Two things will be clear at Doug Burgum's confirmation hearing for secretary of interior Thursday, including that President-elect Donald Trump's slate "is enormously talented — there is no doubt," Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont, said on Newsmax on Thursday.
"And two, they were very well prepared," Zinke told Newsmax TV's "Newsline."
"Matter of fact, in policy, they were better prepared than some of their democratic, you know, friends on the Senate side. So I think it's been an enormous success of fielding this group of nominees. And I think all of them will be successful."
"As far as Doug Burgum goes, I can't think of a better individual for interior," he added.
"He's from the West. He understands Western values. He's a business guy. He's a former governor of North Dakota. He understands water, and he understands our environment, and he understands the importance of energy. And you can get to energy dominance fairly quickly, but it's going to take a lot of work."
Burgum on Thursday told a Senate panel that the U.S. can leverage development of fossil fuels and other energy sources to promote world peace and lower costs and voiced concerns about the reliability of renewable power sources promoted under the Biden administration.
He also said the U.S. needs to make more "baseload" electricity from coal and other sources as it seeks to power data centers for the nation's tech industry. If confirmed, Burgum would become the chief steward of federal lands.
"This is something that is critical to our national security," Burgum said. "Without baseload, we're going to lose the AI arms race to China."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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