1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Congress needs to investigate Doug Burgum and the Interior Department for what looks like a deliberate scheme to hand a politically connected oil company permits that a federal court had blocked. Continental Resources — whose founder Harold Hamm donated $250,000 to Burgum's presidential campaign and paid Burgum up to $50,000 in royalties before he took office — sent Interior a literal "roadmap" for sidestepping a court injunction. The very next morning, Interior's acting assistant secretary was on the phone with BLM leadership demanding fast action. That's not coincidence. That's coordination. A federal judge halted new drilling permits in Converse County, Wyoming after finding BLM's environmental review overestimated available groundwater by a factor of 10,000. Interior's response was to approve 511 wells anyway, using an 18-year-old environmental impact statement to dodge the injunction — exactly as Continental had instructed. BLM is still approving permits even after the judge threw out the underlying EIS entirely in February 2026. This is an agency taking orders from the company it's supposed to regulate. I want Congress to hold oversight hearings, subpoena the communications between Continental and Interior, and demand answers from Burgum directly. The courts did their job. Now Congress needs to do its.