Doug Burgum

Interior Secretary Burgum, whose agency regulates drilling on federal land, again tried to blame the Biden administration, saying its environmental policies led to today's huge spike in gas prices since President Trump's Iran invasion.

One of many testy exchanges came between Burgum and California Democrat Jared Huffman.

Democrats also blasted Trump's proposal to cut nearly a billion dollars from national parks, with one staffer holding up a sign pointing out the president is trying to spend the same amount on a new White House ballroom.

Kirk Sigler, NPR News, Washington.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum downplayed Trump's latest proposed cuts to the Park Service during a hearing with the House subcommittee, saying like last summer, his plan is to put more staffers in national parks instead of regional offices.

Trump's latest budget would cut more than $700 million from park service operations.

Burgum says some of that reflects money the administration plans to move to its new wildland fire service.

Committee Democrats blasted him for, as they put it, making decisions in secret while circumventing Congress.

Kirk Sigler, NPR News.

We're partnering with Total Energies to unleash nearly $1 billion that was tied up in a lease deposit that was directed towards the prior administration's subsidies that were pushing expensive weather-dependent offshore wind. With this agreement, we're allowing this great company to redirect those dollars that have been paid into the treasury towards affordable, reliable and secure oil and natural gas production investments.

Certainly when there's a price indication that's happening right now, this is an opportunity.

Shale producers have the ability to increase their production.

Some of them have drilled but uncompleted wells.

They just have to turn those on.

And of course, we're seeing our partners.

I just got back from Venezuela last week where you've got companies like Chevron that are indicating that they can accelerate.

their development in places like that.

And of course, the administration taking steps in places like California, where we've got offshore in California.

Well, I actually think the administration, when you kind of maybe average out all of the statements, has been fairly consistent in what they're saying, which is we want to eliminate Iran's capability to threaten the United States with nuclear weapons, threaten its neighbors with its ballistic missile technology, threaten the Strait of Hormuz with nuclear weapons.

its Navy, and then the production facilities for all of those things.