Expected Interior secretary nominee Doug Burgum would lead the new Trump administration's push to open more public lands to fossil fuel leasing and roll back environmental protections, Daniel and Nick write.

Why it matters: As secretary, Burgum could bring a dramatic U-turn an agency tasked with weighing conservation and rules of development across wide sweeps of potentially energy-rich land.

• Interior oversees more than 400 national parks, 560 national wildlife refuges and nearly 250 million acres of other public lands.

The big picture: North Dakota's governor, if confirmed, would have an early mandate to boost oil and gas leasing and scale back Biden administration rulemakings on conservation and endangered species.

• One top target: the Bureau of Land Management's public lands rule — widely panned by Republicans — that added conservation as a "use" of public land under as part of Biden's goal of conserving 30% of U.S. land by 2030.
• He'll also face pressure to nix offshore wind energy leases that have come under fire from President-elect Trump and Republicans — even though onshore wind was the North Dakota's second-largest electricity source in 2023.

Flashback: Burgum was elected governor in 2016 after a career as a software executive.

• He's taken plenty of conventional energy policy stances to be expected from an oil state Republican.
• But he also set a goal for North Dakota to become carbon neutral by 2030 "without a single mandate," primarily via carbon sequestration.
• After announcing that goal in 2021, he invited Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to the state, and she obliged.

Between the lines: President Biden's Interior Department has sought to lower barriers for renewables on public lands. That could be a big question for Burgum in a new administration hostile to wind and solar.

• Biden's Interior recently cut leasing fees by 80% for wind and solar projects and updated a plan to make 31 million public acres across 11 western states available for solar development.

What they're saying: Sen. John Barrasso said Burgum has "shown he can balance environmental stewardship with record energy development."

• Environmental groups, however, pointed to Burgum's fossil fuel connections: "This appointment puts the fox in the hen house," said Jenny Rowland-Shea, director of Public Lands at the Center for American Progress.

Our thought bubble: Burgum stands out as a relatively conventional choice for Trump, whose other nominees have thus far included RFK Jr. and Matt Gaetz.

• Still, after his energy-centric campaign for president, he was a top surrogate for Trump and widely expected to get some kind of role in the administration.
• As our colleague Ben Geman points out, there's not much daylight between the old school GOP and MAGA world when it comes to oil and gas. 

What's next: Trump said he'd make a formal announcement of his nomination today.