How the United States Can Outcompete China in Energy Dominance and Environmental Progress

In a recent meeting with top oil executives, President Trump emphasized the importance of his energy dominance agenda. Policy priorities included lowering energy costs, bolstering the grid, and out-competing China in the artificial intelligence race. The key to all three is unleashing American energy innovation. The administration’s National Energy Council should put forth an agenda that opens access to investment and supplies, modernizes permitting and outdated regulations, and leverages the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop emerging technologies. 
China’s Energy and Environmental Reality

Policymakers must be realistic about China on multiple fronts. China is no green energy darling. The country produces and consumes massive amounts of fossil fuels, particularly coal, without adequately deploying pollution control technologies. The latest International Energy Agency report found that global coal consumption reached a record high in 2024, with China accounting for one out of every three tons of coal burned. China has built over 1,000 coal-fired plants in the last thirty years, has more than five times the number of coal plants as the United States, and has accounted for 95 percent of new coal construction in 2023.

China is by far the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitter. It produces more than double the United States’s carbon emissions, accounting for nearly one-third of global emissions. In addition to being the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, China has a terrible environmental record. Its centrally managed industrial policy, without serious concern for the environment and people’s health, has resulted in harmful air pollution, soil contamination, and poor water quality.
China’s Strategic Clean Energy Expansion