Senators Must Demand Answers From Burgum on Wind Payouts, Skyrocketing Prices, Trump’s Slush Fund, and Wildfire Mismanagement

HELENA, MT – When Interior Secretary Doug Burgum returns to Capitol Hill tomorrow for a full committee hearing before the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, Senators must hold him accountable for a budget that is costing American taxpayers billions while putting communities at risk.

Just days before this hearing, the administration announced nearly $900 million in additional payouts to two more companies to abandon offshore wind development, on top of the nearly $1 billion already gifted to French energy giant TotalEnergies. Burgum’s wind buyout spree has now just short of $2 billion in taxpayer dollars spent to kill lower-cost energy development, as he abandons any pretense of an “all of the above” energy strategy. By blocking over 22 gigawatts of clean energy while fast-tracking fossil fuels, he has driven up utility bills for working families across the country.

“Doug Burgum is burning through billions of public dollars to kill affordable energy development, rubber-stamping a Trump vanity slush fund while America’s parks crumble, and gambling with visitors and communities’ safety, all without a shred of transparency or accountability,” said Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks. “Senators on the Energy & Natural Resources Committee have a responsibility to demand real answers on why Americans are being forced to pay for Burgum’s failures.”

While he’s gutting popular agencies Americans depend on, like the National Park Service (NPS), Burgum is simultaneously requesting a $10 billion “Presidential Capital Stewardship Program,” a secretive slush fund bankrolling Trump vanity projects in Washington, D.C. at the same time the national parks’ deferred maintenance backlog exceeds $40 billion.

And as wildfire season approaches amidst a massive drought, Burgum is trying to ram through a wildfire consolidation plan, without congressional and public input, putting western communities at serious risk. Even Republicans have called the scheme “stupid.”

Additional Background:

• Five Unanswered Questions Doug Burgum Must Answer Before the Senate Today

• Doug Burgum Dodges, Deflects, and Gets Burnt for Failing to Answer for Disastrous Parks and Lands Budget

• Questions About Burgum’s Park Privatization & Public Land Sell Off Budget

• Happy Tax Day: While Foreign Corporations Cash In, American Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Doug Burgum’s Mismanagement

• NEW: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s Disastrous Budget A Nightmare for America’s National Parks

To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com. 

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