The Declaration of Energy Independence | Opinion
Whether you’re with your family on Main Street cheering as the hometown parade rolls by or watching fireworks burst over the ocean after sunset, nearly every part of our nation’s 250th birthday celebration depends on energy.
The fuel powering parade floats. The electricity keeping the ice ready for coolers. The propane grilling burgers at backyard cookouts. The factories producing the American flags lining our streets and the fireworks painting the sky. Even the batteries charging the smartphones capturing family memories all rely on one thing: abundant, affordable, reliable American energy.
As we celebrate our nation’s semiquincentennial, we should remember that America’s story is also one of energy.
For two and a half centuries, American energy has fueled our economy, strengthened our national security, defended our freedom, and improved the lives of generations of Americans. Every generation has inherited an energy challenge and answered it with American innovation. Benjamin Franklin helped unlock the mysteries of electricity. American entrepreneurs launched the modern oil industry. We pioneered hydroelectric power, commercial nuclear energy, and the shale revolution. Today, our scientists and engineers continue to push the frontier forward with fusion, advanced nuclear reactors, next-generation geothermal technologies, carbon capture, and countless breakthroughs.
Every era of American prosperity has been powered by innovation, and each era was brought about by American entrepreneurs, workers, and builders who refused to accept limits on what was possible. That spirit of ingenuity transformed a fledgling republic into the most prosperous and powerful nation the world has ever known.
Our Founding Fathers understood that political liberty could never endure without economic independence. They rejected dependence on a distant power because they knew that nations unable to provide for themselves eventually surrendered the freedom to chart their own course.
That lesson remains just as important today. America’s independence requires not only defending our borders and preserving our Constitution, but also ensuring that no foreign nation can hold our economy, our military, or our families hostage by controlling the energy that powers our lives. Energy independence guarantees our national independence.
Yet for years, my colleagues across the aisle forgot that truth. The Left opposed pipelines that would strengthen our energy security posture. They restricted domestic oil and gas leasing while global demand continued to rise. They buried infrastructure beneath years of permitting delays and regulatory obstacles despite towns needing the infrastructure yesterday. They made it harder to build refineries, export terminals, and reliable power generation when America needed more energy, not less.
At the peak of the Democrats’ America-Last energy agenda, they even banned new exports of liquefied natural gas. That decision did nothing to reduce global demand or emissions. It simply meant less American energy reached our allies while more market share went to foreign competitors and geopolitical adversaries. When Washington tells American energy producers they cannot build, drill, transport, or export, the demand does not disappear. Instead, production, jobs, and geopolitical leverage simply move elsewhere, alongside American influence.
Thankfully, President Trump and Republicans in Congress recognize this reality. We are working to reverse years of harmful anti-American energy policy by restoring an agenda centered on energy abundance, domestic production, and American competitiveness. This is the same principle behind the Working Families Tax Cuts; Americans should keep more of what they earn and pay less for what they need. Energy is no different. When we lower the cost of power, we lower the cost of everything it touches, from manufacturing to groceries to the paycheck it takes to afford them.
The next chapter of global leadership will belong to the nation that embraces energy abundance. Artificial Intelligence, advanced manufacturing, quantum computing, and the industries of tomorrow will demand enormous amounts of reliable electricity, and the nations that keep that power affordable will be the ones that keep those industries, and the jobs they bring, at home. America cannot lead the future by shrinking the very energy system that powers it or by letting energy costs price American workers and manufacturers out of the industries we should be leading.
As we celebrate 250 years of independence, we should remember what has always made America exceptional. Our history is inseparable from our energy story. Our Founders secured our political independence; it is now our responsibility to secure our energy independence. If we continue to embrace American innovation, workers, and energy, the next 250 years can be every bit as extraordinary as the first.