Trump’s Energy Chief Maps Out Plan to ‘Unleash America’s Balance Sheet’

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum tells global energy leaders the nation’s assets ‘far exceed’ its debt but must be catalogued, capitalized, and counted.

Then-nominee for Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum testifies before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 16, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

HOUSTON—Americans are constantly reminded the nation is in debt—$36.5 trillion, at last count—and often told what their individual “share” of that liability is, nearly $110,000 each, at last count.

But there’s a missing component to this frightening appraisal: the other side of the ledger, the assets every American also has a “share” in, the nation’s abundant natural resources.

The Trump administration aims to square accounts and “unleash America’s balance sheet,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told energy industry leaders at CERAWeek by S&P Global at the Americas Hilton-Houston on March 12.

“Our national assets far exceed the $36.5 trillion in debt,” he said, noting assets administered by the Department of Interior (DOI)—500 million acres of public land, 700 million acres of subsurface mineral rights, and 2.5 billion offshore acres—are long-mismanaged resources the Trump administration sees as debt-busting revenue generators.

If the DOI were a business, “its balance sheet would be the largest in the world, bar none,“ Burgum said. “If we were able to get even a 1-percent return in those assets, we would make a substantial—a substantial—whack in balancing the budget.”

Merely including natural resources as assets in calculating the debt could significantly “reduce the 10-year long-term interest rate” that, at a projected $952 billion in 2025—roughly equal to the defense budget—is “one of the biggest expenses we have as a country” and a drag on economic development, he said.

The former two-term North Dakota governor and software entrepreneur, who chairs the newly created National Energy Dominance Council, had been at the March 10-14 CERAWeek, meeting with many of the 450-plus energy corporation CEOs from more than 80 nations who are among the 8,000 attending the 43rd annual conference.

During a brief address and ensuing interview with S&P Global Vice Chair Daniel Yergin, Burgum did not elaborate on his March 10 call to restart shuttered coal-fired power plants under President Donald Trump’s national energy emergency declaration.

Nor did he mention Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin’s March 12 announcement the agency would “reconsider” power plant and greenhouse gas rules imposed by the Biden administration that, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), will force 173 of nearly 390 coal-fired power plants in 33 states nationwide to close by 2030.

Burgum instead focused on a simple standard operating procedure in business and household finance that eludes government budget bean-counters—counting all the beans.

“Do any of you know what America’s assets are on the other side of the balance sheet?” he asked. “You’re all CEOs. You’re business leaders. You’ve built companies, you’ve created enormous wealth for your shareholders. I’ve only been in D.C. less than a month and I can’t find anyone who knows where our balance sheet is.”

Map Quest

This skewered accounting is not unique to the federal government, he said. When he assumed office as North Dakota governor in 2016, state auditors presented him with a long list of debts and a skimpy summary of state-owned assets.

“I said, ‘Well, where’s our undeveloped minerals? Where’s the value of all of our land? Where’s the value of everything else?’ They said, ‘Not here,’” Burgum recalled, noting “we figured out what the assets were,” and the state balanced its budget with a surplus to spare.

President Donald Trump signs executive orders, including one declaring a national energy emergency, in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Trump wants to balance the ledger the way North Dakota did, he said.

“We have to take our natural resources and turn them into national assets. And when we do that, our national assets are going to far exceed our national liabilities,” he said.

Burgum said there is bipartisan momentum for permit reform that could see more than 30 percent of existing regulations eliminated to trim up one-eighth of costs in public lands energy development. Projects that now take eight to 10 years will be done in two to four years, he said.

Slashing “overlap” and “overreach” by federal agencies that often “don’t stay in their lane” and create costly, time-consuming redundancy in reviewing mining and drilling applications better suited for state purview will also foster efficiencies, he said.

But at least one DOI agency could see a boost in manpower and resources—the U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS).

Among the reasons why natural resources are undercounted, if valued at all in financial estimates, is the comprehensive federal registry of minerals, ores, coal, gas, and oil needs to be updated, Burgum said.

“We got to get back to … mapping so we know where the resources are,” he said.

That, too, is a simple standard operating procedure in the mining and oil business that the USGS is more than capable of mastering, Burgum said, if previous administrations had elevated, rather than buried, its capabilities.

England became an empire because a canal digger and surveyor drew a map, he said.

“I know all the geologists in the room have read the book that came out about 25 years ago called ‘The Map That Changed the World,’” Burgum said, referring to William Smith, who in the late 18th century drew the world’s first geological map.

“He spent 15 years, almost by himself, mapping where all the underground resources were in England and Scotland and Wales. That led to, basically, the development of the coal resources that led them to having the world’s largest navy and made them the world’s superpower.”

The National Energy Dominance Council wants the USGS to craft a new map, Burgum said.

“We’re not doing reports. We’re not doing studies. Think of us as a small tiger team of people with private sector experience,” he said. “We will identify strategic projects that need to happen.”