President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday establishing a White House energy council to promote the nation’s energy industries amid already record-high oil and natural gas production.
Dubbed the National Energy Dominance Council, the group is helmed by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin also serving on the council, according to a post on the social media site X by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. It’s tasked with centralizing the nation’s energy policies under the eye of the White House and underscores Trump’s position that American energy production is a pressing national security issue.
“It’s an honor to be part of @potus’ National Energy Dominance Council,” Zeldin wrote in an X post Friday. “I will do everything in my power @EPA to urgently help America unleash energy dominance.”
A full list of council members was not immediately available Friday.
Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day in office. Decrying “harmful” climate and clean energy policies from the Biden era that attempted to boost renewable energy and cut the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, Trump called for a “reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy to drive our Nation’s manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defense industries.”
The council formed Friday by the stroke of a pen was first announced by the president last year, when Trump named Burgum as his nominee to lead Interior. Trump has often praised Burgum’s smarts on energy policy, saying last year that Burgum “probably knows more about energy than anybody I know.”
“Energy security is also national security,” Burgum said in a podcast earlier this week. “President Trump’s vision for energy dominance is that we’re selling energy to our friends and allies, not having them buy it from our adversaries.”
The U.S. is currently producing more oil and natural gas than any country in history. Much of that is exported. Shortly after taking office, Trump lifted a pause on liquefied natural gas export terminal applications imposed by the Biden administration in a nod to his desire to export more U.S. energy.
Burgum, Wright and Zeldin have made early strides to center the ethos of “energy dominance” at their respective agencies
Burgum, who has criticized renewable energy sources like wind and solar for not producing dispatchable power, signed a suite of orders last week targeting Biden-era public land protections and energy regulations. Burgum also implemented Trump’s reversal of former President Joe Biden’s ban on offshore drilling in much of the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans and renamed the Gulf of Mexico to Trump’s preferred moniker, the “Gulf of America.”
Wright inked his own actions to crack down on efficiency rules at the Department of Energy and promising to increase energy production without “net-zero policies” that attempt to offset carbon pollution from fossil fuels with carbon-free energy production.
Wright on Friday also approved the first LNG export permit of the Trump administration.
“President Trump has outlined a bold agenda for unleashing American energy dominance, and restoring regular order on U.S. LNG export permits is critical for meeting this commitment to the American people,” he said in a statement.
Zeldin has said EPA is not required to regulate methane, a potent greenhouse gas that’s released from leaks in oil and gas equipment.
