Energy mogul Harold Hamm will not be taking President-Elect Trump up on his offer to name him Energy Secretary, according to Fox News.
Hamm, who yesterday cleared a cool $3 billion in less than three hours off his shares in Continental Resources Inc. after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced that it had finally agreed to cap its production at 32.5 million barrels per day, also serves as the CEO of Continental Resources, which is clearly a full-time gig when he's not busy raking in billions on the back of OPEC deals.
Hamm, whose net worth was previously estimated to be $13.8 billion, has served as Donald Trump's energy advisor and has long been considered a front runner for the position of Energy Secretary.
"I am not considering the job," Hamm said to Fox Business Network on Thursday.
According to Hamm, he's happy assisting Trump from the sidelines, and is optimistic about America's oil and gas industry under the new administration, which he sees as less regulation happy-particularly around fracking-and less tax happy.
Before the elections, Hamm called these regulations "death by a thousand cuts." And Hamm would know, because Continental Resources was a pioneer in making oil from shale rock profitable in North Dakota.
Related: Why Trump Will Be Unable To Save The American Coal Industry
Speaking of North Dakota, in his stead, Harold Hamm offered Trump an alternative Energy Secretary nominee: Rep. Kevin Cramer from North Dakota. In fact, Hamm said he thought Cramer would do a better job than he would.
"Kevin's a great guy, and he would be a perfect candidate, as well. I've put his name forward."
Cramer has served as a congressman in North Dakota since 2012, and before that, he served as North Dakota's utility regulator. Like Hamm, Cramer has been an advisor to Donald Trump on energy policy, writing two papers on the subject for him. Cramer considers himself a climate-change skeptic, but would likely steer Trump towards more neutral territory from his brash comments during the campaign about how the whole climate change thing is a hoax.
Speaking to how he would direct Trump, Cramer said, "… my advice would be, while I'm a skeptic, as well, he is a product of political populism, and political populism believes that there needs [to be] some addressing of climate change."
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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