Energy Security is National Security: Fixing America’s Incoherent Energy Policies

(Greg Pollock and Joshua Busby – Just Security) For years, Republican politicians advocated an “all of the above” energy strategy, supporting continued oil and gas production while also scaling up renewable energy. Though criticized by climate activists as insufficiently urgent, this approach acknowledged that building clean generation, storage, and transmission infrastructure would take time. Meanwhile, government incentives helped drive down the cost of solar, wind, and battery storage. When President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025 pledging to achieve “energy dominance,” renewables appeared well positioned to contribute to that objective. Unfortunately, despite the president’s grandiose promises, the administration’s policies have delivered only market distortions and higher energy prices. For the past year, the administration has made a concerted effort to constrain the country’s fastest-growing energy sources while propping up some of the least competitive, particularly coal-fired electricity. Rather than expanding supply across the energy mix, the administration has adopted a selective approach that privileges legacy fuels, curtails renewables, and redefines “dominance” as government intervention on behalf of politically favored industries, undermining U.S. economic competitiveness and strategic interests. The president has now compounded his initial mistakes on energy policy with a war of choice in the Middle East, which has sent oil prices skyrocketing from roughly $70 a barrel on the eve of the conflict to over $110 per barrel, with U.S. gasoline prices soaring in parallel. – Energy Security is National Security