Meet Trump’s Anti-Climate Cabinet

From fracking executives and fossil fuel advocates to Big Oil friends and Fox News hosts, Donald Trump’s second cabinet is poised to deliver on his campaign pledge to “drill, baby drill,” undoing much of his predecessor’s environmental legacy, and steering the US away from international climate commitments. Earth.Org examines who is on the cabinet, their stance climate change, and what we can expect from them in the next four years.

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Doug Burgum – Secretary of the Interior

Formerly: Governor of North Dakota (2016-2024)

In his inaugural address last month, Trump declared a “national energy emergency” that would allow him to open up more areas to oil and gas exploration, even as the US presently outpaces all other nations in oil production. Tasked with executing this directive is Doug Burgum, the newly appointed Secretary of the Department of the Interior, an executive federal department entrusted with the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources.

In his first round of orders as Interior Secretary, Burgum, 68, instructed the Interior to “immediately identify all emergency and legal authorities available to facilitate the identification, permitting, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, distribution, exporting and generation of domestic energy resources and critical minerals,” citing Trump’s “energy emergency” declaration. He also ordered its personnel to “identify all emergency and other legal authorities available to expedite the completion of all authorized and appropriate infrastructure, energy, environmental, and natural resources projects.” The moves, Burgum said, were part of his department’s vision for unleashing Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda.

Another order mandated a review of disbursements of funds appropriated through Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act – the biggest climate bill in the country’s history – and the elimination of “harmful” and “coercive” climate policies. The goal is to reduce red tape, enhance national security, and “reduce living costs for the American people,” Burgum said.

The former governor of North Dakota, the third-largest oil producing state, is a long-time friend of Big Oil. During his time in office, he “eagerly assisted” the industry while profiting from the lease of family land to oil companies, and used his connections to elevate his profile in the Republican Party, AP reported. Last year, he co-hosted a dinner honoring top fracking executives with the North Dakota’s Petroleum Council. Newly appointed Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright was also present.

Burgum was confirmed in a 80-17 vote on January 30.

Brooke Rollins – Secretary of Agriculture

Formerly: Director of the Domestic Policy Council (2020-2021); President and CEO of the America First Policy Institute (2021-ongoing)

Since Trump’s inauguration, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has taken steps to scrap mentions of climate change from its websites and halt funds and grants for environmental projects, with farm groups across the country reporting that the agency has halted disbursements.

The Forest Service, an agency within the USDA, has taken down key climate resources, research and adaptation tools from its website. The move came in response to a directive from the department’s office of communications instructing website managers across the agency to “identify and archive or unpublish any landing pages focused on climate change,” the Guardian reported. 

All USDA programs and personnel are also under review, a spokesperson told the Guardian, adding that the department “will be happy to provide a response to interested parties once Secretary Brooke Rollins has the opportunity to analyze these reviews.”

Rollins, 52, has repeatedly denied climate change. Asked by a Agriculture Committee member if she believes climate change is a threat to US farmers and ranchers, Rollins last month said what causes climate change is “not widely understood or defined” and that climate “changes throughout the year,” Reuters reported.

In 2021, the long-time Trump ally founded the America First Policy Institute, a Republican think tank aimed at promoting Trump’s public policy agenda, and has served as its president and CEO since. Prior to that, Rollins led the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank backed by the oil industry, for 15 years. The foundation is part of the advisory board of Project 2025, a conservative policy framework to institute right-wing policies by reshaping the federal government that gained traction during the recent US presidential race.

Rollins was confirmed in a 72-28 vote on February 13.

Sean Duffy – Secretary of Transportation

Formerly: State Representative for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District (2011-2019); Fox News host

On his first day in office, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy instructed his department to identify and eliminate policies, activities, rules, and orders “which reference or relate in any way to climate change, ‘greenhouse gas’ [sic] emissions, racial equity, gender identity, ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ goals, environmental justice or the Justice40 initiative.” A section on “climate and sustainability” on the department’s website has since also vanished, the Guardian reported.

Duffy, a former Fox Business host who also served as State Representative for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, moved to rescind a Biden rule requiring states to measure and set declining targets for on-road carbon dioxide emissions. He also signalled he could roll back national fuel economy standards introduced by the Biden administration to make vehicles more fuel efficient.

Duffy, 53, justified the changes by saying that the administration’s focus is on “eliminating excessive regulations that have hindered economic growth, increased costs for American families, and prioritized far-left agendas over practical solutions.”

Speaking on Fox Business last year, Duffy said Democrats were using climate change as “an agenda of control” and suggested climate change is not just coming from carbon dioxide but also “from the sun.”

Climate change is primarily driven by the combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation, not the sun.

Duffy was confirmed in a 77-22 vote on January 29.

Chris Wright – Secretary of Energy

Formerly: CEO of fracking company Liberty Energy (2011-2025)

A staunch defender of fossil fuel use and vocal critic of climate alarmism, Wright is expected to fulfil Trump’s campaign promise to “drill, baby, drill” and undo many of his predecessor’s biggest clean energy achievements, steering the department back to America’s roots in oil and gas production.

In his first secretarial order, Wright outlined the actions his department will take “to unleash American Energy in accordance with President Trump’s executive orders.” He criticized net-zero policies for raising energy costs and pledged to “unleash the great abundance of American energy” to achieve “American energy dominance.” The department’s Research and Development efforts will prioritize fossil fuels, advanced nuclear, geothermal, and hydropower, according to the order.

Wright, 60, founded Liberty Energy, a fracking company, in 2011 and served as its chairman and CEO until early February. His nomination to lead the Department of Energy won support from many conservative figures from the fossil fuel industry, including Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute and Oklahoma oil and gas billionaire Harold Hamm, a major Trump donor and informal advisor.

Wright put on a moderate face at his Senate confirmation hearing, saying he thinks climate change is a “real” and “global issue,” but he also said he stands by his previous comments that wildfires are just “hype.” He told senators that his first priority is expanding domestic energy production, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) and nuclear power, and that he and Trump share “the same passion for energy.”

“To compete globally, we must expand energy production, including commercial nuclear and liquefied natural gas, and cut the cost of energy for Americans,” he told the Senate, accusing the Biden administration of having “viewed energy as a liability instead of the immense national asset that it is.”

Wright spoke up against climate change in multiple occasions before, saying there is no such thing as “dirty energy or clean energy” but rather different sources of energy with different trade-offs. In a video posted on LinkedIn in 2023, he denied that there is a climate crisis or that we are in the midst of an energy transition.

“Carbon dioxide does indeed absorb infrared radiation, contributing to warming. But calling carbon dioxide ‘pollution’ is like calling out water and oxygen, the other two irreplaceable molecules for life on earth,” Wright said in the video.

Wright was confirmed in a 59-38 vote on February 3.

Kristi Noem – Secretary of Homeland Security

Formerly: 33rd Governor of South Dakota (2-19-2025)

Last week, top officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received a memo ordering them to “eliminate all climate change activities and the use of climate change terminology in DHS policies and programs, to the maximum extent permitted by the law,” in “alignment” with Trump’s anti-climate agenda, Bloomberg News reported.

The directive came form Kristi Noem, DHS’s new director, whose main mandate is to crack down on immigration. Besides border security and immigration, the DHS works on disaster prevention and management and addressing climate change. One agency part of the DHS is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which primarily deals with coordinating response to disasters such as hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, alongside local and state authorities. This all might change with Noem.

The former Governor of South Dakota has openly denied scientific consensus on climate change, claiming in 2022 that “the science has been varied on it, and it hasn’t been proven to me that what we’re doing is affecting the climate.”

In several occasions while serving as South Dakota’s governor, Noem rejected federal climate grants.

The 53-year-old was one of five governors rejecting a total of $5 billion in grants to fight climate pollution. The money was offered to every state by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Biden administration. “We focus on solving long-term problems with one-time investments rather than creating new government programs,” Noem’s spokesperson Ian Fury said at the time to justify the decision. She also chose not to apply for a separate EPA grant supporting solar energy projects nationwide.

Separately, Noem turned down $69 million the Energy Department offered South Dakotans as part of a $4 billion Inflation Reduction Act program for energy-efficient home appliances and improvements, citing administrative burdens, limited staff capacity, and policy disagreements. But the newly appointed Secretary of Homeland Security also chose not to claim money FEMA, an agency she now leads, offered her state. This included $3.6 million from 2021 to 2023 to develop resilience projects – she accepted just just $1.3 million – and a separate grant covering work flood-resilience work, Politico reported.

Noem was confirmed in a 59-34 vote on January 25.

Lee Zeldin – Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency

Formerly: Member of the US House of Representatives from New York’s 1st district (2015-2023)

Since taking office, Zeldin wasted no time in reviewing grants awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – the federal agency he now leads – under the Biden administration. The former Congressman last week announced in a post on social media X that he was scrapping contracts to distribute $20 billion in grants to fund clean energy and transportation projects in disadvantaged communities. The money was made available through the $27-billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund created with the Inflation Reduction Act. It was awarded in April 2024 to eight organizations, which were tasked with financing “tens of thousands” of projects ranging from home energy retrofitting to air pollution reduction.

“The Biden EPA tossed $20 billion of “gold bars off the Titanic,” Zeldin wrote on X. He was citing a video posted by right-wing organization Project Veritas in December that showed a former EPA special adviser for implementation explaining how the Biden administration rushed to disburse billions in grants ahead of Trump’s inauguration.

“BIG UPDATE! We found the gold bars and they are now being recovered for you, the hardworking American taxpayer,” Zeldin wrote on X.

Shortly after, he announced he was cancelling a $50 million Biden-era environmental justice grant to the Climate Justice Alliance (CJA), citing its pro-Palestinian messaging on its website. The CJA is a member alliance of 95 urban and rural frontline communities that promotes climate justice and addresses environmental issues in the US. In a statement published on Thursday, its Executive Director KD Chavez condemned the EPA’s decision: “Despite claims that this administration will protect clean water and clean air for the nation it has attacked basic protections for neglected communities from day one.”

Chavez explained that the targeted grant would have supported a program directing resources towards projects that safeguard public health, enhance safety, and generate sustainable economic opportunities for jobs. “This program would have clearly benefited taxpayers and working-class families,” he added.

Zeldin represented New York’s 1st congressional district in the US House of Representatives from 2015 to 2023. During this time, the Republican supported just 14% of key pieces of environmental legislation, voted against Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, and opposed clean water and clean air protections and the EPA’s methane pollution safeguards. He also campaigned against a ban on petrol cars in New York by 2035, which Trump repeatedly threatened to terminate.

During his Senate confirmation hearing in January, Zeldin, 44, hesitated to answer questions about the agency’s role in reducing US reliance on fossil fuels, despite acknowledging that climate change is real and a threat.

Questioned about the role of the EPA, he said, “In an ideal world, we would be able to pursue the cleanest, greenest energy possible.” He did not directly answer to a senator’s question on whether he still believed it was the agency’s job to reduce US reliance on fossil fuels, only saying the agency is “authorized, not required” to regulate planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite acknowledging the reality of climate change, Zeldin refused to directly address the need to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. “The American people elected President Trump last November in part due to serious concerns about upward economic mobility and their struggle to make ends meet,” he said, adding: “We can, and we must, protect our precious environment without suffocating the economy.”

Zeldin was confirmed in a 56-42 vote on January 29.

Kathleen Sgamma – Bureau of Land Management [awaiting Senate confirmation]

Formerly: Head of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance of oil and natural gas companies (2006-ongoing)

Last week, Trump named Kathleen Sgamma, the President of the Colorado-based oil industry trade group Western Energy Alliance, to lead the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). A branch of the Department of the Interior, the BLM oversees more than 247.3 million acres of US land.

Sgamma, 57, on Thursday said she was “honored” to be Trump’s pick to lead the bureau, which she praised for balancing “balance “multiple uses–like energy, recreation, grazing, mining–with stewardship of the land.”

“I look forward to leading an agency that is key to the agenda of unleashing American energy while protecting the environment,” she said in a post on LinkedIn.

A leading voice for the fossil fuel industry, Sgamma will be a key figure of Trump’s pro-fossil fuel agenda alongside Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Her group has long advocated for aiding oil and gas companies in accessing public lands and decreasing regulation of mining.

An MIT graduate, Sgamma also co-authored the oil and gas section of Project 2025. The step-by-step policy blueprint promised to allocate more public resources to the oil and gas industry and prioritize oil and gas activities on public lands and waters. It further recommended that the US Bureau of Land Management get rid of barriers to bolstering oil and gas activities.

“We’d love to not have to develop on federal lands, but you simply can’t in the West,” Sgamma said. “There’s just too much oil and natural gas resource that is on or underneath federal lands.”

Sgamma’s nomination requires Senate confirmation.