Burgum will chair “the newly formed, and very important, National Energy Council, which will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy,” Trump announced in a Nov. 15 statement from his transition team.
“This Council will oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the Economy, and by focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation.”

Burgum’s elevation to a cabinet-level role was publicly foreshadowed several months ago when he lost out to now-Vice President-elect JD Vance in the competition to be Trump’s running mate.

Burgum, like Trump, is among the wealthiest American politicians. Born in North Dakota and equipped with an MBA from Stanford University, he stewarded the growth of Great Plains Software, a firm that was eventually sold to Microsoft. The entrepreneur went on to work for that company.