Interior Secretary Doug Burgum dismissed environmentalists' concerns by telling investment firm BlackRock that people who want to protect public lands were not "financially literate."
During the BlackRock infrastructure summit in Washington on Wednesday, the host complained to Burgum about how long it takes to get permits approved.
"Congress has been enabled to pass permitting reform legislation," the host said. "What can the administration do to streamline this process from your perspective?"
"I mean, we view the private sector as our partners," Burgum replied. "And most Americans understand this: when we do a lease sale, we get revenue. People treat lease sales, you know, like if we ban them, we're going to save the world, as opposed to when we actually get money in, that begins a relationship, a long-term partnership, which then will also have a revenue stream from royalties going forward."
"You know, all the people that are trying to stop activity on federal lands, you don't understand the financial impact of it. I mean, all of you are financially literate, wouldn't it be great if we could have the world be a little more financially literate?" he added. "When we have the prior president, you know, with a stroke of a pen, take six and a half million acres of prime offshore, you know, out of, out of the things, legally not holding lease sales, but then separately says, this is like a marine sanctuary. We were able to reverse that."
