Interior Secretary Doug Burgum outlined the Trump administration’s aggressive strategy to restore American energy leadership through what he called the “four babies” approach: drill, baby, drill; map, baby, map; mine, baby, mine; and build baby build.
In a wide-ranging interview Wednesday with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle, Burgum said he’s committed to drilling for oil and gas, mapping America’s natural resources, mining them responsibly, and building more power generation.
“President [Donald] Trump summarized this beautifully in three words—drill, baby, drill,” Burgum said. “We must do all the things to get back in the game. We have to encourage private sector capital to come to our country and get regulations out of the way so this industry can keep innovating.”
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In addition to drilling, Burgum emphasized the importance of mapping America’s resources through the U.S. Geological Survey. He celebrated “The Map That Changed the World,” describing how geological mapping of Britain led to a century of industrial dominance.
The “mine, baby, mine” component addresses America’s reliance on rare minerals from other countries. Burgum said the United States has “killed the mining industry” over the past 30 years while becoming dependent on Chinese supplies for critical minerals for defense and technology. He noted one copper mining project that has been seeking permits for 29 years as an example of regulatory paralysis.
The final component, “build, baby, build,” focuses on expanding America’s electricity capacity, particularly through baseload power generation, which Burgum said has become imbalanced against reliable energy sources.
Burgum plans to take an active role implementing the Trump administration’s agenda as chairman of the newly established National Energy Dominance Council, which he described as a “tiger team” within the White House designed to fast-track critical energy projects.
“Our job is to go get that project built,” Burgum said, explaining the council’s mission to cut through bureaucratic red tape that has stalled energy projects for years. “That could be linear infrastructure like pipelines. It could be natural gas, export, transmission lines, or export facilities.”
Burgum said energy is not merely a sector of the economy but “the fundamental foundation for all sectors of the economy,” directly affecting food prices, manufacturing capacity, and national security.
He criticized the Biden administration for what he called a “whole-of-government approach attacking U.S. energy” and contrasted it with the Trump administration’s push to utilize America’s vast natural resources.
As governor of North Dakota, Burgum came up with a balance sheet of the state’s assets. He would now like to create a national balance sheet that serves as an accounting of the county’s assets, including more than 700 million acres of land owned by the federal government.
“I challenge anybody to go try to find a current balance sheet for the United States of America,” he said, estimating America’s mineral, land, and offshore assets could be worth $100 trillion—far exceeding the $36.5 trillion national debt.
Burgum expressed frustration over Biden-era orders that removed resource-rich lands from development, including a late-term executive order withdrawing 625 million acres of offshore territory from exploration.
He also warned about America’s falling behind in the global race for artificial intelligence due to insufficient electricity capacity.
“Electricity becomes intelligence,” he said, noting that China is rapidly expanding its power generation through coal, nuclear, and hydroelectric projects while the United States struggles under regulatory burdens.
“China gets 60% of their electricity from coal,” Burgum explained. “They added 94.5 gigawatts of coal [power] in 52 weeks. They’re basically opening up two coal plants a week at a time when we’re trying to shut all of ours down.”
Without dramatic changes, Burgum said the U.S. risks losing both economic prosperity and national security advantages to China.
Watch the full interview with Burgum below.
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