Chellie Pingree
04/20/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/20/2026 14:28
WATCH: Ranking Member Pingree Blasts Burgum for Sabotaging Renewable Energy as Gas Prices Soar
Today, during the House Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee hearing for the Fiscal Year 2027 budget request with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Ranking Member Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) condemned the Trump Administration's aggressive campaign against renewable energy as gas prices soar. In her opening remarks, Pingree outlined the Administration's clear pattern of propping up Big Oil and sabotaging renewable energy projects, while also failing to uphold the Department's mission to protect and manage our natural resources, to uphold our trust and treaty obligations, and to follow the science.
Pingree's remarks as prepared for delivery:
Secretary Burgum, I appreciate you being here today. Unfortunately, after a year of observing this Administration and its impact on our country, I have some deep concerns.
The Department of the Interior is supposed to protect and manage our natural resources, to uphold our trust and treaty obligations, and to follow the science.
Instead, from my observation, this administration is bending the Department's mission to serve the interests of oil and gas companies.
This administration's policies are allowing unfettered consumption of natural resources.
We have seen that clearly in the Gulf of Mexico, where last month, the administration convened the so-called "god squad" and approved an extraordinary exemption from the Endangered Species Act protections for offshore drilling.
That decision was alarming on its own.
It was even more disturbing because it came from an administration that seems determined to weaken every safeguard that stands in the way of industry profits.
Speaking of critical safeguards-16 years ago to this day, the Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 workers and devastated the Gulf with the largest and most destructive oil spill in America's history.
In wake of that disaster, investigations found that employees had inappropriately close ties to the oil and gas companies and the agency was then broken up because the oversight model had failed so badly.
Yet this budget proposes reviving that disgraced structure-potentially returning us to the days of corruption and a model that jeopardized worker safety and the environment.
The administration has also taken dramatic steps to block renewable energy development-eliminating competition for the oil and gas industry and reducing the amount of energy produced at a time when our country's overall energy needs are growing.
Shortly after taking the office, the White House moved quickly to halt offshore wind development and took steps to "rein in" solar and wind projects. Why? Why kneecap industries that create jobs, expand our energy supply, and help address the climate crisis? Because this administration's energy policy is based on political grievance, ideological hostility, and, of course, propping up Big Oil and Gas. Plus, we know Trump has a strange vendetta against windmills.
Science should be at the core of all of the Department's management decisions, but this budget eviscerates the US Geological Survey, a vital research agency-cutting its budget by 66%.
And, the budget abandons our trust and treaty obligations to Native Americans, slashing the Bureau of Indian Affairs by 27% and Indian Education by 32%.
It has been appalling to watch this administration decimate the staff at the Department and it certainly looks as if it is trying to deliver the final blow with this budget.
This Department is on a dangerous course, and this budget would only make the damage worse.
As Ranking Member of this subcommittee, I will do everything in my power to oppose these reckless cuts and fight the administration's destructive policies.
I hope you will put politics aside, listen to the serious concerns being raised here today, and take immediate steps to pull this Department back onto a safer and more responsible course.
Thank you again for being here this afternoon.
I yield back.
"All of these dirty deals are to benefit industry. And it's at the expense of the American people. Americans are now paying an average of $4.04 for a gallon of gas. According to Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, gas prices could peak at $4.36 a gallon, costing the average household $740 more for gas this year," Pingree said. "So it makes no sense to me why this administration would be actively sabotaging renewable energy, which we know is the cheaper and more affordable energy option for families. Honestly, it just makes me very angry. This administration's policies are causing an affordability crisis and there seems to be a lack of focus on what the Department's mission actually is."
The fiscal year 2027 budget requests $15 billion for the Department of the Interior:
- Renewable Energy: cuts $45 million from the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and eliminates renewable energy funding which includes onshore and offshore wind energy.
- Bureau of Land Management: cuts $480 million and slashes funding for Wildlife and Aquatic Habitat Management by $139 million, which includes funding for sage grouse and threatened and endangered species.
- US Fish and Wildlife (FWS): cuts $526 million, decreasing the National Wildlife Refuge System by 20 percent, eliminates grant programs managed by States, Tribes, and other nations, and moves NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service into FWS ($125 million transfer).
-
National Park Service: cuts $1.06 billion
- Operation of the National Park System: cuts $760 million or 26 percent. The skinny budget suggests they may change the funding formula to defund or drastically cut support for smaller or less visited park units.
- National Recreation and Preservation: cuts $86 million or 93 percent
- Historic Preservation Fund: cuts $170 million, or a 94 percent cut, and eliminates everything except funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
- Construction: cuts $40 million, or a 45 percent cut.
- U.S. Geological Survey (USGS): cuts $526 million, a 37 percent reduction that eliminates ecosystems, and dramatically cuts funding for core science and natural hazards.
- Bureau of Indian Affairs: cuts $378 million, including the elimination of the Indian Guaranteed Loan program and the Indian Land Consolidation program, and a 34 percent reduction in funds that support self-governance and directly fund tribal operations.
- Bureau of Indian Education: cuts $436 million, a 32 percent reduction; some eliminations include funding for Tribal Colleges and Universities, Replacement School Construction, and Early Child and Family Development.
Wildland Fire: Transfers all U.S. Forest Service Wildland Fire Management functions to DOI.
+++
Pingree's remarks as prepared for delivery:
Secretary Burgum, I appreciate you being here today. Unfortunately, after a year of observing this Administration and its impact on our country, I have some deep concerns.
The Department of the Interior is supposed to protect and manage our natural resources, to uphold our trust and treaty obligations, and to follow the science.
Instead, from my observation, this administration is bending the Department's mission to serve the interests of oil and gas companies.
This administration's policies are allowing unfettered consumption of natural resources.
We have seen that clearly in the Gulf of Mexico, where last month, the administration convened the so-called "god squad" and approved an extraordinary exemption from the Endangered Species Act protections for offshore drilling.
That decision was alarming on its own.
It was even more disturbing because it came from an administration that seems determined to weaken every safeguard that stands in the way of industry profits.
Speaking of critical safeguards-16 years ago to this day, the Deepwater Horizon explosion killed 11 workers and devastated the Gulf with the largest and most destructive oil spill in America's history.
In wake of that disaster, investigations found that employees had inappropriately close ties to the oil and gas companies and the agency was then broken up because the oversight model had failed so badly.
Yet this budget proposes reviving that disgraced structure-potentially returning us to the days of corruption and a model that jeopardized worker safety and the environment.
The administration has also taken dramatic steps to block renewable energy development-eliminating competition for the oil and gas industry and reducing the amount of energy produced at a time when our country's overall energy needs are growing.
Shortly after taking the office, the White House moved quickly to halt offshore wind development and took steps to "rein in" solar and wind projects. Why? Why kneecap industries that create jobs, expand our energy supply, and help address the climate crisis? Because this administration's energy policy is based on political grievance, ideological hostility, and, of course, propping up Big Oil and Gas. Plus, we know Trump has a strange vendetta against windmills.
When the courts vacated the President's wind moratorium and stopped the President from blocking five current leases, the administration took the unprecedented step of spending nearly $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to coerce a private company into abandoning offshore wind projects. And now we know the administration's public justification for that deal does not hold up. Newly disclosed settlement terms show the company was not required to make any new investment in American oil and gas production at all. Instead, it could simply claim credit for spending it was already planning to make, including on fossil fuel projects that had already moved forward.
To make this dirty deal even more stunning, this waste of the taxpayers' money is being used to reward a company for abandoning clean energy, while helping prop up more oil and gas development at the very moment families are getting hammered by high energy costs. Americans are struggling with high utility bills and higher gas prices, yet this administration chose to spend nearly a billion dollars not to build affordable energy, but to kill it.
All of these dirty deals are to benefit industry. And it's at the expense of the American people.
Americans are now paying an average of $4.04 for a gallon of gas.
According to Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, gas prices could peak at $4.36 a gallon, costing the average household $740 more for gas this year.
To make this dirty deal even more stunning, this waste of the taxpayers' money is being used to reward a company for abandoning clean energy, while helping prop up more oil and gas development at the very moment families are getting hammered by high energy costs. Americans are struggling with high utility bills and higher gas prices, yet this administration chose to spend nearly a billion dollars not to build affordable energy, but to kill it.
All of these dirty deals are to benefit industry. And it's at the expense of the American people.
Americans are now paying an average of $4.04 for a gallon of gas.
According to Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, gas prices could peak at $4.36 a gallon, costing the average household $740 more for gas this year.
So it makes no sense to me why this administration would be actively sabotaging renewable energy, which we know is the cheaper and more affordable energy option for families. Honestly, it just makes me very angry.
This administration's policies are causing an affordability crisis and there seems to be a lack of focus on what the Department's mission actually is.
It seems to me that the White House has you distracted with duties unrelated to being Secretary of the Interior.
For example, what does bringing back a case of gold from Venezuela have to do with DOI's mission?
Meanwhile, our national parks are falling apart. Staff are stretched thin and the budget proposes to further gut them with a 32% cut.
This administration's policies are causing an affordability crisis and there seems to be a lack of focus on what the Department's mission actually is.
It seems to me that the White House has you distracted with duties unrelated to being Secretary of the Interior.
For example, what does bringing back a case of gold from Venezuela have to do with DOI's mission?
Meanwhile, our national parks are falling apart. Staff are stretched thin and the budget proposes to further gut them with a 32% cut.
Science should be at the core of all of the Department's management decisions, but this budget eviscerates the US Geological Survey, a vital research agency-cutting its budget by 66%.
And, the budget abandons our trust and treaty obligations to Native Americans, slashing the Bureau of Indian Affairs by 27% and Indian Education by 32%.
It has been appalling to watch this administration decimate the staff at the Department and it certainly looks as if it is trying to deliver the final blow with this budget.
This Department is on a dangerous course, and this budget would only make the damage worse.
As Ranking Member of this subcommittee, I will do everything in my power to oppose these reckless cuts and fight the administration's destructive policies.
I hope you will put politics aside, listen to the serious concerns being raised here today, and take immediate steps to pull this Department back onto a safer and more responsible course.
Thank you again for being here this afternoon.
I yield back.
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Chellie Pingree published this content on April 20, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on April 20, 2026 at 20:28 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]