Secretary of the Interior Has No Idea How Solar Power Works

The secretary of the interior should presumably know how solar power generation works. On Wednesday, Doug Burgum showed that he does not.

Burgum was testifying before the House Natural Resources Committee, and exposed himself under questioning from Democratic Representative Jared Huffman, who brought up energy projects in Nevada.

“All of these projects you’re describing in Nevada have one thing in common—when the sun goes down, they produce zero electricity,” Burgum said, going on to say that other forms of electricity generation would still be needed with solar power and that it is unreliable. Huffman then made a cheeky remark to the committee chair, Republican Representative Bruce Westerman.

“Mr. Chairman, I request unanimous consent to enter in the record this amazing new technology that apparently the secretary is unaware of: It’s a battery. China’s figured it out. That’s why they’re cleaning our clock on clean energy. But I want to enter that into the record,” Huffman said, to a smirk from Westerman.

BURGUM: When the sun goes down, solar produces zero electricity

HUFFMAN: I want to enter into the record this amazing new technology that apparently the secretary is unaware of -- it's a battery pic.twitter.com/tPmRhmtnA9— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 13, 2026

Burgum replied that China being the world’s largest emitter should be part of that submission, to which Huffman replied that China produced “far more clean energy.” Westerman then intervened to end the repartee.

Burgum, formerly the governor of North Dakota, has extensive ties to the oil and gas industry. He shares President Trump’s hostility to cleaner forms of energy, and doesn’t publicly object to Trump’s contention that climate change is a “con job.” But at the very least, Burgum should know that solar energy is aided considerably by battery storage.