Overview
- Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told senators he supports a permitting bill that would change the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act to curb what he called their weaponization.
- Democrats on the House Appropriations Interior-Environment panel, during Monday’s hearing, accused Interior of slowing wind and solar projects to favor oil and gas producers.
- Burgum said the administration supports nuclear and hydropower but views wind and solar as weather‑dependent sources that can raise costs for ratepayers.
- The White House’s roughly $16 billion Interior budget request for fiscal 2027 would cut National Park Service operations by about $757 million and reduce Bureau of Indian Education funding by roughly 32 percent, prompting bipartisan concern about services and staffing.
- Interior plans to recombine its offshore energy bureaus, BOEM and BSEE, a reversal of post–Deepwater Horizon reforms that critics call risky and that Burgum says will not cut safety corners.