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As the Secretary of Energy honored to play a role in implementing the historic agenda of President Trump’s first term, it was deeply troubling to watch Joe Biden spend four years undoing that progress with a relentless war on American energy.
President Biden failed to grasp that affordable, reliable energy is the cornerstone of fighting inflation, creating jobs, and ensuring our national security. His crackdown on all forms of energy left us weaker on all three fronts.
Thankfully, the voters delivered a mandate last November, ushering President Trump back to restore America’s energy dominance – and he has been putting on a clinic the last four months by ramping up homegrown energy production at an unprecedented pace.
GOP LAWMAKERS MOVE TO ROLL BACK BIDEN-ERA ENERGY PROGRAMS
By declaring a National Energy Emergency on his first day in office, the President showed that reviving our energy capabilities is a top priority. He followed this by rescinding Biden’s efforts to freeze domestic oil and natural gas production. And in April, the White House issued executive orders to increase coal production, safeguard the energy industry from state overreach, and protect an energy grid that had become increasingly unreliable during the prior administration.
These actions have already led to a 12% year-over-year gas price reduction. And more relief is on the way. The reconciliation bill Republicans advanced in the House yesterday is packed with provisions championed by the president to drive a surge in domestic energy production. Some key measures include:
- Reinstating quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales in energy-producing states.
- Reducing oil and gas royalties to pre-IRA rate (from 16.67% to 12.5%) to encourage private sector investment and production.
- Streamlining permitting to expedite energy infrastructure development.
- Lifting the Biden administration’s moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands.
While this is a powerful blueprint for growth, there is one significant shortfall: the bill’s approach to certain energy tax credits.
The House budget bill indiscriminately phases out or repeals nearly every major tax credit from the so-called Inflation Reduction Act—including credits for electricity generation (45Y and 48E), hydrogen production (45V), and advanced manufacturing (45X). While it may be sensible to phase out credits during a carefully planned transition period, it is not good policy to make abrupt changes that stifle investment and create uncertainty. With so much at stake right now, it is crucial that we do not eliminate the policies that support actual U.S. energy production and keep energy costs low.
In the face of soaring demand—driven by AI, data centers, industrial reshoring, and electrification—every molecule or megawatt we disincentivize contributes to market scarcity and rising costs. These are not academic choices, but critical price signals. Pulling energy production offline now—whether fossil, renewable or otherwise— makes America less secure and American consumers poorer.
As Vice President Vance noted earlier this year, the surest way to fight Biden-era inflation is to lower energy costs – that means growing, not shrinking, our domestic supply.
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It’s also important to acknowledge the economic reality: these credits are lowering consumer costs, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, and supporting billions of dollars in private sector investment—much of it in Republican-led states. Gutting these incentives indiscriminately would strain the economy and risk political backlash in key districts at a time when conservative leadership has never been more necessary.
President Trump understands this. That’s why he created the National Energy Dominance Council and embraced an all-of-the-above energy approach – not as a slogan, but as a strategy. America wins when we produce everything: oil, gas, coal, nuclear, and renewables. Taking any of them off the table – whether by regulation or tax policy – weakens our position.
We should celebrate the wins this administration has already delivered. But we shouldn’t offset them by slashing energy tax credits that genuinely drive production, create jobs, and enhance our national security.
The goal is dominance, not disruption. Congress should act accordingly.
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