Big Oil wants a lot from Trump. It has an ally in Doug Burgum, the president's Interior pick

abcnews.go.com:

Emails obtained by The Associated Press reveal Doug Burgum as North Dakota governor catered to the whims of oil and gas executives while leveraging those connections to expand his political profile

BISMARCK, N.D. — 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 he's been confirmed 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.

Those ties concern Democrats and environmentalists who say his zeal to expand drilling was “troubling.”

“Are you going to protect our resources, or are you