Central ND News

At a recent Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, Senator John Hoeven discussed strategies to bolster U.S. energy dominance with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. The focus was on leveraging taxpayer-owned oil, gas, coal reserves, and increasing critical mineral production on federal lands.

Hoeven highlighted the development of Talon Metals' minerals processing facility in North Dakota as a key initiative for creating a secure domestic supply chain for battery production. He emphasized that such developments are crucial not only for local economies but also for generating federal revenue to address debt and deficit concerns.

"Taxpayer-owned lands and minerals are a real strategic and economic asset to our nation," said Hoeven. "Doing so is not only important to local economies, but is essential to our efforts to make the U.S. truly energy dominant."

Hoeven is working with Burgum to reduce regulatory burdens at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). He aims to rescind two regulations from the Biden administration that could limit access to significant mineral and energy resources: the Public Lands Rule and the Resource Management Plan (RMP) for North Dakota.

The Public Lands Rule proposes changes in managing over 245 million acres of federal lands by introducing conservation leases. Meanwhile, the RMP would restrict leasing of 45% of potential federal oil and gas acreage and nearly all federal coal acreage in North Dakota.