In late December, the White House released its new National Security Strategy that describes U.S. interests and how the Trump Administration plans to advance them in the coming years. The administration sees energy as playing a big role.
The Strategy is organized around four pillars:
- Protecting the American people, the homeland, and the American way of life;
- Promoting American prosperity;
- Preserving peace through strength by rebuilding our military; and
- Advancing American influence globally.
Energy cuts across many of these, but is particularly relevant in pillar number two, promoting American prosperity.
The Trump Administration has as a goal achieving “energy dominance” for the first time in decades, where the United States is a leading producer, consumer, and innovator.
The document states that “Unleashing these abundant [American] energy resources—coal, natural gas, petroleum, renewables, and nuclear—stimulates the economy and builds a foundation for future growth. Our Nation must take advantage of our wealth in domestic resources and energy efficiency to promote competitiveness across our industries.”
If that sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve been saying something similar for many years—that America’s new-found energy abundance is a key economic growth engine and geopolitical game-changer. So we’re glad to see these new energy realities being reflected in federal policy.
To achieve these and other goals described by the administration, five priority actions are identified:
- Reduce barriers to clean and safe energy development;
- Promote exports to increase the diversity of supplies on global markets;
- Ensure energy security by, among other things, working with allies to protect energy infrastructure from physical and cyber-attacks;
- Attain universal energy access to lift people out of energy poverty and foster economic development; and
- Further America’s edge in energy technology.
The Trump Administration has come up with an ambitious security plan that recognizes energy as a key geopolitical asset instead of a liability. There are lots of good things here to support, and we’ll be watching to see how this strategy gets implemented,