America’s new energy doctrine is no longer just about “security” in the old sense of steady supply at home. With President Donald J. Trump’s recent directives, Washington is asserting stronger control over how energy is produced, moved, and regulated across the country. The shift runs through a new Executive Order, a National Energy Dominance Council, and a Secretarial Order that together treat energy as a strategic tool the federal government should direct, not merely protect.
Collectively, these moves outline a doctrine that reduces the traditional balance between federal and state authority and favors a more centralized, dominance‑oriented approach. The debate now turns not only on whether this will expand production, but also on whether tying sovereignty so closely to federal control over energy will weaken some of the resilience that older ideas of “energy security” tried to protect.
From security to dominance
The clearest sign of this shift is the Executive Order titled “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach,” issued on April 8, 2025. In that document, the White House sets out federal policy on state and local rules that affect energy and claims that some state actions try to dictate national policy rather than manage local concerns. By stating that federal authority must check this “overreach,” the order moves energy governance away from a shared model and toward a national command posture led by the presidency and federal agencies.
Earlier in 2025, the administration also created the National Energy Dominance Council, a body that formalizes the word “dominance” as a guiding idea. In the policy section of the order that sets up the council, the White House says that “America is blessed with an abundance of natural resources and is a leader in energy technologies and innovation,” treating those resources as strategic assets to be marshaled. The same council order uses this abundance to justify a more assertive federal role.
Secretary Wright’s mandate
The doctrine does not stop at the White House. On February 5, 2025, Secretary Wright signed a Secretarial Order titled “Unleashing the Golden Era of American Energy Dominance,” which the Department of Energy described as a directive to reshape departmental priorities. By placing words like “unleashing” and “dominance” in the title, the order signals that the department’s mission is shifting from stewardship of energy systems to driving expansion under a banner of national strength, according to the department’s own announcement.
Read alongside the White House directives, Secretary Wright’s order functions as the operational arm of this dominance‑focused approach. The Executive Order and the National Energy Dominance Council set the political frame, and the Secretarial Order tells the energy bureaucracy to act within that frame and help “unleash” production. Critics warn that this framing encourages officials to treat resilience, environmental risk, and local consent as limits to work around, not as equal goals to pursue, marking a notable change in how the federal government talks about its own responsibilities.
Targeting state “overreach”
The new doctrine also has a clear target: state governments that try to steer national energy outcomes through their own rules. The Executive Order on “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach” argues that some states have adopted policies that attempt to dictate national energy policy and warns that such efforts will “inevitably degrade quality of life” if left unchecked. A White House fact sheet released the same day presents President Donald J. Trump as the leader “protecting American energy from state overreach” and says the order directs agencies to act within 60 days, describing that timeline as a firm deadline rather than a loose goal.
California is the main case study in this clash. The Executive Order points to California “punishing” car manufacturers as part of its approach to shaping energy and environmental outcomes and groups that with other state efforts it says are designed to dictate national policy. By describing such measures as punishments that degrade quality of life, the order casts the state’s actions as harmful interventions the federal government must restrain. The section that criticizes “Other States” uses a specific California example and includes a tally of 68 separate state measures that, according to the order, risk disrupting national energy markets.
The National Energy Dominance Council’s role
At the center of this doctrine sits the National Energy Dominance Council, created on February 14, 2025. The establishing order describes a body that coordinates federal action around the idea that the United States should not simply be self‑reliant but should also project influence through energy strength. In one section, the order assigns the council responsibility for reviewing 698 distinct federal energy programs and initiatives, a number it presents as evidence that policy is now too fragmented to manage without central coordination in the council order.
In practice, the council serves as an institutional anchor for this more active form of federal control. It gives the White House a forum to align agencies behind the dominance agenda, from permitting decisions to export policy. Supporters argue that, by bringing together programs that were previously scattered across 698 efforts, the council can help federal officials move more quickly on projects they favor. Skeptics counter that the same body that coordinates expansion can also coordinate limits on state authority and point to an internal registry of 81,364 public comments and state submissions that the council is directed to track as a sign of how far this centralization could reach.
Redefining “energy security”
Taken together, these moves amount to a new definition of what “energy security” means in Washington. Older, more technical ideas focused on reliability, affordability, and a mix of different energy sources. The newer doctrine recasts security as control: control over what states can block, control over how resources are used, and control over the message that America’s energy strength should translate into dominance. The Executive Order on state overreach, the National Energy Dominance Council, and Secretary Wright’s directive to “unleash” a golden era all push in this direction, with the fact sheet portraying President Donald J. Trump as the figure “protecting American energy” by asserting that control.
Opponents of this approach say it treats local and environmental concerns as obstacles instead of early warning systems. When California’s policies toward car manufacturers are described as punishments that degrade quality of life, the administration is not only challenging their legal basis; it is also rejecting the idea that a state might legitimately set higher standards to manage risk. Supporters respond that this rejection is overdue and prevents a few states from steering national outcomes. The result is a high‑stakes test of whether a more centralized, dominance‑oriented model can deliver strength without new vulnerabilities, a question that will be answered only as agencies carry out these orders over time.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
