BISMARCK, ND (AP) – Donald Trump is awarded Doug Burgum a unique assignment to nominate the governor of oil-rich North Dakota to lead an agency that oversees half a billion acres of federal land and vast areas offshore: “Drill baby drill.”

That dictate from the President-elect’s announcement of Burgum as Minister of the Interior creates the conditions for a revival of court battles over public land and water that helped define Trump’s first term, with environmentalists worried climate change already pledged their resistance.

Burgum is an extremely wealthy software entrepreneur who grew up on his family’s farm. He represents a tame choice compared to other Trump cabinet picks.

Public land experts said his experience as a popular two-term governor aligning himself with conservationist Teddy Roosevelt suggests a willingness to cooperate, as opposed to dismantle from within the agency he is tasked with leading.

That could help smooth his confirmation and pave the way for the incoming administration to move quickly to open more public lands to development and commercial use.

“Burgum strikes me as a credible candidate who could do a credible job as secretary of the interior,” said John Leshy, who served as attorney general under former President Bill Clinton.

“He’s not a right-wing radical on public land,” added Leshy, professor emeritus at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.

Frictions over land areas

The Department of the Interior manages about one-fifth of the nation’s land with a mandate that ranges from wildlife conservation and recreation to natural resource extraction and fulfilling treaty obligations with Native American tribes.

Most of these countries are in the West, where conflicts with private landowners and government officials are common and have sometimes turned into violent confrontations with right-wing groups that reject federal jurisdiction.

Burgum, if confirmed, will face a pending U.S. Supreme Court action from Utah that tries assert state power over the Ministry of the Interior’s lands. North Dakota’s attorney general has supported the lawsuit, but Burgum’s office declined to say whether he supports Utah’s claims.

Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to dismiss Utah’s lawsuit. They said that in 1894 Utah agreed to give up its claim to the lands in question when it became a state.

Trump’s narrow focus on fossil fuels is a repeat of his 2016 campaign—albeit minus coal mining, a collapsing industry that he failed to revive in his first term. Trump repeatedly hailed oil as “liquid gold” on the campaign trail this year and largely left out all about coal.

About 26% of US oil comes from federal lands and offshore waters overseen by Interior. Production continues to hit record levels under President Joe Biden despite claims by Trump that the Democrat was blocking drilling.

But industry representatives and their Republican allies say volumes could increase further. They want Burgum and the Interior Department to increase sales of oil and gas from federal lands, in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska.

The oil industry also hopes that Trump’s government efficiency initiatives led by billionaire Elon Musk can dramatically reduce environmental reviews.

The Biden administration reduced the frequency and size of lease sales, and it restored environmental regulations that were weakened under Trump. The Democrat running for office in 2020 promised further restrictions on drilling to help fight global warming, but he made a deal for the 2022 climate change law that requires offshore oil and gas sales to be held before renewable energy leases can be sold.

“Oil and gas brings in billions of dollars in revenue, but you don’t get that if you don’t have leasing,” said Erik Milito of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore industries including oil and wind.

Trump has promised dead sea breeze energy project. But Milito said he was hopeful that with Burgum in place, there would be “green lights ahead for everything, not just oil and gas.”

Conservation, drilling and grazing

It is unclear whether Burgum would revive some of the most controversial moves at the agency during Trump’s first term, including moving senior officials out of Washington, D.C., dismantling parts of the Endangered Species Act and shrinking the size of two national monuments in Utah designated by former President Barack Obama.

Officials under Biden spent much of the past four years trying to reverse Trump’s moves. They restored the Utah monuments and repealed many Trump regulations. Onshore oil and gas sales fell — from more than a million acres sold annually under Trump and other previous administrations, to just 91,712 acres (37,115 hectares) sold last year — while many wind and solar projects were being developed.

Developing energy leases takes years and oil companies control millions of hectares that remain untapped.

The Biden administration also raised the importance of conservation in public land decisions, adopt a rule that puts it more on par with oil and gas development. They proposed withdrawing parcels of land in six states from potential future mining to protect a struggling bird species, the greater sage grouse.

North Dakota is one of the Republican states that challenged the Biden administration’s public land rule. The states said in a lawsuit in June that officials acting to prevent climate change have turned laws intended to facilitate development into policies that prevent drilling, cattle grazing and other uses.

Oil production boomed over the past two decades in North Dakota, thanks in large part to better drilling techniques. Burgum has been an industry champion and last year signed a repeal of the state’s triggering oil tax — a price-based tax increase industry leaders is supported remove.

Burgum’s office declined an interview request.

In a statement following his nomination, Burgum echoed Trump’s call for US “energy dominance” in the global marketplace. The 68-year-old governor also said the interior design post offered an opportunity to improve government relations with developers, tribes, landowners and outdoor enthusiasts “with a focus on maximizing the responsible use of our natural resources with environmental stewardship for the benefit of the American people.”

Under current Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the agency placed greater emphasis on working with tribes, including their own energy project. Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe in New Mexico, also spearheaded an initiative to solve criminal cases involving missing and murdered indigenous people and helped lead a nationwide settlement of abuses at federal Indian boarding schools which culminated in a formal public apology from Biden.

Burgum has worked with tribes in his state, including with oil development. Badlands Conservation Alliance Director Shannon Straight in Bismarck, North Dakota, said Burgum has also been a big supporter of North Dakota tourism and outdoor activities like hunting and fishing.

But Straight said that hasn’t translated into additional protections for land in the state.

“Theodore Roosevelt had a conservation ethic, and we speak and hold that up as a beautiful standard to live by,” he said. “We haven’t seen that much on the ground. … We have to realize that the landscape is only going to be as good as some additional protection.”

Burgum has been a cheerleader for the planned Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota.

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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.