Here’s what a Texas oil executive from DOGE is doing inside the Interior Department

A Texas oil executive from Elon Musk’s government efficiency team has been given sweeping powers to overhaul the federal department that manages vast tracts of resource-rich public lands, but he hasn’t divested his energy investments or filed an ethics commitment to break ties with companies that pose a conflict of interest, records show.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently directed Tyler Hassen, who lacks Senate confirmation and has no public administration experience, to reorganize the Interior Department, which oversees some 70,000 employees in 11 agencies including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Before joining DOGE, Hassen spent nearly two decades as an executive at Basin Holdings, an enterprise involved in the manufacture, sale and servicing of oil rigs worldwide. A financial disclosure report obtained by AP shows Hassen made millions annually from these companies, owned by John Fitzgibbons — an industry giant who is well-connected in Russia.

These and other potential conflicts of interest are compounding the concerns of Democratic lawmakers, conservation groups and environmental advocates, who say Hassen’s appointment appears designed to evade Senate confirmation and oversight while testing the limits of congressional authority.

“It’s a dereliction of duty to offload decisions about staffing and funding at the Interior Department to someone who hasn’t even been confirmed by the Senate,” said Kate Groetzinger, with the Center for Western Priorities, a nonpartisan conservation group.

Interior officials didn’t respond to requests to interview Hassen.

Department spokesperson Katie Martin said in an email that Hassen is helping achieve the president’s vision for major changes, and Interior will “continue to prioritize retaining first responders, parks services and energy production employees.”

Once inside Interior in January, Hassen reviewed “every single contract, every single grant,” and sent action items to Burgum, he told FOX News in an April interview. Burgum praised Hassen and DOGE on X, saying they “have identified massive amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse already!”

A draft copy of Interior’s new strategic plan includes increasing “clean coal, oil, and gas production through faster permitting” while reducing regulations to “generate more revenue from lands and resources for the U.S….