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When North Dakota’s petroleum association was going to hold a banquet honoring top fracking executives last year, it turned to Gov. Doug Burgum. The two-term Republican, now President Donald Trump‘s pick to lead the Interior Department, cohosted the eventat the governor’s mansion. And when energy industry lobbyists were looking for help taking on Biden administration greenhouse gas rules, they also turned to Burgum. In an email to Burgum’s office seeking the legal heft the state could provide, an industry lobbyist argued that combating such regulations required a one-two punch” from industry and government. While it is not surprising that the governor of the third-largest oil producing state would have a close relationship with fossil fuel producers, records obtained by the Associated Press reveal Burgum’s administration eagerly assisted the industry even as the governor was profiting from the lease of family land to oil companies. And his assistance came at a time when Burgum was leaning on those very connections to build his national profile in the Republican Party. If confirmed to run the Interior Departmentas soon as ThursdayBurgum will have vast control over federal lands, including the issuance of oil and gas leases, as well as a mandate from Trump to extract such resources even though the U.S. is producing record amounts of fossil fuels. Those ties concern Democrats and environmentalists who say his zeal to expand drilling was troubling. Are you going to protect our resources, or are you going to drill, baby, drill? Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat, asked during Burgum’s confirmation hearing this month. The selection of Burgum, who briefly pursued the presidency in 2023 before endorsing Trump, represents an abrupt pivot from Biden’s emphasis on combating climate change. It also signals that Trump intends to follow through on a proposal made last spring when he urged oil and gas CEOs to donate $1 billion to his campaign in exchange for the dismantling of Biden’s environmental agenda. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesman for Burgum declined to make him available for an interview. Governor Burgum worked tirelessly to build a prosperous economy in North Dakota,” spokesman Rob Lockwood said in a statement. “This economic growth included sustainably developing natural resources. As governor, he met with job creators and leaders who generated opportunities for the people of North Dakota. Under the partisan glare of Washington, and faced with stricter federal ethics rules governing conflicts of interest, Burgum has pledged to sell his interest in his familys lease with the shale oil giant Continental Resources, as well as another one with Hess, a Chevron subsidiary. He has also pledged to sell stock held in a handful of energy companies, some of which he interacted with as governor, which are worth as much as $200,000 according to his 2023 financial disclosures. Close ties to an industry titan There is perhaps no better demonstration of Burgums close ties to oil and gas producers than his friendship with Harold Hamm, the founder of Continental Resources who is responsible for much of North Dakotas fracking boom. The billionaire Oklahoma wildcatter advises Trump on energy policy and is widely viewed as playing a role in helping Burgum secure the nomination to lead Interior. Hamm did not respond to a request for comment made through his company. During his 2023 state-of-the-state speech, Burgum likened Hamm to Teddy Roosevelt for his “grit, resilience, hard work and determination” that he said changed North Dakota and our nation. The shout-out came after Hamm had donated $50 million toward a library honoring Roosevelt in western North Dakotaa passion project of Burgum’s. The documents obtained by AP reveal that several months later Hamm gifted Burgum a set of cuff links along with a note thanking Burgum for his friendship” and willingness to take a break from the grueling task of running for president to speak at an energy conference that Hamm had hosted in Oklahoma City. These were not his only displays of patronage. Though Burgum, an independently wealthy former software company CEO, had a dim chance of winning the Republican presidential primary, Hamm’s Continental Resources contributed $250,000 in the summer of 2023 to a super PAC supporting Burgum, campaign finance disclosures show. He also contributed to Burgum’s campaign for governor. Emails between Burgum and Hamm’s offices reveal the two communicated often. In a May 2020 email, Hamm’s executive assistant asked if Burgum had time to talk with Hamm and shared a briefing document that railed against wind power, blasting wind turbines as a blight on our special places and sacred lands while excoriating tax breaks for wind energy providers as “unconscionable.” This does NOTHING to Make America Great Again! the document states. Though Burgum set a goal in 2021 to make North Dakota carbon neutral by 2030, he has adopted Hamm’s tone. During his Senate confirmation hearing this month, he was dismissive of renewable energy, such as wind power, suggesting such sources were unreliable when compared to fossil fuels. In early 2023, as Hamm prepared to publish a memoir, Continental lobbyist Blu Hulsey emailed to ask if Burgum could write a blurb praising the book, the newly obtained records show. Burgum happily complied, heaping praise on the memoir, which the governor called an inspiring story worthy of sharing. Burgum added that Hamm’s impact was “immeasurable. Ethics experts say there are other aspects of their relationship that pose a greater conflict of interest. As governor, Burgum never disclosed that his family leased roughly 200 acres of farmland to Continental for well drilling, as previously reported by CNBC. When Burgum ran for president and faced greater transparency requirements, he revealed making $50,000 in royalties from Continental in 2023. Despite this relationship, Burgum routinely took action that benefited Hamm’s company. As chairman of North Dakota’s Industrial Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, he voted nearly a dozen times or more on measures that had favorable outcomes for Continental, records show. North Dakta is a leading energy producing state,” Lockwood, the Burgum spokesman said. “Tens of thousands of families and mineral owners have similar arrangements. As the publicly available disclosures show: the cited agreement began many years before he became governor. Burgum also used the governor’s office to support a proposed pipeline that received $250 million in financial backing from Hamm. If completed, it will transport earth-warming CO2 gas that is the byproduct of ethanol fuel production to North Dakota, where it will be stored deep underground. Its been touted as a way to decarbonize the atmosphere, but has also run into stiff resistance from landowners, who fear their property will be seized to complete the project. Sarah Vogel, a Democrat and former North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner who previously sat on the commission, said Burgum seemed more like a cheerleader of the industry than a regulator. I dont think he had a regulators mindset. He had a promoters mindset, which has probably made him beloved in the oil and gas industry, Vogel said. Other executives have ties to Burgum Hamm is not the only oil executive or lobbyist who has cultivated ties with Burgum, emails and office schedules show. Ryan Berger, a lobbyist for Occidental Petroleum, emailed Burgum’s staff last year seeking a meeting for Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub after Burgum moderated a panel she participated in at an oil industry conference. In an ideal world, a face-to-face over lunch or dinner would be amazing, Berger wrote in a May 2024 email. He added that Hollub had recently discussed energy issues directly with President Trump and we thought you would benefit from hearing from her to see if there are mutually shared policies and perspectives that could be amplified this year. Berger declined to comment on the email. Lockwood, the spokesman, declined to say if Burgum a meeting with Hollub happened. The records revealed that a Who’s Who of oil executives had calls scheduled with Burgum. The include: CEOs of Chevron and Exxon; Marathon Oil officials had an audience with Burgum in 2022; and the governor also spoke before the Hess Corporation’s board of directors’ dinner. Burgum’s family also has an oil lease with Hess that paid him as much as $1,000, according to his financial disclosure. Burgum turned down an invitation to address an American Petroleum Institute convention in Washington, the records show, but agreed to speak at a private dinner for the American Exploration and Production Council in 2023, which drew top executives from Conoco Phillips, Devon Energy, Hilcorp, and others. When Burgum was a leading contender last year to be Trump’s vice presidential pick, he cohosted a banquet at the governor’s mansion with the North Dakota Petroleum Council that drew fracking industry heavy hitters, lobbyists and executives. Burgum, Hamm and Chris Wright, the CEO of Liberty Energy who is now Trump’s pick for energy secretary, addressed attendees as they dined on beef, walleye cakes, and bourbon caramel-topped cobbler. On Inauguration Day, Burgum declined an invitation to attend a party at the posh Hay-Adams Hotel that was hosted by Hamm and a number of petroleum trade associations and oil companies. Burgums presence may not have been missed. Many of those executives and lobbyists, who will have business before the Interior Department, can reach him. Brian Slodysko and Jack Dura, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
As wind-driven wildfires spread through the Los Angeles area in January 2025, fire-spotting technology and computer models were helping firefighters understand the rapidly changing environment they were facing. That technology has evolved over the years, yet some techniques are very similar to those used over 100 years ago. I have spent several decades studying combustion, including wildfire behavior and the technology used to track fires and predict where wildfires might turn. Heres a quick tour of the key technologies used today. Spotting fires faster First, the fire must be discovered. Often wildfires are reported by people seeing smoke. That hasnt changed, but other ways fires are spotted have evolved. In the early part of the 20th century, the newly established U.S. Forest Service built fire lookout towers around the country. The towers were topped by cabins with windows on all four walls and provided living space for the fire lookouts. The system was motivated by the Great Fire of 1910 that burned three million acres in Washington, Idaho and Montana and killed 87 people. Before satellites, fire crews watched for smoke from fire towers across the national forests. [Photo: K. D. Swan/U.S. Forest Service] Today, cameras watch over many high-risk areas. California has more than 1,100 cameras watching for signs of smoke. Artificial intelligence systems continuously analyze the images to provide data for firefighters to quickly respond. AI is a way to train a computer program to recognize repetitive patterns: smoke plumes in the case of fire. NOAA satellites paired with AI data analysis also generate alerts but over a wider area. They can detect heat signatures, map fire perimeters and burned areas, and track smoke and pollutants to assess air quality and health risks. Forecasting fire behavior Once a fire is spotted, one immediate task for firefighting teams is to estimate how the fire is going to behave so they can deploy their limited firefighting resources most effectively. Fire managers have seen many fires and have a sense of the risks their regions face. Today, they also have computer simulations that combine data about the terrain, the materials burning and the weather to help predict how a fire is likely to spread. Fuel models Fuel models are based on the ecosystem involved, using fire history and laboratory testing. In Southern California, for example, much of the wildland fuel is chaparral, a type of shrubland with dense, rocky soil and highly flammable plants in a Mediterranean climate. Chaparral is one of the fastest-burning fuel types, and fires can spread quickly in that terrain. For human-made structures, things are a bit more complex. The materials a house is made ofif it has wood siding, for exampleand the environment around it, such as how close it is to trees or wooden fences, play an important role in how likely it is to burn and how it burns. Weather and terrain Terrain is also important because it influences local winds and because fire tends to run faster uphill than down. Terrain data is well known thanks to satellite imagery and can easily be incorporated into computer codes. Weather plays another critical role in fire behavior. Fires need oxygen to burn, and the windier it is, the more oxygen is available to the fire. High winds also tend to generate embers from burning vegetation that can be blown up to five miles in the highest winds, starting spot fires that can quickly spread. Today, large computer simulations can forecast the weather. There are global models that cover the entire Earth and local models that cover smaller areas but with better resolution that provides greater detail. Both provide real-time data on the weather for creating fire behavior simulations. Modeling how flames spread Flame-spread models can then estimate the likely movement of a fire. Scientists build these models by studying past fires and conducting laboratory experiments, combined with mathematical models that incorporate the physics of fire. With local terrain, fuel, and real-time weather information, these simulations can help fire managers predict a fires likely behavior. Advanced modeling can account for fuel details such as ground-level plant growth and tree canopies, including amount of cover, tree height, and tree density. These models can estimate when a fire will reach the tree canopy and how that will affect the fires spread. Forecasting helps, but wind can change fast All these tools are made available to firefighters in computer applications and can help fire crews as they respond to wildfires. However, wind can rapidly change speed or direction, and new fires can start in unexpected places, meaning fire managers know they have to be prepared for many possible outcomesnot just the likely outcomes they see on their computer screens. Ultimately, during a fire, firefighting strategy is based on human judgment informed by experience, as well as science and technology. John W. Daily is a research professor in thermo fluid sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. investors have had a wild 2025 so far. Earlier this month, the beleaguered stock (Nasdaq: WBA) soared 25% after beating Q1 2025 expectations on revenue and earnings per share. Yet today, the companys stock is crashingWBA shares are currently down over 15% in early trading. But this stock price swing has nothing to do with sales. Instead, it likely has to do with Walgreens changes to its dividend payouts. Heres what you need to know. Why is Walgreens stock crashing? As of the time of this writing, Walgreens shares are down over 15% in early market trading. The reason for the crashing stock price likely has to do with a change the company announced to its dividend payouts. Todays WBA crash comes after the company announced yesterday that it would be suspending dividend payments to shareholders in order to better manage its capital allocation. This change in capital allocation is aimed at strengthening WBAs balance sheet by reducing debt over time and improving free cash flow, as the company works toward achieving a retail pharmacy-led turnaround underpinned by a sustainable economic model, the company said in a statement announcing the changes. The companys cash needs over the next several years, including with respect to litigation and debt refinancing, were important considerations as part of the decision to suspend the dividend. News of Walgreens pausing its dividend payments is historic. As the Associated Press notes, Walgreens has been making quarterly dividend payments to shareholders for nearly a century. What is a dividend? When it comes to the stock market, a dividend is usually a cash payment a company makes to shareholders. The payment is usually made every quarter and is deposited as cash in the shareholders brokerage account. A stockholder receives a set amount of cash for each share they own in the company. Many companies pay dividends, including tech giants like Apple and Nvidia. Dividends are a way to reward investors for their loyalty by allowing them to profit from the companys cash stockpiles directly. Dividends can also act as an incentive to hold onto a stock even if the stock itself isnt appreciating much in value, as investors are given a cash payout on a recurring schedulemeaning that simply owning the stock earns them recurring income. What does Walgreens pausing of its dividends mean? It suggests that the company is going to need all the cash it can get its hands on in order to implement its desired turnaround, which is aimed at reducing costs and increasing revenue. Instead of continuing to give cash directly to its investors, Walgreens believes that cash can be better spent on its turnaround effortswhich may benefit investors in the long run. However, many investors like to invest in stocks that offer dividends. And some of the share price fall in WGA seen this morning could represent some investors dumping their holdings since dividends are no longer being paid. But the stock price fall could also signal that Walgreens turnaround efforts are going to be more challenging and longer-lasting than many thought. That uncertainty may be causing some people to dump the stock this morning. WGA stock is still up for 2025 Today is the last trading day of January, but despite WGAs 15% drop in early trading, the stock is actually still up about 3.8% year-to-datemainly thanks to that 25% jump earlier this month. However, looking beyond the past month, theres no denying that Walgreens stock has been headed in the wrong direction for some time. Over the past 12 months, WGA stock is down more than 57%. Over the past five years, the stock has collapsed by around 81%. The pharmacy chain is facing a number of challenges, including decreased profits, increased online competition, and lower reimbursement rates for prescription drugs. As a result of some of these challenges, last year, the company announced plans to close as many as 1,200 stores.
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E-Commerce
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