Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is considering nominating Oklahoma oil and gas mogul Harold Hamm as energy secretary if elected to the White House on November 8, according to four sourc
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is considering nominating Oklahoma oil and gas mogul Harold Hamm as energy secretary if elected to the White House on November 8, according to four sources close to Mr Trump’s campaign.
The chief executive of Continental Resources would be the first US energy secretary drawn directly from the oil and gas industry since the Cabinet position was created in 1977, a move that would jolt environmental advocates but bolster Mr Trump’s pro-drilling energy platform.
Dan Eberhart, an oil investor and Republi-can financier, said he had been told by offici-als in Mr Trump’s campaign that Mr Hamm, who has been an informal adviser to Mr Trump on energy policy since at least May, was “the leading contender” for the position.
Mr Eberhart said he had discussed the possible appointment with top donors at the Repub-lican National Convent-ion in Cleveland this week, where Mr Trump was formally nominated as the party’s candidate in the presidential election.
Three other sources close to the Trump campaign confirmed Mr Trump was considering Mr Hamm for the post. One of the sources said he first heard that Mr Hamm was a contender from Mr Trump officials on Sunday. None of the sources was aware of who else Mr Trump may be considering for the job. Representatives for Mr Trump and Mr Hamm did not respond to a request for comment.
Addressing the convention on Wednesday night, Mr Hamm called for expanded drilling and said too much environmental regulation threatened to limit US oil production and increase the country’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil producers.
“Every time we can’t drill a well in America, terrorism is being funded,” Mr Hamm told the cheering crowd. “Every onerous regulation puts American lives at risk.”
Mr Hamm (70) became one of America’s wealt-hiest men during the US oil and gas drilling boom over the past decade, tapping into new hydraulic fracturing drilling technology to access vast deposits in North Dakota’s shale fields.
Past heads of the U.S. Department of Energy, which is charged with advancing U.S. energy security and technology and dealing with nuclear waste disposal, have typically boasted a political or academic background.
This is not the first time Hamm has been in contention for the job. The Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2012, Mitt Romney, vetted Hamm to be energy secretary but ultimately decided against him because the two men have differing positions on renewable energy sources like wind.
He made headlines in 2015 after settling a protracted divorce case and agreeing to pay his ex-wife $975 million - reported to be the biggest divorce settlement in history. His fortune is now estimated at nearly $12 billion.
