A former oil executive and representative of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team has been given wide authority to make significant changes to the Department of Interior, the agency tasked with overseeing national parks and more than 500 million acres of federal land.
The move has alarmed conservation groups, including some that have accused Interior Secretary Doug Burgum of stepping aside to give Musk and his team “carte blanche” to possibly fire park rangers, public land managers and wildfire specialists across the country.
The order was signed Thursday by Burgum, giving Tyler Hassen sweeping authority to “effectuate the consolidation, unification and optimization of administrative functions” in the Department of Interior.
The order gives Hassen authority to make changes to the department’s funding and directives.
Hassen was recently named assistant secretary of policy, management and budget in the Department of Interior.
Before this post, Hassen was chief executive at Basin Energy. In its website, the company describes itself as “a green energy metals exploration and development company.” Hassen was previously chief finance officer for Basin Holdings, “a global diversified oilfield/industrial supply and services company,” according to his LinkedIn page.
But most recently, Hassen was pictured in a social media post from DOGE about the organization’s effort to increase the the amount of federally pumped water to flow toward Southern California in January.
The move had been pushed by President Trump during the California wildfires. Trump claimed troops were used to force the state to increase the amount of water being pumped. The Los Angeles Times found that the federal government’s pumping facility had been delivering less water because of routine maintenance. The California Department of Water Resources also refuted the president’s claim, noting that the pumps had been offline for three days due to the maintenance.
In a statement, the Center for Western Priorities, which describes itself as a nonpartisan land conservation policy organization, criticized the order giving Hassen such wide authority over the department.
“If Doug Burgum doesn’t want this job, he should quit now,” Jennifer Rokala, executive director for the organization, said in the statement. “Instead it looks like Burgum plans to sit by the fire eating warm cookies while Elon Musk’s lackeys dismantle our national parks and public lands.”
The move, Rokala said in the statement, in effect placed unelected DOGE officials in charge of national parks.
“They have no idea how to manage a forest or prepare for fires in the wildland-urban interface,” Rokala said. “But Doug Burgum just gave DOGE free rein.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Interior criticized the Center for Western Priorities, calling it an “anti-Trump organization that advocates against practical and affordable energy development.”
“The Secretary’s Order directs the [Assistant Secretary of Policy, Management and Budget] to ensure that President Donald J. Trump’s executive order to restore accountability to the American pubic is carried out,” said Kathryn Martin, spokesperson for the Department of Interior. “Through this optimization effort, the Department will continue to prioritize retaining first responders, parks and services and energy production employees.”
Other conservation groups have already taken legal action over DOGE’s actions affecting national parks.
In March, the Sierra Club, along with the Union of Concerned Scientist, Japanese American Citizens League and Asian Pacific American Advocates, filed a suit against Musk and DOGE, alleging they acted beyond their power after conducting mass layoffs in agencies overseeing the national parks.
The suit also named the Office of Personnel Management, Department of Education, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as defendants.
Athan Manuel, director of lands protection for the Sierra Club, said the recent layoffs and the decision to empower a DOGE official to make vast changes over the department is concerning, especially considering the difficulties national parks around the country were already experiencing.
“Even before Trump came in, our public parks were understaffed, from any way that you look at it,” he said. “This is something that’s going to make a bad situation much worse.”
Among the biggest worries, Manuel said, was that a DOGE official and the White House would have such a large say over the Department of Interior without having experience over the agency and the departments it oversees.
“They’re going to be told by [presidential advisor] Stephen Miller or some other ideologue in the White House to just cut, cut cut, without an understanding of what the consequences are going to be on the ground,” Manuel said. “You’re running the Department of Interior — you’re in charge of Yosemite [National Park], Sequoia [National Park], the Statue of Liberty. To treat them the way they’re treating them is really insulting to the country, and the citizens.”