Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is considering nominating Oklahoma oil and gas mogul Harold Hamm as energy secretary if elected to the White House on Nov. 8, according to four sources close to Trump’s campaign.

The chief executive of Continental Resources <CLR.N> would be the first U.S. energy secretary drawn directly from the oil and gas industry since the cabinet position was created in 1977, a move that would jolt environmental advocates but bolster Trump’s pro-drilling energy platform.

Dan Eberhart, an oil investor and Republican financier, said he had been told by officials in Trump’s campaign that Hamm was “the leading contender” for the position.

Eberhart said he had discussed the possible appointment with top donors at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this week.

Three other sources close to the Trump campaign confirmed Trump was considering Hamm for the post. One of the sources said he first heard that Hamm was a contender from Trump officials on Sunday.

Hamm, 70, became one of America’s wealthiest men during the U.S. oil and gas drilling boom over the past decade, tapping into new hydraulic fracturing drilling technology to access vast deposits in North Dakota’s shale fields.

Hamm’s future was discussed at a private fundraiser organized by a Trump Super PAC, Great America PAC, in Cleveland on Monday. Hamm was there, along with major donor Foster Friess and former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, one of the sources said, asking not to be named.

None of the sources was aware of who else Trump may be considering for the job.

Representatives for Trump and Hamm did not respond to a request for comment.

Past heads of the U.S. Department of Energy, which is charged with advancing U.S. energy security and technology and dealing with nuclear waste disposal, have typically boasted a political or academic background.

This is not the first time Hamm has been in contention for the job.

The Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2012, Mitt Romney, vetted Hamm to be energy secretary but ultimately decided against him because the two men have differing positions on renewable energy sources like wind.

Hamm was due to speak at the Republican convention on Wednesday night.

He made headlines in 2015 after settling a protracted divorce case and agreeing to pay his ex-wife $975 million - reported to be the biggest divorce settlement in history. His fortune is now estimated at nearly $12 billion.

“FRACKER-IN-CHIEF”

Trump, who has yet to make any announcements about his prospective cabinet, has already surrounded himself with strong advocates of traditional energy sources like oil, gas, and coal and has promised to gut environmental regulations to boost drilling and mining if elected.

He tapped U.S. Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, a climate skeptic and drilling advocate, to help draw up his campaign energy platform, and picked Indiana Governor Mike Pence, also a climate skeptic, as his running mate.

Both moves cheered the energy industry but alarmed environmental activists who say a Trump presidency would set back years of progress on issues like pollution and climate change.

“Given that Hamm’s as close as we’ve got to a fracker-in-chief in this country, it would be an apropos pick for a president who thinks global warming is a hoax manufactured by the Chinese,” said leading environmental activist Bill McKibben.

Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton has promised to bolster regulation and increase use of renewable fuels to combat climate change if elected.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-fracking-harold-hamm-ener...

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Ron, when the Haynesville was "discovered" (when normal people found out about the richness of the reserve) people went wild. I know so many people who held out for $20,000 to 30,000 an ac. They grouped together, got attorneys--a lot of whom did not know anything about oil and gas--and even when they got offers for $20k an acre they wanted even more. Most of those people never got leased and I know several personally. They all say they were "cheated" by this company or that company out of $100,000 or in one case a million. But they NEVER signed leases so they never had that money to be cheated out of the money.

As far as not being paid fair, on every lease we have I went through the decimal amounts (found all the info on this site) and figured out what our check would be on each well and we are being paid fairly. Are some getting a gathering fee? Yep. They are trying to survive. I just hope none of the companies we are with go bankrupt. That is more important to me than anything pertaining to minerals right now. I have had companies try to pay me less minerals than I owned but I did my due diligence and showed them they were wrong. Guess what? In both cases, two different companies, when they saw they made a mistake they rectified it.

All I have to go on is my experience with the following companies: Petrohawk, Exco, and Chesapeake.  You may be with different companies that altered your view of oil and gas. Just my opinion

I always thought the largest part of DOE is dealing with the nuclear weapons complex.  And the next largest part is to conduct scientific research into newer, more efficient forms of energy.  I'm not exactly sure what Harold Hamm would do with all that that.  A large part of drilling regulations fall within other parts of the government, e.g., Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Land Management.

What a joke. The fox in the hen house.
Why would Harold want to do that? His ex-wife didn't take all his money.

You all are absolutely right. Sorry I commented.

I'm going golfing next week in Hawaii so I can spend some of the royalties that I haven't been getting.

Kitty,

     I told Chesapeake they were cheating me, so they sent me the evidence.

The Spreadsheet they sent is the basis for this lawsuit.

You might want to look a little closer at Chesapeake. I don't know anyone that is getting even close to a fair royalty in the US. You just don't realize how bad they are short changing you.

Attachments:

I haven't gotten a royalty check from CHK in 20 months. They claim the have overpaid me and that I owe them money.  I have sent 2 certified letters asking for an accounting, and none has been forthcoming.  

I don't agree with Ron that all O&G companies and their managers are crooks, but CHK is certainly a trying company to do business with.  I have had no similar issues with Comstock, Encana, Shell, or now Vine.  Unfortunately, my largest holdings are with CHK.  And this isn't about proper royalty payments, but just any royalty payments.

Are you an unleased mineral owner?

no. received royalties for 4 years. a new unit survey by CHK said i was overpaid. but yhe survey was wrong. so they corrected it, but still no accounting for my royalty account.

Steve,

       Your lease has a clause that requires you to inform your producer that they failed to follow the terms of your lease.

All O&G leases have this clause. This is the only area of business in the Nation where the contract you sign means nothing if you don't tell the other party they aren't following the contract.

After you tell them they aren't following the contract they have a period of time to correct the issue. If they don't correct the issue, the lease goes on to say even if we the producer doesn't follow the lease, it doesn't violate the contract making it void.

Tell me these producers didn't know that they were going to steal from us.

I know for a fact that when my producer was getting top dollar on well products in Feb 2014, that $56 per acre I was paid was closer to a 1% royalty, not the 17.5% Gross Royalty that was due most of us in the Unit.

OPEC dropping oil prices has kept Chesapeake from raping Ohio at the rate they had planned. They would have been in every landowners backyard by now thumbing their noses at the landowners with no action by states officials. 

As is, this theft is in the Billions already. NGLs are being taken free. Those who know what makes up an NGL know that it is a very valuable well product, priced from 0 to 18 cents per gallon by our producer. 

When the Fair Market Value sale takes place outside the state, we don't share a percentage of that sale but we pay all fees to get the product to the buyer. We have no deduction leases, paying fees for a product we sold at the Well Head. How does that work?

This won't look good in court for Chesapeake so they will settle out of court since most lawyers have a price. What about that Oath the Lawyers took? Has anyone taken this up with those who licensed the lawyers? No, everyone is standing around looking like one of those 1900's landowners who were paid nothing and had to learn to live with it. Go have your lawyer disbarred, the settlements are enough evidence to do this.

The Ohio Supreme Court has heard arguments by Chesapeake that they should get Post Production Costs. The sentence most used by Chesapeake's lawyer was "Just read the contract". Those of us under production by Chesapeake across Our Nation know that this is something Chesapeake doesn't do, READ THE CONTRACT. Hopefully Chesapeake won't be granted that which isn't in our leases: Post Production Costs.

I for one know what will happen if you allow Chesapeake to calculate post production costs. We will be paying them to steal the states Minerals as they are now doing to those who were "Over Paid".  A 1% royalty paid per a 12% Net lease that most were stuck with could  never lead to an overpayment of royalties.

Ron, this company is not in the best financial shape. If you win a lawsuit and gain a bankrupt company, what do you have. Nothing.  You may be a big mineral owner. I am not so what I am getting is what I think I am due. If they or the other gas companies had not drilled, I wouldn't have anything. That is the upside for me.Today I drove from Shreveport, La to Austin, Tx on Hwy 79. There are oil and gas drilling companies and service companies who serve oil and gas along Hwy 79 in east Texas and 75%+ were shut down. I saw rigs sitting on vacant lots.

I would imagine your CHK spreadsheet showed a lower price per cubic ft. of gas paid to you than other companies are paying and I bet it showed a "gathering fee." I know. I look at my checks too and I look at the price of nat gas and it is awful. Please don't think I am insensitive to you but I see all these people filing lawsuits and I wonder what they will do if Chesapeake goes bankrupt. It is something to think about.

i don't care if CHK survives or not. i would like to have an operator who is responsible and trustworthy. i'm pretty sure CHK is neither of those.

Total E&P from France (Offices in Oklahoma) will take over our wells since they are 25% owners.

Total is paying a fair royalty but through Chesapeake who is stealing every dime.

This is a National Crisis for Landowners.

Ohio's gov & atty gnl are loosers and are using Pay To Play to benefit themselves. They have passed the word to every department of Ohio to tell landowners violation of Ohio's Criminal Laws are considered a "Civil Matter" if its Chesapeake or any other O&G Company. Our government are CO-CONSPIRATORS with Chesapeake.

This will be the first violation of the law that I'll present to Trump if he should win.

Billiary will maintain the Status Quo and this theft will continue until Our Democracy fails, for obvious reasons. The Old Folks have told me the government won't do anything for the people since that's been their track record for O&G theft since the 60s when WV was raped by big Oil.

This actually goes back for as long as there has been domestic O&G.

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