President-elect Donald Trump plans to appoint Governor Doug Burgum as the head of the National Energy Council, a new government body.

Trump will also nominate Burgum to be the Secretary of the Interior, and said he would have a seat on the National Security Council - a first for someone in his position.

In a statement, Trump said that the council will "consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of all forms of American Energy."

He claimed the council would lead to private investments, cut inflation, and "win the AI arms race with China (and others)."

Trump added that the council would "dramatically" increase baseload power on the grid and "win the battle for AI superiority."

As Secretary of the Interior, should he be approved by the Senate, Burgum would be in charge of US federal lands including national parks and wildlife refuges.

The Congressional Research Service calculates the department manages more than 480 million acres of public lands, 700 million acres of subsurface minerals such as oil and gas, and 1.7 billion acres of the outer continental shelf. In total, they have a responsibility for some 20 percent of the nation's land.

He would also oversee relations with 574 federally recognized Native American tribes.

The department has around 70,000 employees and had a budget of $14.8 billion in the 2024 fiscal year. The outgoing Biden administration has asked for an additional $3 billion for the 2025 fiscal year.

Current Secretary Deb Haaland prioritized renewable energy over fossil fuels, with more than 29GW of clean energy developed. During the four-year tenure, the department approved 41 renewable energy and transmission projects, including the Greenlink West Transmission Project. It also approved 10 offshore wind projects with a capacity of more than 15GW.

However, while the Biden administration leased the smallest amount of public land for drilling in his first 18 months in office than any president since Harry Truman, his Interior Department was responsible for approving more drilling permits than the previous Trump term. He paired the permits with tighter regulations on methane emissions to drilling royalties, which now face being rescinded.

Biden's term saw a major boom in oil drilling, however much came from federal lease sales in New Mexico’s Permian Basin that began in the Trump era. Biden also approved a significant and controversial oil drilling plan in Alaska, known as Project Willow.

Trump's announcement did not mention renewable power, and he has previously attacked wind power with false claims. While solar and onshore wind can be built on private land, offshore wind requires federal leases.

As governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum pursued a mixed energy platform. The state has the third-highest crude oil production, mostly from fracking, and was also the leading wind power generator in the US in 2017. At the time, 26.8 percent of its power came from the source - by 2023, that hit 36 percent.

Burgum, who founded Great Plains Software and sold it to Microsoft for $1.1bn, has long had close ties to the fossil fuel industry.

“It was climate skeptic Doug Burgum who helped arrange the Mar-a-Lago meeting with wealthy oil and gas executives where Donald Trump offered to overturn dozens of environmental rules and regulations in exchange for $1bn in campaign contributions,” environmental group the Sierra Club claims.

Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels hit a record high in 2024, and show no signs of slowing down.