Just one year ago, our nation's great coastline was being filled with hideous windmills. Ford was building electric "trucks." Oil companies had climate goals.
Donald Trump pledged to stop the madness. But who would be the enforcer? Enter Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Remember those windmills? No, you don't. Remember when oil demand was supposed to peak by 2030? No, you don't. Remember Greenpeace? No, you don't.
What do you remember? Record oil production and the lowest gas prices since 2021. And Burgum is just getting started, as this sorry excuse for a letter from congressional Democrats opposing his plans to sell a f—kload of oil and gas leases next year made clear:
"The United States already leads the world in oil and gas production," they wrote after calling on Burgum to "halt" the sales. "The industry currently holds more than 2,000 offshore leases covering over 12 million acres of federal waters." Awesome. Thanks for reminding us!
The closest thing to a hit piece produced on Burgum during his time in the cabinet was published in the Atlantic (duh). "Interior Secretary Doug Burgum likes chocolate-chip cookies—preferably freshly baked and still warm," reporters Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker wrote. Burgum asked political appointees at the department to "Learn to regularly bake cookies for Burgum and his guests, using the industrial ovens at the department headquarters." Somebody give this man a promotion!
So add it to the list: towering oil production, cratering gas prices, and warm chocolate-chip cookies baked fresh by federal bureaucrats. The hair doesn't move. The drilling rigs do. Burgum is well on his way to making the country energy-dominant. Now he gets something just as sweet: He's a Washington Free Beacon Man of the Year.