact with vegetation. abandoned mine provisions we are we have to think about the grid. looking at. >> at appreciation can need how did you manage that north dakota? >> you always were looking for incentives is afraid to across the country. nothing new my time is going quickly and want to get at least participate you are describing this thing if you get on limited one other issue in on the record. last session i began another liability they want to run the bipartisan effort with senator other way lawyer up and do that as opposed to the appropriate daines to protects the pay proty bond levels that are economic increases for federal they pay those up front. firefighters that congress we exhaust those that they have other payments they need to do previously approved side note we been able to work there is current about 1000 collaboratively to make sure the brave federal firefighters private sectors doing their fair tremendous response not just share when they are doing this. and part of their share is if local, not just state firefighters but the mutual aid they were not investing in on a number of jurisdictions you putting in the people, during the development, taking the risk on the front and we would not

committed to supporting fire have the revenue to split up on fighters that number of reasons the back end. >> would look at what he did it north dakota's would drop her dropped her legislation what we think knowing will be in charge of this as i gather this how do compensation has been one of we do energy sort of thing. them. one thing i've been concerned >> it is a dangerous very hard about countries like china do job. it's an essential job. not enforce international standards when controlling pollution that lowers the cost of manufacturing as much is 20% none of my recent experience this was the first week of october we lost two lives in incentivizing manufacturers believe our country and moved north dakota is part of these there. the loss of the jobs but all the raging wildfires tearing across the prairie. air pollution that blows over to immediately after that to meet our west coast. i read 20% of the it is related with local volunteers and firefighter units. to emissions from china. our national guard was out one thing i have been proposing including a lot of citizens that senator graham is my cosponsor jump in as they did in california try to save their own is the farm pollution would put homes. a fee on certain products in a we all have a greater country like china roughly equal appreciation for that role. to their cost of not complying a better more sophisticated with environmental regulations. response that we have right now. now the president speaks about this is a thing we need to tariffs, this to be a tariff recognize there is a rural fire thoroughly defensible as we

address on think the economies called externalities i slept at fighting and urban. the l.a. example shows us the holiday inn last night, i know that word. there's things we have to do i go through that knowing you differently going forward. and your position will be making >> thank you by just enclosing a sure our industry is competitive number of issues will follow up with questions for the record in terms of controlling our and lest we get a second around. missions accordance with the law and note, not a question and to which then gives us the advantage relative to those sender can live for her lab lobby to jump the line were competitors charging those going to engage on colorado rules. any quick comment on that the chairs being generous and allow me a little extra time. >> you are right spot on has a willingness to use it tariffs the principal is a reciprocity review access to our markets, and only don't have access to yours or if using unfair practices if you're dumping here in this case not drink reclamation they're using child labor for doing all things that lower their cost that's exactly the kind of place he has publicly spoken about. that he would want to have reciprocity with tariffs. >> thank you very much. quick senator hickenlooper? >> thank you mr. chair pre-thank

you governor for being here. we appreciate the spirit always could have other governors in the room. former governors i would guess at this point. i have three questions i'm going to quicken the questions i'll try to be unfailing polite if i override you is just because i want to get all three questions. obvious i worked on methane it regulations back when i was governor. where the first estate or the providence anywhere in the world to regulate methane. we did it by working with industry. they came helped create the regulations that were going to guide them but senator cassidy talked about abandoned wells as part of the same problem as secretary of the interior how do you think you can use your authority to advance rules that boost innovation to reduce methane is one thing. getting to cleaner energy at the same time reliable and a low cost. >> mayor, governor, senator i love this question.

focus on innovation, we've seen in north dakota federal regulation comes in. a ghost of the rule changing it takes years to get it finalized. give a federal employee and white pickup and a clipboard driving around the taxpayers are paying for. mission here, mission there six -- eight years the beginning of our problem is actually enforced we've gone through four or five cycles for quick skip to the innovation. we've gone through cycles of then someone's got a solution to say to methane capture at the well. they can implement it, capture it turned into electricity, to power generation for data center on sites and on a wellsite. in the energy industry is unbelievable. it's as exciting as everything intact going on. that's why i say innovation we

could solve these problems cheaper, faster and quicker as the energies are on the other side is been a lot of reports about tariffs on critical minerals prospect everything from all different a lot of people saying different things. in terms of imposing tariffs about having a clear strategy however were to secure the supply chain for critical minerals essential to our defense the aerospace industry, go down the list. what your plan to collaborate buy and sell from each other from the critical minerals. last 20 years as a nation one of the great mining economies in

the world 20 years ago. it's become a dirty word you can finally hardly find a kid in college was going to geologic mining. >> you are hurting me. >> you were there. >> i am a geologist or a was. >> to the nation's future again we do it here as innovation better, cleaner, safer helping the world environment. >> i agree completely we are the ones going to create a better way to extract minerals last question obviously public landscape call roaches like north dakota i commend your think what you did as a government took a lot of what you did and did it better but it's very frustrating. we governors like to give credit where credit is due. we have certain places in colorado we discussed the sooner

office last week i appreciate you taking the time with all that you've got going on to spend an hour with us. we have some places were at local government, local community the ranchers have joined a side-by-side to protect lands. one part land one piece of land called the thompson divide. it has been somewhat controversial. one mining oil company out there was potential there put took a pretty deep look could not see a source that much potential. it's been controversial. i want to make sure to extend the invitation if they haven't said it, they look forward to it. to walk at the landscape of some of the local ranchers and farmers you can get a sense this is not a partisan issue a piece of land have decided is to be protected. >> appreciate the invitation for a look forward to it senator.

>> thank you. you have the floor. >> governor, welcome. i cannot take how glad i am to see another governor for this position. we cover particulate coming from the west of the mississippi is kind of the former governors club. there's a lot of us on here. we have meetings from time to time elvin takes up most the time trying to convince us there's a z and bison. we can't find it. [laughter] in any event thank you for doing this. because of the fact most of our western states had so much federal land it's really important to understand those issues. thank you for that and thank you for the job that had a discussion with grizzly bears we don't want grizzly bears they kill people. and then some yahoo becker

decided we needed them again. they brought them in and brought us 30 wolf said we are at 200 we cannot get them so i got back here were finally able to put together a coalition government delisted grizzly bears are so they don't mess with societies. in any event we look forward to working with you on those issues. probably where the most important decisions you can make here in the immediate future is i know how the transition team is working. you any transition team will have to pick a blm director for that's important to us. all of us and western states have a tremendous amount we had a real problem with this one. fortune she's like about 95 hours left she was it terrorist,

she engaged in the work that was done in idaho spiking trees. you probably know about spiking trees. since she's been blm director haven't seen i think she's been appear once in the four years. it divided this committee deeply. we had a huge fight over a straight party line vote she got confirmed we don't want somebody like that run in the blm particular someone you can't find. so i urge you to use your best decision-making ability when you choose that person. another important issue the issue for us in idaho is the windmill project. my good friend have different views on windmills you can have them all we dealt with them in idaho they are a tremendous oblates. we really do not like them.

that new green deal this administration has put together is trying to saddle us with 100,000 acres 100,000 acres with 241 windmills on them that are higher than the space needle. the good news is, i appreciate meeting with me and listening to how wrong the project is. so many different levels. the good news is, and you don't know this yet but that project only has about 95 hours left to be on the table but that's going to go by the by believe me and ideo this is an issue we're we e going to be so glad to see it gone it will be gone you're not going to have to worry about it anymore after that.

in the universe, who got the first light bulbs and nuclear energy we build about 52 reactors out there at this site. tony finch of the idaho or not before going to be in the energy business you really need too. there is a tremendous tremendous resurgence in after we had the unfortunate 3-mile island incident. the renaissance and nuclear not just in america but now around the world is staggering. in the very near future are

small modular reactors. that is going to change the world as far as energy is concerned. glad to hear you talk about basil. they are entering contracts and national security issue we compete with china, with russia and with to a degree with france when new projects are coming on board but thank you for what you're doing. god bless you, we welcome you. >> thank you. governor, thanks again for joining. thank you for being in my office and appreciate our time together. we kind of hit upon this but one of the biggest issues is going

to be the colorado river it's at the heart of our national defense when it comes to ship making agriculture food security and home to the fifth largest best city in the country. in addition 22 of the 30 colorado river basin tribes are in arizona. rules govern the reduction of the colorado river expire at the end of 2026 and 2826 operations are still ongoing. lower basin states have put forward a proposal for management the colorado river that shares the risk. no agreement has been reached and lead to potential conflicts within the basin which of course we were all like to avoid. would you work with arizona parties and my office so information post 2026 is not overly burdensome to any one state and is consistent with the colorado river compact?

>> editor, you bring up a really important issue. this is with the 2026 date looming coming forward. you know interior does have some specific authorities relative to helping with lower and upper basin. i would say as a former chair of western governors this has been a battle going on as long as there been people in the west. people are fighting over water in the west. my experience in north dakota has been on that missouri river basin we've been in deep battles with canada because we have two rivers that are in north dakota international are the complexities in missouri. to serve everyone. it's going to also look for innovation on the conservation site we can't make more water but if we can use what we as wisely that will look for the

best solutions for all. i appreciate you are engaged in this prior to how important it is to arizona and its economy. thanks governor. >> we discuss about her tribal communities and tribal nations i'm good we have good background and understanding of relationships with them. we talk about tribal law enforcement unfortunately high rates of missing and murdered women tribal law enforcement i've worked in my time and congress to increase tribal funding. federal budget cuts but all that work at risk. can you tell me or think about what is your plan to work collaboratively with congress and tribes across the country on tribal law enforcement improvement efforts how do you ensure you do this in a

bipartisan manner? >> nothing partisan about enforcing the law and protecting protecting thecitizens of the u. one of the great tragedies is a lack of law enforcement on tribal lands and the fact we have organized crime bring on the gaps they are where the gaps are there whether it is training center senator hoeven when you were recruiting staffing and other things that are going on. you mentioned the first time it comes up that missing and murdered indigenous women. this is an unseen tragedy in america. the list is over 6000 mental cases. we lose histology at spring

break it's a netflix series a whole nation knows your name personally. unfortunately the last four years, thank you again look for to work with you on that have a lot of history on the house site sideof this the last four yearse were in from reclamation there some design flaws that limit its ability to pass a water at lower elevations which means we have to fix that dan weed to pass water around the dam if we can go through the hydrology how do you fix dam delivers water to the grand canyon the 3 million people downstream and of course mexico's part of the obligation a priority? this is one issue i was not

aware of the glen canyon dam deficiencies. with the bureau of reclamation rainey's second largest operator of hydroelectric dams in the country and the army corps of engineers i'll be quickly meeting with the team five the privilege if i'm confirmed for this position about this issue is who got it working facilities on this critical rivers. and as we know we've got to have more reservoir capability part of the issue we are facing us perhaps it would not we need to fix we need to upgrade some of these so we can have more storage. >> had left work at that person, thank you, thank you governor. senator hyde smith. >> and get mr. chairman i think you guys will be very happy i'm probably the last one and this will soon be over. but i certainly appreciate your willingness and your eagerness. i enjoyed the visit we had in my office. the dirty have most of all the

capabilities you're so capable of this position i'm very thankful to you and your family you are willing to do this. i'm going to be brief. one of things we talked about is the local mississippi thing. william faulkner's attention the rest of the muddy first mess under stand a place like mississippi. we are very blessed with the national park service as are several sites in the mississippi that certainly contribute to tourism. the economy of our state we were close with public/private partnerships in vector we are working on a visitor center with a state of mississippi public and private partnerships and pittsburgh friends of the park. we certainly want to make sure that continues to better

complement the national historic park sites. course i will invite him victor to visit those. his work on these two projects at vicksburg's and matches. quick senator thank you. when it thank you my family was involved in agriculture the national security as well big deferred maintenance issue big opportunity of subsurface and offshore that we own national park is for americans is a priority we need to take care of the sites whether historical or

others who need to make sure they are capable of handling ind support the visitors they want to see you then. we pretrade invitation look forward to working with you for. >> thank you on that i'm going to go to south mississippi offshore oil and gas production in the gulf of mexico. the color blue economy down there. the anchor platform that recently has come online with the gulf of mexico will produce 75000 barrels of oil per day. this oil is refined in pascagoula, mississippi. i was to the jobs it provides their benefits we have but it is important the department departt maintain a steady leasing schedule to ensure companies can continue the opportunities for exploration for new production to support the affordable reliable energy. the current national outer

continental shelf oil and gas leasing plan with a five year plan includes possible lease sale's historic low do you believe the current five-year plan adequate to meet the energy of the nation? if not will it be a priority for interior to develop court finalize a new five-year plan? quickset or the long lead time back takes for the private sector to make significant investment first offshore development is a really important part of our nation's economy and our national security by the factoring the current administration lease salesman so unpredictable and disruptive and the fact they are projecting forward among the fewest we've ever had. almost would guarantee we would see a decline in energy production and offshore in the years ahead because of the lead.

knowing national security battle and the weight we sure america's future is with energy dominance. the president would be saying we've got to be doing more smart development, not less. as i stated earlier for the questions in north dakota we were suing the federal were notg the lawfully required lease sales getting lease sales to be regular predictable at a level that maintains energy production is a minimum standard for us. >> thank you for those answers. i cannot tell you how glad we are to have you. thank you. >> thank you, senator. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. let me say i'm very much look forward to working with you and senator heinrich work on these issues in a bipartisan way to lookfor to doing it again.

mr. burgum you know from our visit in the office how strongly i feel about clean energy tax credits. i wrote this package $400 billion or so the biggest investment in fighting climate change in american history. it uses carrots, not sticks the more you reduce carbon the bigger your tax savings for its private sector driven and in what i consider to be a huge breakthrough we board technological neutrality. the reason that is so important as you and i talked about is nobody knows with the big carbon reducers are going to be 30 years from now. the reason i insisted on that provision free nation to send a message to people about every

possible type of energy use. a very bright future. i heard something and i am counting on you to deny it maybe you are not as interested in this as i thought you were in the office. you seem skeptical you will be very influential in the whole administration on energy that we can work together on this i believe we will work together on a variety of other issues what are your thoughts? in the extra time we spent together we will restate now principles are really sound about being technology neutral about having carrots versus

sticks also having private sector just all. >> medical it will i'm ahead. >> that's all good stuff. i believe these things as it is to the electrical grid a significant end balance in the projects and not persistent we should make sure if our country to be successful in the near term for the sun's not shining the wind is not blowing we don't have base of the brownouts and blackouts. it's a balance of trying to achieve that the other point i may have said today which i would stand by is it's great people thought with got massive incentives around eat these

electric vehicles that have liquid fuels. in america there's innovation neutrality we are producing carbon neutral biofuel without america built 20000 gas stations without a dime of a public of money or taxpayer incentives because the market created that. we have an opportunity to have innovation and innovation laying around d carbonized ink liquid fuels. we have to make trip the balance. we need it all to win the competition were going to win. >> personnel on the electric front, very much of you view their big challenges in our part there is a transmission issue the two pieces left out was how to do with electric and how to promote transition. i'm very interested in working for you. i'm going to take, as i read back to the fight talk about these issues, the view that you

are open to continue working in the space rather than come on in and say were going to chuck it in the trashcan. i'm always interested in improving on something. the founding fathers set a new congress is never bound by everything from a past congress. i am interested in improving it. i'm going to take out of our discussion you're open to work with me and others in a bipartisan way at 1.8 purely a bipartisan effort we talk about what happened my thought is a question of who is going to get the credit. i'm going to take out of her that you're going to work with me. >> you can count on me that i will all be anchored into things one is national security we should not have incentives that enslave us to getting all of our critical minerals from a major power competitor. the other things you can count on all be focused on the economy and affordability because if we

could do something for $60 a ton versus $900 a ton i will choose the voided co2. >> my time is out. the idea of linking a lower carbon future with lower prices and to focus on national security is a kind of triangle with three sites i can support a bike to work with you on. >> thank you for. >> thank you. thank you so much mr. chairman. governor congratulations be great to be with you again thanks for time together. the federal government controls in the land a look at this committee and are home states the well-being on strong leadership of the department of interior. the department must work with states and local communities to manage our resources in a way that works for the people that actually live on the land. over the last four years that's been a big problem we've seen it administration that seems to be

punishing the west. the will of the people who depend on the land, live on the land, take care of the land was ignored the last four years. governor there's a long list of things i believe must be fixed i'm going to ask for your help. rock springs wyoming stands for the resource management plan as you and i know those who are watching will know about now. brill of land management found that last month december, 2024. not even a week after the governor of wyoming they rushed out the door with this. final plan is going to devastate people selfless wyoming for the lock up millions of acres of land at local communities to the entire upon. the governor and state legislature and local communities all strongly oppose with the federal government is slamming down our throats will you commit to work with my office in the state to undo this disastrous plan? quick senator i am familiar

having been governor till december 15 we have a similar experience in north dakota have having plans like this push on the state of north dakota. absolutely on me with you. rick wyoming about two thirds of our minerals under the land are owned by the federal government. surface land two thirds of the mineral land under the lamp. energy development in my state depends on cooperation from the department of interior. wyoming's legislative leaders would benefit from meeting with you directly as they fled the pe states energy future i would ask you to commit to joining the wyoming delegation as well as the stakeholders to talk about the future. quickset enjoy that very much enjoy their relationship with governor matt feed and mark gordon. regular communication is a lot of shared challenges between wyoming and north dakota both of us current governor former governor speak with you a great appreciation great admiration great respect looked forward to

that. buffalo, wyoming the outgoing administration finalize resource management plan for buffalo the buffalo wyoming field office. this plan would ban new coal leasing in the powder river basin is the most energy rich air in the country we are america's energy breadbasket. and also to the communities and harmful american energy security. if confirmed would you work with me too reverse this plan? >> absolutely. talk about critical minerals rather than this and blankets approach of trying to block that type of energy development we need to be thinking how innovation can help us solve multiple problems at once. you look at oil and gas leases outgoing administration has degrees disgraceful record on oil and gas management blocked

our production just about every turn. has issues leases for lease sale held over four years ago they have not issued the leases. deferred over 600,000 acres that were previously cleared for oil and gas production. if confirmed we work to quickly issue those leases offer additional acres for leasing? >> thank you absolutely north dakota space the same what i view absolute is the case in federal court which i'm positive that really will be the current administration the biden abide administration did not follow the law to holding sick sales sage grouse is the home of large population of greater save grouse its habitat for 15 years wyoming has met the forefront of adopting new management approaches. our state has led successful efforts to balance conservation with economic abide administration thousand acres in

wyoming environmental concern for that's when the lockup thousands of acres halting developing across the state. would you be willing to reopen it greater sage grouse and management? >> i've been advised the rule of the decision came out this morning. even when they might have a species context up federal grazing department of interior plan management or multiple use is required by law to be managed

without impairment of the productivity of the land. these are public places people from wyoming depend on accessing for their livelihood. agriculture. branching activities, recreation, mineral development congress directed grazing timber harvesting recreation energy metal production to take place on federal lands. please support the multiple use law or federal land? >> absolutely i do senator. since we have talked about wildfires today grazing reduced fuel load timber management or properly reduces fuel load. service development can create roads paper but the private sector to support of firefighters. all multiple uses of the comprehensive rethinking of how we think about fire management on federal lands by. >> thank you governor, thank you, mr. chairman. quickset or cotton? x welcome congratulations. we have reached the regrettable point we often do in the senate almost everything has been said,

but not everyone has said it. i will refrain from saying a lot of what's gone before me. i will say for the record which associate myself with the comments of my republican colleagues about the need for significantly increasing energy production. i also being responsible stewards of our public lands and waters. there is however one issue that is not been discussed it under the endangered species act. i think it's a scandal of the first order. i'm surprised is not gotten more attention as of late january 3 than your times publish a story about the so-called snail darter species designate as endangered by fish and wildlife back in the 1970s. the entire thrust of the story is that a zoologist basically made up this species of snail alt for the point of halting construction of the dam on the tennessee river. after many years of delight took an act of congress to build that

dan. academic side not uncommon practice there's no difference which is to say calling them endangered to stop the construction of a dam. her housing developments. this is something admitted publicly in the "new york times" but. that's why i say the scandal of the first order can i get your commitment and a light at these admissions to go back and re-examine endangered species and listing and identify other false designations? quick senator cotton you raise an important issue the weaponization of the federal rules meant to protect wildlife but to do in the way that's

being used not to protect wildlife stop legal it's a legal weapon. use for fundraising. groups there trying to block our nation's progress. i found it to be remarkable in mission the abuse of the endangered species at relative to its intended use. you can count. >> i appreciate that. this public omission but also the west virginia case there a lot of our federal bureaucracies past decisions. i appreciate your willingness to take a look at that once you are

on the job but thank you very much. quickset concludes round one were going to a quick round two. with some follow-ups that have been asked everyone to talk to you briefly the fact public facc lands represent a massive public assets a lack of an accurate valuation is something we don't have that undermine informed decision making. what steps would you take if confirmed as secretary to improve the transparency in this area in short federal land valuation reflect the value of the american people? >> i would say on this idea we call america's a balance sheet is something the trump administration has quite a bit of enthusiasm and discussions with treasury nominee is scott bessent congress nominee howard lutnick and even speaker mike

johnson called me a few weeks ago and said what is this american balance sheet idea? our standing in the world to talk nonstop what are liabilities are. we should also be fluent just as any business would be to talk about what her assets outpaced any place in the world because of the care we have given in particular to the public lands the offshore and we have proven time and time again we could do it better, cleaner, safer than anyone else here. if i am a timber company and i own timber land that has not been harvested i put that on my balance sheet. five timber land in a plant young trees i put it on my balance sheet is a different valuation. but we protect u.s. lands and don't cut a tree and then they burn down would not only produce enormous amounts of admissions and enormous amounts of carbon we also effectively wasted the

public's assets. it's part of our duty and the role it by the privilege of being nominated here but all of the elected officials to make sure were getting a return on the nations a balance sheet for the benefit and use of the american people so understanding that number is key. i would say it's going to beat really hard as can be hard to develop we did this in north dakota when i took office they said we have no way of knowing what her undeveloped minerals are waste found a young software company that was able to figure out precisely what the future value of every one of the wells in north dakota public land will be worth. it's been used for estate planning, if grandma dies she's only got 10% of one well they can figure out the value for that they can figure it out for the whole country and just as i said to speaker johnson we are required as a nation to conduct a census within every 10 years not every 10 years but within 10 years to a census that's hard work. we figure out a way to do it if

congress stood up and said every agency, every bureau, every department denies its government needs to figure with their asset value is we would get after it and come up with a number and then we can make the trade-offs. when you do by executive order take hundreds of millions of offshore sub surface out of leasing that is viewed as a costless event. at least we could have the trade-off and say it yes some people thought is important to take that off of the table. but what did it mean for the american people do we just take trillions of dollars of future revenue out of the pockets of our future generations? i think again creating a financial understanding that's where we could have an honest discussion about some of these executive actions that are happening at the end of the term for example it would be useful for all americans to understand. >> thank you, i appreciate that. i've got another question is going to ask but in the interest of time it would you forgot that

with the very brief statement. in lieu of taxes and federal government cap of congress came up with that about 50 years ago to help offset the burden states carry compensates with a lot of public land they don't receive any property tax revenue it's most offset that. in some parts of the country other parts its pennies on the dollar compared to what they would get if they could text land even its lowest evaluation, slowest rate for i love to talk to about it a priority because a lot of these communities rely on it for fire, search, rescue, schools, safety, so forth. senator heinrich. >> governor, senator daines mentioned a very specific challenge with the endangered species act. one of the best ways to head off those conflicts is to prevent species from ever being listed by recovering them through

proactive voluntary conservation at the state level. senator tillis and nine of his republican colleagues and i have a highly bipartisan bill called the recovering america's wildlife act. that helps states to do exactly that. in fact north dakota's former game and fish director was one of the architects of that legislation. it has got strong support from the association of fish and wildlife agencies for many in the conservation groups mentioned in the exchange with senator justin. work for senator tillis and i both on. >> absolutely. super sound principle off of any federal designation working collaboratively with the states to work with game and fish commission are for six of my

eight years as governor. he had almost a 40 year in wildlife management for its people i know and respect across all the states and we've got them in new mexico. now you've got them in utah. the people that work in game and fish at the state level that are working on these things i haven't met someone from the federal lever that cares more about the soil, the air, the fish, the wildlife that we have the state level. sound like you entrusting this back to the states and that's where it belongs. >> is really an idea that grew out of asking all those agencies what is the right way to approach this? and they said instead of just having an emergency room, which is what the endangered species act effectively is, let's try to give wildlife primary care but let's intervene when it's much cheaper and much more effective. and then you can really move the

meat needle part you and i talked about tribal water settlements. those are incredibly important for water certainty in the west. especially with the complex we have not just in the colorado basin but the rio grande basin and other western basins. if you are confirmed for you continue to the departments work to resolve legal claims tribal water settlements and implement the existing water settlement that of already been made? what you got your commitment to work on those important issues. >> great. >> i am going to make one other quick statements. statement. i know you heard from my friend and colleague from idaho. we found some great work together and cleaning up abandoned mines. we do not necessarily agree on wind generation. i would simply remind you onshore wind is in the basket of multiple use.

you can hold to the same standard as oil and gas. you cannot legally unilaterally deny the glee permitted wind generation. with that, thank you for all your answers today. >> editor king. >> thank you, mr. chairman. first which associate myself with your comments mr. sherman determining the asset value of all he owned it is astounding that does not exist. one of things that would contribute to it as we discussed previously is adequate maintenance budgets you know the asset value there are standard industry percentages to determine a maintenance budget. i believe that's an important step. i presume you believe climate change is a problem, is that correct? so i believe climate change is a global phenomenon for sure. i noted biographical material in 2021 as governor you set a goal

of north dakota for carbon neutrality by 2030 to be achieved in a variety of ways as you mentioned you worked hard on carbon neutrality of fossil fuel extraction and fossil fuel use. i'm a little worried today you keep distinguishing between intermittent and baseload. would you agree renewable resources, solar and wind for example can be developed if they are adequately, if they can be integrated into the grid in a safe and reliable way? >> yes they can. it's not for me personally that night distinguished it's just because of physics and the physics of the grid do not baseload it is the baseload we have is the latter nation to make the investments afflicted former wife i've developed

baseload and intermittent resource i that's not what you're saying, is it? gov. doug burgum: no, we need a balance. but they cannot, the intermittent, if you want to call them renewables, is used as a positive word, but this is a fact of life, is they're intermittent. and when they're intermittent, until we have storage solutions, and we're years away from having significant enough cost-effective storage to support that, we need to have the baseload, or the intermittent doesn't even have a life. senator angus king: but it can be integrated. in your case, in north dakota, 35% of your electricity comes from wind power. i presume your grid works. gov. doug burgum: well, it's super stressed, as it is around the country. we're in parts of two grids, we're part of miso, going east, and we're part of sbp, going west. and you can have days when the rated capacity is 30, but you got a day when the wind's blowing. the wind's blowing so hard, it drives all the baseload off of production, and then the next day, it's 20 below and there's no wind blowing, and we got no wind, and then you got to crank

up the base load again. and so there's- senator angus king: that's one of the most important reasons that we've talked about innovation, we need to work on storage. you would agree, i think, that renewables, or intermittents, whatever you want to call them, plus storage equals baseload? gov. doug burgum: yes. but right now, at a much higher cost. and so then of course, we want to not only have it be reliable, we also want to have it be affordable, and so that's part of what we have to look at as a nation, is what cost are we willing to take on to try to achieve those goals. and i believe if it's all of the above, if we can decarbonize traditional fuels cheaper than we can subsidize some of the renewables, then that should be looked at fairly and equitably and economically, because that's a better path forward for every citizen, if we can do it more affordably. senator angus king: i wouldn't disagree with that. but we've talked a lot about innovation, and i'm a great believer in american innovation.

and the cost, for example, of solar panels has gone from, i don't know, $70 a kilowatt, down to $0.70. i mean, battery storage, for example, in maine, there is a project underway for an 85 megawatt, 100-hour grid-scale storage at a reasonable cost, because it's not based on lithium ion, it's based on iron. and so we are moving into a period where innovation, i believe, will bring storage down. and of course, as you know, wind and solar are the cheapest forms of energy today, on a levelized basis, understanding that storage and backup is part of that calculation. but i hope that you'll work with the department of energy. mr. wright was here yesterday, and one of his business interests was in geothermal and batteries. so when i hear baseload used sometimes in these contexts, it sounds like no more renewables.

i don't think that's a sustainable path for this country, and it's certainly not a way of meeting the challenge of climate change, which you've acknowledged is a serious one. gov. doug burgum: no, we need all forms of electricity, and we need more of it in the very near-term. and so this is not about one versus the other, this is about how do we drive forward and increase the amount of electricity we have in the country. so i'm both, all of the above, in terms of our approach on how we do it, but we got to do it in a way that we have affordability and reliability. on the storage side, there is a future, but having been in tech for 30 years, batteries get better at about 2% a year, and that's what it's been for 30 or 40 years, and there's no breakthrough coming. yes, it's improving, but it's not like the microchip, which doubles in power. senator angus king: it may not be moore's law, but i think the amount of resources that are going into this research, at the department of energy and in other places, and the

development of this iron-based grid-scale storage, there are opportunities for significant baseloads. i like your answer, where you said we need it all, and i appreciate having that on the record. gov. doug burgum: yeah. senator angus king: thank you very much, governor, appreciate you meeting with us. gov. doug burgum: thank you, senator. sen. lee: senator hickenlooper. senator hickenlooper: i ran down the hall to get here, i didn't want to miss my chance for a second question, second round of questions. and again, thank you for your service as a governor, all the way through your career. you've shown a real inclination, both through your government service, but through your philanthropy, to engage in the community and to go to the community. i think the letters from the tribes, and what i've heard from our tribes in colorado, that you are held in very, very high esteem, i think, across this country, and i think that's going to be a powerful thing. i have one curious question. i think they're still doing it

with the western governors associated, do they still meet with the secretary of the interior in december, or did they stop doing that? gov. doug burgum: there's been a tradition to meet with the secretary of interior when they have their annual meeting in washington d.c., which is usually in late january, early february. and i would look forward to having the opportunity for that invitation, if you know anybody there that could send me one. senator hickenlooper: well, i knew that other governors are watching our discussion, so- gov. doug burgum: i think your own governor polis may be the current chair, so maybe- speaker 2: this governor thing's getting kind of thick, isn't it? senator hickenlooper: well, it's distilled down, pretty much just us left. i want to talk a little bit about the colorado river, and it's at least it's a 25-year drought, but a longer-term drought. and we're able to go back, this is the geologist in me, but there's sediments throughout the grand canyon that can be correlated, and this appears to

be the worst drought in 10,000 years. i mean, this is a serious drought, and you've got 40 million people that depend on this. and we've been working aggressively with the lower basin states and the upper basin states, and one of the things i was, even before you began running for the highest office, the work that you did around water in north dakota, where roughly, the largest investments in water infrastructure ever, but half of it was for making sure you've got clean water, and half of it was to make sure you are protecting against flood, i thought was a great model for what the department of interior would have. and i think you have to kind of look at the colorado river in that sense too. i think that the bureau of reclamation plays a significant role there, but i think a strong leader, being able to find and incentivize those innovations of how do we make sure we're saving

water and doing more with the water that we have, rather than fighting over it. and there's a long tradition in the west, of, you know, whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting, as we said last week. anyway, just speak a little bit about that, how you look at working with the colorado river, but there are a whole number of river basins that are in drought right now. gov. doug burgum: yes. and we've got a tremendous water resource in this country. when we think about the great lakes, you think about the columbia, you think about the yukon, the mississippi sometimes is flooding when the colorado's in drought. we just maybe don't have it all in the right places at the right time, and where we've got population centers. so i think again, with smart planning, innovation, collaboration, when we've been successful in north dakota with private-public partnerships, it's included solutions, again with great help from senator hoeven playing a huge role in

the federal. i mean, one of the projects we have there is a c$ouple billion. it's a third federal, it's a third local with a local sales tax, a huge buy-in locally, and then the state stepping up and participating. and when we did that together, this project's going to get done in six and a half or seven years, as opposed to 20 or 25, or never, with [inaudible ]. because we have that experience in north dakota too. we got water projects at the federal level that were started in the 1960's, that still haven't fulfilled their full mission. senator hickenlooper: right. gov. doug burgum: so anyway, i think there's an opportunity to work together to come up with solutions. senator hickenlooper: and that timeliness does magnify what can get done. the bureau of reclamation has done a lot of work in colorado, i think, across the west, and i think i'm universal, that i haven't heard a single senator, republican or democrat, complain about how they've approached this. they have a bunch of projects that are midway, and i'm hopeful that i know there's going to be

there's a lot of talk about a tax cut, and a lot of talk about how they're going to pay for that tax cut, hopefully we can protect those funds that have been committed to various water projects. because the worst thing you can have, and this has happened to colorado two or three times over the past several decades, where you get halfway out, you're building something, and then all of a sudden the support goes away. gov. doug burgum: yeah, agree. i mean, having a secure and predictable forms of capital for these projects. when you have the instability, the uncertainty, than the people that are bidding on the projects bid higher, they have to take out more risk on their side. their insurance companies that are supporting them on the private side, say, go, don't do this. when we were able to go to the private-public partnership, and we could create certainty that they would have the permits, that lowered the cost dramatically, and not only the time to get it done, but it also lowered the cost. senator hickenlooper: that's music to my ears. and we agree completely, so we'll remember this conversation three years from now, and i'm

sure, who knows what the future will bring. but i appreciate that commitment to the long-term solutions, i think, that is necessary on almost every level in this country. gov. doug burgum: great. thank you, senator. senator hickenlooper: thank you. sen. lee: senator hoeven. sen. hoeven: thank you, mr. chair. one quick item for the record, as you know, i've passed legislation to keep horses in the theodore roosevelt national park. i'm a horse fan, you and your wife are horse fans. i just want to know that you'll commit to the record, to continue to work on that very important issue with me. gov. doug burgum: absolutely. and for the record, people should know that as popular as senator hoeven is in our state, the horses in the national park have even more followers on social media than he does. sen. hoeven: yeah, no question. and then just one final item, and i think you've demonstrated to both sides of the aisle, your absolute willingness to work with everybody to achieve good outcomes, and a good outcome for this country, and that's exactly what we want in somebody that goes into these important positions.

and so thank you. thank you to catherine. and then just if there's anything for the record, that you want to add to the record, i would just give you this opportunity before turning things back to the chairman. and again, i want to thank both the chairman and the ranking member as well. gov. doug burgum: well, the only thing i would do quickly, is close with gratitude to chairman lee and ranking member heinrich. thank you for your time, ahead of time. thank you for making your members available to me, for meetings ahead of time, and thanks for this great dialogue and discussion today. i've received a lot of invitations from members to come and visit. i would be remiss if i didn't, before i leave, to extend an invitation on behalf of senator hoeven, senator kramer, and myself, to come to the grand opening of the theodore roosevelt presidential library and museum, which is opportunity to tell the story of conservation that really began during the time when theodore roosevelt spent time in north dakota.

his wife and his mother tragically died on the same day, in the same house, in valentine's day of 1884. and he had a newborn infant daughter that was two days old, he handed that off to his sister, and he got on the train, and he was a deeply despondent, and went west, and remade himself from the he'd had a childhood that was full of sickness, and he went from a sickly easterner, and became a rough and tumble westerner, a cowboy, learned the hard way out there, with a lot of time in the saddle, and built the elkhorn ranch. and from then, he developed his thoughts about conservation in this country. and we know the story that went from there, that led him to become the rough rider that he was, that propelled him into becoming a governor.

formed the national governors association, saved football. i mean, now, the largest viewed sport. and the ncaa was formed because theodore roosevelt was listening to concerns from mothers, whose too many of their sons were dying of head injuries playing football in the ivy league schools without protections, and so he said, let's come up with some standard safety protections. so there's many stories about tr that haven't been told, like that, but the only president to receive a medal of honor for his time in the military. one of his sons also received a medal of honor, who was there at normandy in world war two, but incredible story. and of course, nobel peace prize that he received for negotiating the settlement between russia and japan. and he wrote more books than all the other presidents combined. he wrote more letters than jefferson and washington. we're in the process of digitizing all of that, so it'll

be the first digital presidential library. it'll be one of the most sustainable buildings built in north america, and it's in the heart of the badlands, that he loved, at a gateway community that goes into the theodore roosevelt national park. in closing, i would say someone asked this 4th of july, are you going to have fireworks? per tradition, when you open a presidential library, all living presidents are invited. so if they all show up, we may not need to have additional fireworks, but it'll be great because there's a lot of what we know about theodore roosevelt that still lives on today. and think about the discussions we're having, the panama canal wouldn't have happened without him, and how important that was for our country during world war ii, and how important it is for our future going forward. so in water, of course, in arizona, some of the original water systems in arizona were dedicated and created by theodore roosevelt. one of the first wildlife refuges that he made in the

country, was in north dakota, at stump lake. he sent us on a way to build out the national park system as we know it right now, so it's with a bit of serendipity and a great amount of excitement, that as secretary of interior, i'll look forward to being at that opening along with all of you. this committee's all officially invited as of right now. it would be great to have you all there. and with that, again, thank you senators, and especially, thank you, senator hoeven and kramer for your folks. great. your support, your friendship, and your mentorship for all these years. sen. lee: thank you, governor. it's been a great hearing, and i appreciate the participation of all the members of the staff, members of the committee, and especially our capitol police force for keeping us safe today. i'm sure that given all the time he spent in north dakota, theodore roosevelt learned correctly to pronounce the name of the animal that is called the bison. gov. doug burgum: it is. it does have a z, i agree with- sen. lee: it's got a z.

gov. doug burgum: spell it biz- sen. lee: it's a z that well, it's not a silent z, it's just an invisible one. with all that- senator angus king: mr. chairman, do you know what the lady buffalo said to her little boy as he was going off to school? sen. lee: oh, no, i don't. what did he say? senator angus king: bye, son. sen. lee: that's it. senator angus king: i would also mention that teddy roosevelt coined- gov. doug burgum: i love it. i just love it. sen. lee: going to open up a whole new debate. senator angus king: he coined the term malefactors of great wealth, i'll just leave it at that. sen. lee: hoeven's going to be telling that one for weeks. the record will stand open until 6:00 p.m. today for questions for the record. we stand adjourned. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]