President Donald Trump issued an executive order (EO) establishing the National Energy Dominance Council (Council) on February 14, 2025. The EO outlines the rationale for creating the Council, its members, and its primary functions.
Council Rational
The new EO aims to leverage the United States’ natural resources and leadership in energy technologies to support economic growth, national security, and global influence. It calls for expanding all forms of reliable and affordable energy production to address inflation, create jobs, and reduce dependence on foreign imports. The policy seeks to promote the use of resources, including oil, gas, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal heat, flowing water, and critical minerals to strengthen the economy and reduce national deficits and debt, with the goal of achieving energy dominance.
Council Members
The Council will be composed of at least 19 members. The secretary of the interior will serve as the chair of the Council, with the secretary of energy serving as the vice chair. In addition, 17 heads of specified executive departments and agencies and presidential assistants will be appointed as Council members, including the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The president has the authority to designate additional members as needed, ensuring flexibility in the Council’s composition over time.
Council Functions
The Council has been tasked to advise President Trump on the following primary directives:
- How to exercise his authority to produce more energy to make America energy dominant
- How to improve the processes for permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, and export of all forms of American energy, including critical minerals
- A National Energy Dominance Strategy to produce more energy that includes long-range goals for achieving energy dominance by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the energy-producing economy, focusing on innovation, facilitating consistency in energy production policies and seeking to eliminate longstanding, but unnecessary, regulation
- How to facilitate cooperation among the federal government and domestic private sector energy partners
- How to facilitate consistency in energy production policies
Within 100 days (i.e., Sunday, May 25, 2025), the Council is expected to recommend a plan to the president to raise awareness of matters related to energy dominance; advise the President regarding actions each agency can take to prioritize increasing energy production, such as approving the construction of natural gas pipelines and bringing small modular nuclear reactors online; provide a review of the markets most critical to power US homes, cars, and factories; advise the president regarding incentives to attract and retain private sector energy-production investments; advise the president on identifying and ending practices that raise the cost of energy; and consult with officials from state, local, and tribal governments and individuals from the private sector as to how to best expand all forms of energy production.
While the EO does not provide any insight into how the Council will achieve these functions, it is possible that they will rely at least in-part on the Defense Production Act (DPA). The DPA gives the president broad powers in incentivizing and directing the production and sale of energy resources during a national emergency, which President Trump declared on January 20, 2025.
One of the most memorable uses of the DPA occurred during the 2000–2001 California Energy Crisis, when natural gas suppliers were compelled to increase production and sell to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, despite their reluctance.
In light of this development, industry participants should be prepared for potential and quick-moving shifts in energy infrastructure and generation incentives and directives.
How We Can Help
We expect additional executive, regulatory, and legislative action in the next few weeks and months to implement President Trump’s energy policy. We will provide additional analysis and guidance as these policies are being formed and once implemented. Please visit Morgan Lewis’s energy blogs Power & Pipes (FERC, CF, DOE, State), Up and Atom (Nuclear), and our subscriptions page for updates on the US administration’s energy policies or contact Juliana Israel to be added to Morgan Lewis’s energy and project development distribution list.