BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — When North Dakota’s petroleum association was going to hold a banquet honoring top fracking executives last year, it turned to Gov. Doug Burgum. The two-term Republican, now President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, co-hosted the event — at the governor’s mansion.

And when energy industry lobbyists were looking for help taking on Biden administration greenhouse gas rules, they also turned to Burgum. In an email to Burgum’s office seeking the legal heft the state could provide, an industry lobbyist argued that “combating” such regulations required “a one-two punch” from industry and government.

While it is not surprising that the governor of the third-largest oil producing state would have a close relationship with fossil fuel producers, records obtained by The Associated Press reveal Burgum’s administration eagerly assisted the industry even as the governor was profiting from the lease of family land to oil companies. And his assistance came at a time when Burgum was leaning on those very connections to build his national profile in the Republican Party.

Now that the Senate has confirmed him to run the Interior Department, Burgum will have vast control over federal lands, including the issuance of oil and gas leases, as well as a mandate from Trump to extract such resources even though the U.S. is producing record amounts of fossil fuels.

The selection of Burgum, who briefly pursued the presidency in 2023 before endorsing Trump, represents an abrupt pivot from Biden’s emphasis on combating climate change. It also signals that Trump intends to follow through on a proposal made last spring when he urged oil and gas CEOs to donate $1 billion to his campaign in exchange for the dismantling of Biden’s environmental agenda.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesman for Burgum declined to make him available for an interview.

“Governor Burgum worked tirelessly to build a prosperous economy,” spokesman Rob Lockwood said in a statement. “As governor, he met with job creators and leaders who generated opportunities for the people of North Dakota.”

Under the partisan glare of Washington and faced with stricter federal ethics rules governing conflicts of interest, Burgum has pledged to sell his interest in his family’s lease with the shale oil giant Continental Resources, as well as another one with Hess, a Chevron subsidiary. He has also pledged to sell stock held in a handful of energy companies, some of which he interacted with as governor, which are worth as much as $200,000 according to his 2023 financial disclosures.

Close ties to an industry titan

There is perhaps no better demonstration of Burgum’s close ties to oil and gas producers than his friendship with Harold Hamm, the Continental founder. The billionaire Oklahoma wildcatter advises Trump on energy policy and is widely viewed as playing a role in helping Burgum secure the nomination to lead Interior. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Burgum has likened Hamm to Teddy Roosevelt for his “grit, resilience, hard work and determination” that he said “changed North Dakota and our nation.” The shout-out came after Hamm had donated $50 million toward a library honoring Roosevelt in western North Dakota — a passion project of Burgum’s.

Hamm also gifted Burgum a set of cuff links along with a note thanking Burgum for his “friendship.”

These were not his only displays of patronage. Though Burgum, an independently wealthy former software company CEO, had a dim chance of winning the Republican presidential primary, Hamm’s Continental Resources contributed $250,000 in the summer of 2023 to a super PAC supporting Burgum, records show.

Emails between Burgum and Hamm’s offices reveal the two communicated often.

In a May 2020 email, Hamm’s executive assistant asked if Burgum had time to talk with Hamm and shared a briefing document that railed against wind power and excoriated tax breaks for wind energy providers as “unconscionable.”

Ethics experts say there are other aspects of their relationship that pose a greater conflict of interest. As governor, Burgum never disclosed that his family leased roughly 200 acres of farmland to Continental for well drilling, as previously reported by CNBC. When Burgum ran for president and faced greater transparency requirements, he revealed making $50,000 in royalties from Continental in 2023.

“Tens of thousands of families and mineral owners have similar arrangements,” said Lockwood, the Burgum spokesman, “As the publicly available disclosures show: the cited agreement began many years before he became governor.”

Despite this relationship, Burgum took action that benefited Hamm. As chairman of North Dakota’s Industrial Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, he voted nearly a dozen times or more on measures that had favorable outcomes for Continental, records show.

Sarah Vogel, a Democrat and former North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner who previously sat on the commission, said Burgum seemed more like a cheerleader of the industry than a regulator.

“I don’t think he had a regulator’s mindset. He had a promoter’s mindset, which has probably made him beloved in the oil and gas industry,” Vogel said.

Other executives have ties to Burgum

Hamm is not the only oil executive or lobbyist who has cultivated ties with Burgum. Ryan Berger, a lobbyist for Occidental Petroleum, emailed Burgum’s staff last year seeking a meeting for Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub.

“In an ideal world, a face-to-face over lunch or dinner would be amazing,” Berger wrote in a May 2024 email.

The records revealed that a Who’s Who of oil executives had calls scheduled with Burgum. They include: CEOs of Chevron and Exxon; Marathon Oil officials had an audience with Burgum in 2022; and the governor also spoke before the Hess Corporation’s board of directors’ dinner. Burgum’s family also has an oil lease with Hess that paid him as much as $1,000, according to his financial disclosure.

On Inauguration Day, Burgum declined an invitation to attend a party at the posh Hay-Adams Hotel that was hosted by Hamm and several petroleum trade associations and oil companies.

Many of those executives and lobbyists, who will have business before the Interior Department, already know how to reach him.

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Slodysko reported from Washington.

Brian Slodysko And Jack Dura, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Doug Burgum as interior secretary late Thursday after President Donald Trump tapped the North Dakota billionaire to spearhead the Republican administration’s ambitions to boost fossil fuel production.

The vote was 79-18.

Burgum, 68, is an ultra-wealthy software industry entrepreneur who came from a small North Dakota farming community, where he worked at his family’s grain elevator.

He served two terms as governor of the oil-rich state and launched a presidential campaign in 2023, but dropped out months later and quickly endorsed Trump.

Trump also picked Burgum to chair a new National Energy Council that’s tasked with achieving American “energy dominance.” He would have a seat on the National Security Council — a first for the interior secretary.

His directive from Trump is to make it even easier for energy companies to tap fossil fuel resources, including from public lands. That raised alarms among environmentalists and some Democrats as greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels bake the planet.

Burgum eagerly assisted the energy industry during his time as governor, when he was also profiting from the lease of family land to oil companies, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

During his confirmation hearing, Burgum said the U.S. can use energy development as leverage to promote peace and to lower consumer costs.

He raised concerns about the reliability of renewable power sources promoted under former President Joe Biden, and said the U.S. needs to generate more electricity from sources such as coal and nuclear that can run constantly.

Democrats in response accused the Trump administration of abandoning an “all of the above” energy policy to favor fossil fuels.

“They said wind is dead on the offshore. They are trying to do as much of this as possible to create demand for coal, for fossil gas,” Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz said during a Thursday floor speech.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said Burgum would rightfully prioritize energy innovation over regulation.

“He’s going to take the common-sense action of unlocking our lands for oil and for gas production,” Barrasso said. He added that more than 600,000 acres of land in Wyoming have been approved for energy production but were not offered for development by the Biden administration.

The U.S. currently produces more crude oil than any nation in history, according to the Energy Information Administration. More cost-effective technology in recent decades drove drilling booms in states including New Mexico, Texas and North Dakota, where vast expanses of rural farmland have been industrialized by oil and gas companies.

The booms brought billions of dollars in tax revenue to state and federal governments. But burning those fuels is also unleashing immense volumes of carbon dioxide that scientists say is warming the planet.

The Interior Department has jurisdiction over a half-billion acres of federal land and vast areas offshore. Those areas produce about one-quarter of U.S. oil annually.

The interior secretary also oversees the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management and other subagencies.

Burgum succeeds Deb Haaland, who under Biden sharply scaled back oil and gas sales and promoted solar and wind projects on federal lands.

Trump made energy development a centerpiece of his first term and is again vowing to abolish restrictions on the industry that are intended to protect the environment and public health.

Burgum, during his hearing earlier this month before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, suggested to lawmakers that carbon dioxide from fossil fuels could be captured to neutralize their contribution to global warming.

Carbon-capture skeptics say the technology is untested at scale and allows the fossil-fuel industry to continue largely unchanged even as climate change becomes increasingly urgent.

During Haaland’s tenure at the Interior Department, officials also reversed actions taken during Trump’s first term that weakened protections for imperiled species while making it easier for private developers to pursue projects on public lands.

Republicans in Congress have said they plan to again seek changes to rules on endangered species and they want Burgum to help.

Burgum says federal lands can be used for many purposes including recreation, logging and oil and gas production that can lift local economies.

“Not every acre of federal land is a national park or a wilderness area,” he told lawmakers.

Matthew Brown, The Associated Press

Hospitals in Colorado, Virginia and the nation’s capital said Thursday they have paused gender-affirming care for young people as they evaluate President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at cutting federal support for such care.

Denver Health in Colorado has stopped providing gender-affirming surgeries for people under age 19, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday, in order to comply with the executive order and continue receiving federal funding. It is unclear whether the hospital will continue providing other gender-affirming care for youth, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers.

In Virginia, VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond said they have suspended gender-affirming medication and gender-affirming surgical procedures for those under 19 years old.

In Washington, D.C., Children’s National Hospital said the hospital had “paused prescriptions of puberty blockers and hormone therapy to comply with the directives while we assess the situation further.” The hospital already did not perform gender-affirming surgery on minors, a spokesperson said Thursday.

Trump’s order, signed Thursday, is part of a push to reverse Biden administration policies meant to protect transgender people and their care. It ordered agencies to take steps to makes sure that hospitals receiving federal research and education grants “end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”

Other hospitals told The Associated Press that their current practices would continue. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago said hospital officials are reviewing the order and “assessing any potential impact to the clinical services we offer to our patient families.”

“Our team will continue to advocate for access to medically necessary care, grounded in science and compassion for the patient-families we are so privileged to serve,” the statement said.

The language in Trump’s executive order — using words such as “maiming,” “sterilizing” and “mutilation” — contradicts what is typical for gender-affirming care in the United States. It also labels guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health as “junk science.”

WPATH said in a statement that restrictions and bans on “access to necessary medical care for transgender youth are harmful to patients and their families.”

Gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth isn’t common. A new study shows that fewer than 1 in 1,000 U.S. adolescents with commercial insurance received puberty blockers or hormones during a recent five-year period, and the bulk of gender-affirming surgeries are not performed on youth.

The Denver hospital said Trump’s order would affect the mental health of its transgender patients, and that they would continue to receive primary and behavioral health care.

“Denver Health is committed to and deeply concerned for the health and safety of our gender diverse patients under the age of 19,” the hospital’s statement said.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Carla K. Johnson, Devna Bose And Laura Bargfeld, The Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Sen. Bill Cassidy has emerged as a central figure in the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose nomination to health and human services secretary poses an equally consequential moment for the second-term Republican facing an uncertain political future in Louisiana.

A physician-turned-politician, Cassidy has questions about Kennedy’s past claims linking common vaccines to autism, a position the gastroenterologist rejects and sought repeatedly to convince the nominee to renounce during a committee hearing Thursday.

Yet, Republicans and voters at home in the state President Donald Trump carried handily are pressing Cassidy, who is up for reelection in 2026, to vote yes.

Already at odds with a segment of his party for voting to convict Trump during his 2021 impeachment, Cassidy acknowledged his own desire Thursday to see Trump succeed in his second term as president. His questioning of Kennedy on Thursday demonstrated vividly the conflict between Cassidy’s medical views and his desire to be an ally to the president and his supporters.

Ultimately Cassidy stopped short of saying whether he will vote to approve Kennedy’s nomination, though the hearing did offer some clues.

“You may be hearing from me over the weekend,” Cassidy said.

Who is Cassidy hearing from?

There was no ambiguity from Louisiana Republicans in their advice to Cassidy.

Prominent party members, including the state GOP’s organizational leader, vocal conservatives and a potential primary challenger, made clear in their public signals to Cassidy that he would be flouting the will of the party were he to oppose the nominee of a candidate who carried Louisiana so handily.

State Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, state Republican Chair Derek Babcock and a conservative coalition in the Louisiana House of Representatives that adopted its congressional counterpart’s title, the Freedom Caucus, all wrote to Cassidy urging him to vote to confirm Kennedy.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s letter sent perhaps the clearest signal to Cassidy. In a letter to Cassidy, his former House colleague and longtime Trump devotee recalled Kennedy’s appearance in Baton Rouge, and noting “Kennedy proved to be an asset to the state as we navigated the edicts of the federal government.”

Republican State Rep. Raymond Crews said Cassidy’s standing among Louisiana Republicans is riding on his vote on Kennedy.

A vote against Kennedy “wouldn’t match up with the country, and it particularly doesn’t match up with the state of Louisiana,” Crews said.

What’s Kennedy’s Standing among Louisiana’s Republican base?

Cassidy acknowledged in his opening to the committee Thursday what Louisiana statehouse Republicans have noticed: Kennedy has a following in Louisiana.

“My phone blows up with people who really follow you,” Cassidy said, noting the calls he gets urging him to vote to confirm. “And there are many who trust you more than they trust their own physician.”

That’s, in part, due to Kennedy’s appearance before a packed 2021 Louisiana legislative committee hearing in Baton Rouge, when he joined in opposition to then-Gov. John Bel Edwards’ proposal to add COVID-19 vaccinations to the list of shots required for Louisiana public school students.

At the invitation of then-Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, Kennedy was hailed during the visit to Baton Rouge by opponents of the Democratic governor’s proposal, many of them part of organized parent groups.

The appearance endeared Kennedy to opponents of Edwards’ measure, which was defeated in the Republican-controlled legislature, said Louisiana Rep. Julie Emerson, a member of the House Health and Welfare Committee at the time.

“He’s a bit of a folk hero in Louisiana because of that,” Emerson said.

How does the hearing affect Cassidy’s political future?

Cassidy is already unpopular with a segment of Louisiana Republicans for voting in January 2021 to convict Trump after his second impeachment stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol. Cassidy’s vote came right after he was sworn in to his second term.

He has drawn a primary challenger in state Treasurer John Fleming, and others are considering entering the race against him. Louisiana last year adopted a closed party primary election system, abandoning the “jungle primary,” which would have given Cassidy a smoother path.

Before, all candidates for Senate — Republicans, Democrats and third-party candidates — ran in the same open primary, where all registered voters could vote. If a candidate didn’t get 50 percent in that vote, the top two would face a runoff. That system favored better-known candidates with cross-party appeal. The new primary would draw registered Republicans and GOP-leaning independents.

Trump, who puts a premium on loyalty to him, has long been troubled by Cassidy for his impeachment vote, say Louisiana Republican insiders, few of whom see any scenario where Trump endorses him. The best possible outcome for Cassidy could be, even if he votes to confirm Kennedy, for Trump to endorse no one.

Still, a vote against Kennedy would be out of step for Cassidy within his state’s party, said state Sen. Blake Miquez, a potential Cassidy primary challenger.

“We shouldn’t be playing the old D.C. games intended to obstruct Trump’s agenda,” he told The Associated Press.

How did Cassidy Handle Kennedy’s hearing?

Cassidy approached the hearing with obvious nods to his competing allegiances, as a doctor and an elected official representing a state where Trump won 60 percent of the vote.

“I want President Trump to be successful,” he said in opening the hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee he chairs.

Still, Cassidy sought to elicit from Kennedy — pointedly, if also politely — a commitment to recant statements linking vaccines for measles and Hepatitis B to autism, a connection that has been widely debunked by medical researchers.

Twice during the hearing, Cassidy recalled his 18-year-old patient suffering acute liver failure who needed emergency transplant surgery, which would burden her with medical bills for the rest of her life. “Fifty dollars worth of vaccine could have prevented this all,” the liver disease specialist said.

“Your past undermining confidence in vaccines with unfounded or misleading arguments concerns me,” he said.

Initially, Kennedy seemed conciliatory: “If you show me data, I will be the first person to assure the American people that they need to take those vaccines.”

Dissatisfied, Cassidy said he was concerned “that you’ve never acquainted yourself with anything that might contradict what you were previously saying.”

Then Cassidy took another crack, this time conceding to Kennedy’s terms to see the data first. “If the data is brought to you, and these studies have been out there for quite sometime,” he said, “will you say, ‘I see this. It’s stood the test of time.’?”

Offered that caveat, Kennedy was happy to oblige.

“Not only will I do that,” he said, “I will apologize for any statements that misled people otherwise.”

Did Cassidy tip his hand?

Asked by reporters in the days leading up to the hearings, Cassidy said: “I’m still working through it. I look forward to the hearings and I will allow that to guide my decision.”

By suggesting Thursday to Kennedy at the close of the hearing that he might reach Kennedy over the weekend, Cassidy seemed to suggest his concerns had not been allayed.

Repeating in his closing remarks his desire for Trump to succeed, Cassidy returned to Kennedy’s answer that he would promote vaccines he had criticized as long as someone demonstrated their safety.

Cassidy said he and Kennedy agreed that families wanted vaccines that were necessary, safe and effective.

“But we’ve approached it differently,” he said with an air of understatement.

“I think I can say that I’ve approached it using the preponderance of evidence,” he said. “And you’ve approached it using selective evidence to cast doubt.”

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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

Thomas Beaumont And Sara Cline, The Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump began his White House briefing Thursday with a moment of silence and a prayer for victims of Wednesday’s crash at Reagan National Airport. But his remarks quickly became a diatribe against diversity hiring and his allegation — so far without evidence — that lowered standards were to blame for the crash.

Trump on Thursday variously pointed the finger at the helicopter’s pilot, air traffic control, his predecessor, Joe Biden, and other Democrats including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whom he labeled a “disaster.” Buttigieg responded by calling Trump “despicable.”

The cause of the crash is still unknown. Authorities are investigating and have not publicly identified the cause or said who might have been responsible for the collision of an American Airlines plane and a U.S. Army helicopter.

Reporters on Thursday challenged Trump’s claims. Here’s a look at how Trump responded to some of their questions.

Placing blame on diversity hiring

Trump was asked repeatedly to explain why he was blaming federal diversity and inclusion promotion efforts for the crash, at one point alleging that previous leadership had determined that the Federal Aviation Administration workforce was “too white.” He did not back up those claims, while also declaring it was still not clear the FAA or air traffic controllers were responsible for the crash.

Q: “Are you saying this crash was somehow caused as the result of diversity hiring? And what evidence have you seen to support these claims?”

TRUMP: “It just could have been. We have a high standard. We’ve had a much higher standard than anybody else. And there are things where you have to go by brainpower. You have to go by psychological quality, and psychological quality is a very important element of it. These are various, very powerful tests that we put to use. And they were terminated by Biden. And Biden went by a standard that seeks the exact opposite. So we don’t know. But we do know that you had two planes at the same level. You had a helicopter and a plane. That shouldn’t have happened. And, we’ll see. We’re going to look into that, and we’re going to see. But certainly for an air traffic controller, we want the brightest, the smartest, the sharpest. We want somebody that’s psychologically superior. And that’s what we’re going to have.”

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Q: “You have today blamed the diversity elements but then told us that you weren’t sure that the controllers made any mistake. You then said perhaps the helicopter pilots were the ones who made the mistake.”

TRUMP: “It’s all under investigation.”

Q: “I understand that. That’s why I’m trying to figure out how you can come to the conclusion right now that diversity had something to do with this crash.”

TRUMP: “Because I have common sense. OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t. We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level. When you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time, and they’re all coming in different directions, and you’re dealing with very high-level computer, computer work and very complex computers.”

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Trump was challenged on his claim that the FAA under Democratic presidents had promoted the hiring of people with disabilities. The page Trump referenced has existed on the FAA’s website for a decade, including his first term.

Q: “The implication that this policy is new or that it stems from efforts that began under President Biden or the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, is demonstrably false. It’s been on the FAA’s website —”

TRUMP: “Who said that, you?”

Q: “No, it’s on the website, the FAA’s website. It was there from 2013 … it was there for the entirety, it was there for the entirety of your administration, too. So my question is, why didn’t you change the policy during your first administration?”

TRUMP: “I did change it. I changed the Obama policy, and we had a very good policy. And then Biden came in and he changed it. And then when I came in two days, three days ago, I signed a new order, bringing it to the highest level of intelligence.”

Calling for fast confirmations

Trump agreed it was helpful to have Sean Duffy, his new transportation secretary, sworn and ready to respond when the major crisis hit.

Q: “Is it helpful to have your secretary of transportation confirmed and does this intensify your interest in getting other nominees confirmed quickly as well?”

TRUMP: “For sure, we want fast confirmations. And the Democrats, as you know, are doing everything they can to delay. They’ve taken too long. We’re struggling to get very good people that everybody knows are going to be confirmed. But we’re struggling to get them out faster. We want them out faster.”

Reassuring people it is safe to fly

Trump was asked if Americans should feel safe to fly after the crash.

According to the FAA, Trump is expected to fly to Palm Beach, Florida, where his Mar-a-Lago club is located, for the weekend on Friday.

Trump took another opportunity to criticize diversity hiring efforts for the crash as he wrapped up the news briefing.

Q: “Should people be hesitant to fly right now?”

TRUMP: “No. Not at all. I would not hesitate to fly. This is something that it’s been many years that something like this has happened, and the collision is just something that, we don’t expect ever to happen again. We are going to have the highest-level people. We’ve already hired some of the people that you already hired for that position long before we knew about this. I mean, long before, from the time I came in, we started going out and getting the best people because I said ‘It’s not appropriate what they’re doing.’ I think it’s a tremendous mistake. You know? They like to do things, and they like to take them too far. And this is sometimes what ends up happening.

“Now with that, I’m not blaming the controller. I’m saying there are things that you could question, like the height of the helicopter, the height of the plane being at the same level and going the opposite direction. That’s not a positive. But, no, we’re already hiring people.

“Flying is very safe. We have the safest flying anywhere in the world, and we’ll keep it that way.”

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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

Adriana Gomez Licon, The Associated Press