The United States is more energy-dominant than ever before. We lead the world in oil and gas production, producing more than at any other time in history. Yet the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz proves that energy dominance doesn’t protect us entirely from global shocks. The ultimate energy dominance is energy sovereignty, which requires both resource and supply-chain dominance.Â
Currently, the U.S. is energy-resource-rich but supply-chain-poor. The country remains vulnerable because our adversaries control the materials and processing capacity necessary to power our economy. The best way to build upon U.S. energy dominance and achieve true energy security is to reshore and friend-shore all aspects of our energy system while developing new, domestic forms of production.
The good news is that the Trump administration is taking the right steps. Through sound investments, international cooperation, and partnerships with private sector innovators, the administration is establishing not just energy dominance but American energy sovereignty.
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A primary focus is critical minerals. They are embedded across our economy — graphite for grid storage batteries, gallium for electronics, manganese for steel pipelines, and more. The U.S. does not produce most of these minerals. China does. America is 100% import-dependent on 12 critical minerals and at least 50% dependent on even more, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Our adversaries can sever our access to strategic materials without firing a shot. In a crisis, that leverage could cripple defense production or choke off the chips that run the grid and workaday devices. China can exploit its position to extract damaging concessions.
Beijing is already throwing haymakers. Graphite and gallium were previously subject to strict export controls, a targeted attack on U.S. semiconductor companies. We have avoided disaster for the time being, but the status quo courts catastrophe.
President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” began to address this national security threat. It channels $7 billion to mine, process, and refine strategic minerals at scale. That includes $2 billion to stockpile minerals most vulnerable to foreign control.
Other provisions slash red tape, enlisting U.S. business dynamism to close the resource gap. Overregulation and heavily subsidized Chinese competitors have deterred U.S. investment in mining. We can’t afford to spend years in permitting purgatory when China can cut off exports overnight. Large reserves of lithium and graphite are there for the taking in Alaska, California, and Nevada. Fast, predictable permitting will bring those materials to market more quickly.
Critically, government policy emphasizes both extraction and development. The Trump administration is wisely avoiding the temptation to ship raw materials abroad for refining. To that end, the Energy Department is investing $1 billion to build out U.S. processing capacity. Billed as the critical minerals initiative, this program ensures every step of our supply chain is protected from ordinary disruptions and peer power attacks.
An effective mineral security strategy requires an international component, too. Some raw materials are geographically concentrated. China recognized this fact early. The Chinese Communist Party secured mineral dominance by financing projects around the world and executing supply agreements that tie production to its industrial base. For example, the CCP and the Bolivian government are working together to open one of the world’s largest lithium deposits.
The U.S. and its allies are catching up through friendshoring. The U.S. and 54 other countries established the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement to build mineral supply chains beyond the reach of Beijing. Friendshoring aligns investment and sourcing among trusted allies, creating alternative networks that are more resilient and less exposed to coercion.
While the U.S. secures its critical mineral supply chain, we must also develop more domestic energy sources insulated from international shocks.
One exciting source of innovation is the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency’s SUPERHOT program. ARPA-E is offering $30 million for projects that generate power from Earth’s limitless heat. This nascent technology injects water into hot rock miles beneath the surface, where it returns as steam to generate electricity or hydrogen.
Once unlocked, those resources could provide an inexhaustible, always-on domestic energy source, free from chaotic global markets and precarious supply chains.
The SUPERHOT model unleashes the market by derisking the front end. Private capital might not solve early-stage barriers. High-quality geological surveys are extremely expensive. The operating conditions are extreme. But once those challenges are in hand, bold entrepreneurs and investors can scale a new domestic energy miracle. Likewise, ARPA-E is investing in fusion technology, nuclear innovation, and grid efficiency and resiliency, all of which could transform America’s energy outlook.
Just like fracking and nuclear technology before it — initiated with government support and scaled with private capital — ARPA-E’s programs could pave the way for new and abundant sources of American energy.
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America didn’t stumble into energy dominance. It was built — through patient federal investment in technologies the market wouldn’t fund alone, and private entrepreneurs who scaled them once the groundwork was laid. We did it with fracking. We are doing it again with critical minerals, geothermal, and fusion.
If we succeed, we will move beyond energy dominance to energy sovereignty.
Drew Bond is the co-founder and executive chairman of C3 Solutions.