Daily Caller
Trump Energy Policies will be executed by New York Rep. Lee Zeldin and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
Zeldin And Burgum Take On Daunting Roles In Second Trump Term
President-elect Donald Trump has set Washington, D.C. afire over the past week with a series of controversial picks for cabinet-level offices and other senior advisory positions. The Senate confirmation hearings for nominees like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard are destined to be must-see TV, events Congress could use to help cut the federal deficit by airing in pay-per-view format.
But the nominees whose offices have the biggest impact on energy policy are likely to be among the least controversial announced so far. Those would be former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to head up the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to be secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI). While many would assume the secretary of Energy would be the cabinet position to wield the most power to regulate energy companies, the reality is that these other two positions are far more impactful.
For the oil, gas and coal industries, no part of the federal government possesses greater authority to regulate their business than DOI, which oversees all leasing, mining, drilling and minerals production related to federal lands and waters. The U.S. government is the largest landowner in the country, owning large percentages of the lands in the intermountain West under which some of the biggest domestic reserves of these mineral resources exist. Specific regions of these western states are also prime locations for wind and solar development.
North Dakota is a state rich in mineral reserves and is one of several states in which federal lands are intermingled with state and private landholdings. As governor, Burgum has had to grapple with the same array of permitting, leasing and multiple-use issues he will now be assigned to oversee at DOI. One of his main tasks will be to reinvigorate a federal leasing program that has been held dormant in violation of an array of laws and regulations by current Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a longtime anti-development activist.
At EPA, Zeldin will be faced with the daunting task of bending a massive bureaucracy that has been packed with direct hires from billionaire-funded climate-alarm groups to get with the Trump agenda. One of Zeldin’s immediate major tasks will be to find ways to streamline the agency’s permitting and approval processes.
The slowness of permitting and delegations of authority at the agency have become bottlenecks to progress in meeting some of the carbon reduction goals laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), President Joe Biden’s signature piece of legislation. Barring an unlikely major rewrite or repeal of the IRA, those goals will remain among the priorities that Zeldin will find on his plate when he assumes office next year.
While the common perception of the Trump energy-and-climate agenda focuses on its “drill, baby, drill” aspects, it is key to remember that former President Trump did not abandon U.S. carbon reduction coals in his first term and has not pledged to do that in the second term to come. In fact, U.S. carbon emissions fell significantly across Trump’s previous four years in office.
Both Zeldin and Burgum will also make a high priority of reviewing the massive pile of new regulations put in place by the Biden administration, which total to more new pages published in the Federal Register than any other presidency, and then working to eliminate or modify many of them. This is a daunting task that could prove overwhelming given the inevitable obstruction and pushback by the career bureaucracy within these agencies and departments.
Given the way the Trump overall agenda seems to be shaping up, Zeldin and Burgum will be taking on these administrative tasks simultaneously with Trump’s goals of cutting staff and even moving entire agencies to locations outside of Washington, D.C. They will also have to be managed in conjunction with Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to be run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
What it all portends is a period of upheaval and radical change not just at EPA and DOI, but across the entire federal structure. Given that the U.S. system of government was designed by the country’s founders to inhibit radical change, we are in for some interesting times indeed.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The FBI’s Salt Lake City field office released surveillance photos of a person of interest in the fatal shooting of Kirk, urging the public to submit tips as the manhunt intensifies. Appearing on “The Ingraham Angle,” Mauro pointed to unreleased surveillance footage and ballistic evidence as key factors likely to lead to the suspect’s identification.
“The videotape that they pulled the still from, is one of the real things here that is almost certainly going to be how we are going to get there. Somebody is going to recognize him. Somebody probably already has,” Mauro said. “My understanding is that they are still sitting on video that they have not released. That video, likely, would show, let’s say, the walk, so even if you are on the fence, walks are very, very telling. People recognize them.”
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Mauro said investigators are far from stalled, noting that authorities have several promising leads that could help pinpoint the suspect’s path after the shooter fled the campus.
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“So, if we don’t get something soon, expect more videotape, maybe something about where the scope and the rifle came from. Scopes can be bought separate. They can trace this kind of thing,” Mauro said.
“They have a number of notes to go down here. It’s not like they have not made any progress. It looks to me like they can track him leaving campus. They can use the video to get him leaving campus. It goes dark when he leaves campus and gets out into the neighborhood. And according to what I have heard, likely, was hopping backyards, still in the area, and then you have to assume maybe got hold of a vehicle, got to a bicycle, a motorcycle or whatever. And then he got out of Dodge.”
Mauro said investigators “are making progress” despite early missteps and public confusion over leads.
“Every investigation has its bad leads and blind alleys. The difference in this case is that they were more public than you usually get. Director Patel was being particularly transparent in what they were doing and what was going on. And so the information came out and looked like they had somebody at one point there. But this happens in many, many investigations,” Mauro told host Laura Ingraham. “I do think that they are making progress.”
Authorities said the shooter arrived on campus shortly after 11:50 a.m., climbed a stairwell to the rooftop, opened fire, and fled into a nearby neighborhood. At a Thursday morning press conference, officials said they recovered a weapon from a wooded area and obtained video footage of the suspect, described as a male of college age.
The FBI released photos of a “person of interest” wearing dark sunglasses, a black hat, and a black shirt, and urged the public to help identify him. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information that leads to the identification and arrest of the person or people responsible for Kirk’s murder. Tipsters can call 1-800-CALL-FBI and submit photos through the bureau’s online portal.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox News)
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
Law enforcement officers released new surveillance footage Thursday that they say tracks the alleged assassin of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk as he fled the scene at Utah Valley University.
The FBI held a press conference Thursday to share new footage of the suspect fleeing the scene of Kirk’s assassination as agents asked the public for help in identifying him. Commissioner Beau Mason walked reporters through the enhanced video, pointing out critical details investigators believe will help identify the suspect.
“You will see a distinctive t-shirt with an American flag, and it appears to have an eagle on it. There’s a baseball cap with a triangle on it and a pair of sunglasses. All distinctive, all things we would ask the public to look for and try to identify if they know someone who has those items, who’s been seen wearing those items. We are looking for all of that information,” Mason said.
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“This is the video evidence we utilized to track his movements and to locate that firearm in that wooded area following the discovery of this evidence.”
Earlier Thursday the FBI released photos of “the person of interest” as agents from the bureau’s Salt Lake City field office posted two images showing a man dressed in dark clothing, a baseball cap and sunglasses. The FBI posted additional photos of the person of interest tied to the murder and urged the public to submit tips through its digital portal.
Kirk, 31, was gunned down Wednesday while speaking to students during an outdoor campus event. Authorities said the shot came from a rooftop approximately 200 yards away. Investigators later recovered ammunition in a wooded area near the university but have not confirmed whether it is tied to the shooter.
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