(Harold Hamm, center, at an October fund-raising dinner for President Trump’s ballroom at the White House in Washington.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times)
After a nearly four-year absence from the headlines of the nation’s major news groups, Oklahoman Harold Hamm has once again attracted their attention with the return of Donald Trump to the White House.
The New York Times is the latest publication to dwell on Hamm, the fact he is a billionaire oilman after founding Continental Resources Company based in Oklahoma City, and has the ear of the President when it comes to energy issues.
As the Times reported this week, “But with Mr. Trump back in power, Mr. Hamm is, too.” He described him as a “soft-spoken oilman with no college degree” but who is “now playing a big role in American energy.” TV narrator and host of “Dirty Jobs,” Mike Rowe might have something to say about “no college degree” since he is a strong advocate and cheerleader of skilled jobs and blue-collar workers and white-collar workers, rather than just earning a college degree. Rowe is also a spokesman for OERB, the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board.
The Times focused on Hamm and his relationship with Trump, contending that together they have already remade federal policy to benefit oil and gas companies, including Continental and at the same time, fighting greener alternatives such as solar power and batteries.
The paper contends that Hamm’s more than $2 million in campaign contributions to Trump’s campaigns “earned him outsize influence” including using his influence to position loyalists for top Trump administration jobs. The Times reported among those loyalists were Chris Wright, a longtime oil company executive who is now Trump’s energy secretary. Another Hamm ally, former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum who was named Interior secretary. The paper said Burgum’s family had leased land to Continental for drilling.
Neither Hamm nor Continental agreed to the Times interview requests but a White House spokeswoman described Hamm as one of the oil industry executives who offered advice to the President.
“The president frequently listens to the recommendations and concerns of many top stakeholders and business leaders to ensure America’s oil and gas industry has the adequate resources and capabilities to ‘DRILL, BABY, DRILL’ and deliver for the American people,” she said.
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