Doug Burgum

Rule Changes

Appealing the April injunction; his department is also asking courts to reopen four offshore wind permits.

The Pentagon has started clearing onshore wind projects again after a federal judge ordered it to resume reviews. In October it advanced projects in Maine and South Dakota, but Democrats say hundreds more are still waiting.

Updated Oct 29

Rule Changes

Issued Secretary's Order 3422 directing the rollback

Sport hunters can again lure bears to bait piles on Alaska's national preserves and shoot them at close range. The National Park Service rule, published in the Federal Register on Oct. 19, replaces a 2024 ban and takes effect Nov. 18.

Updated Oct 26

Rule Changes

Oversees the National Park Service

Chiricahua National Monument became Chiricahua National Park on Oct. 20, 2026, when President Donald Trump signed the Chiricahua National Park Act. The 12,000-acre site in southeastern Arizona is the state's fourth national park and the country's 64th.

Updated Oct 23

Rule Changes

Lost all five preliminary injunction fights; in 2026 shifted to canceling early-stage leases and asking courts to send granted permits back for reconsideration

All five East Coast wind farms that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum froze in December 2025 were back at work by early February, after federal judges in three districts granted preliminary injunctions. The building has gone on since: Ørsted's Revolution Wind finished offshore construction and has sent power to the New England grid since March, and Dominion's Coastal Virginia project is more than 80 percent built and delivering electricity.

Updated Oct 23

Rule Changes

Overseeing lease buybacks and permit reviews after courts rejected the December 2025 suspensions

Federal judges cleared all five East Coast offshore wind projects to resume construction by February 2, 2026, finding the Trump administration had not justified its national security suspensions. The five projects total about 5.8 gigawatts. Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind are now fully built and sending power; Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is more than 80% complete.

Updated Oct 23

Rule Changes

As of October 2026: Backed the repeal as part of the energy dominance agenda

The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule in September that wipes out most Biden-era limits on climate pollution from coal and gas plants. The rule takes effect November 16, and EPA projects $310 billion in savings without explaining how it derived that estimate.

Updated Oct 5

Built World

As of September 2026: Releasing his agency's decision on 2027-2028 Colorado River operations

Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the United States, has fallen to its lowest level on record. The surface dropped below the April 2023 mark on August 15 and kept sinking through early September, when it sat at 3,517.24 feet.

Updated Sep 23

Rule Changes

As of September 2026: Has until early December to issue a determination

President Trump signed an executive order Sept. 4 directing the Interior Department to determine whether gray wolves and Mexican gray wolves have recovered enough to lose Endangered Species Act protections. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has 90 days to decide whether to begin delisting the animals, a process that would shift wolf management from federal to state control.

Updated Sep 7

Rule Changes

As of August 2026: Signed the final plan and Record of Decision

Farmers and cities across the Southwest just learned how much less river water they will get. On August 22, the US Department of the Interior signed rules cutting Arizona, California and Nevada by about 1.25 million acre-feet a year, roughly 21% of their Colorado River supply. Arizona takes the deepest cut.

Updated Aug 23

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Overseeing the NPR-A regulatory rollback and leasing restart

BLM's rollback of the 2024 NPR-A protections isn't new news—but today is when it becomes real. As of December 17, 2025, the rescission is officially in effect, wiping out the Biden-era rule that tried to hardwire stronger guardrails into how the Western Arctic gets developed.

Updated May 15

Force in Play

As of May 2026: Overseeing transfer of public lands into border military zones

Donald Trump has quietly turned long stretches of the southern border into de facto military bases. Under a new system of National Defense Areas, soldiers can stop migrants, hold them, and help prosecutors charge them as trespassers on military land.

Updated May 11