House Reconciliation Bill Locks in Trump's Energy Dominance Agenda

Americans voted for lower energy costs. President Donald Trump's administration followed through on the promise in record time with gas prices reaching their lowest levels in years. Now Congressional Republicans are codifying his energy policy agenda as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill.
The administration is expanding drilling on federal lands, expediting approvals for natural gas exports, and streamlining bureaucratic red tape that too often strangles energy exploration and extraction. Taken together, these actions will begin unleashing the private sector to bring about American energy dominance. Already, oil prices have reached a four-year low, and prices at the pump are down about 50 cents per gallon over the past year.
That's major progress, but there is only so much an administration can do solo. Thankfully, congressional Republicans have passed plan to give President Trump an expanded arsenal of tools to achieve his energy policy agenda. Their energy plan is a core part of the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' that will also extend the expiring Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from Trump's first term. The entire package will deliver pro-growth tax relief, save trillions of taxpayer dollars, and avoid a massive $4.5 trillion tax increase in 2026.
While there are a lot of taxpayer-friendly provisions in the reconciliation package, part of the bill's mission is to fix America's broken energy policy. It repeals billions of dollars in wasteful Green New Deal-style funding and drives certainty for energy companies to invest over the long-term. The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee should each be commended for crafting some of the most important provisions of this tax and budget savings package.
The core focus of the Natural Resources Committee's plan is to promote energy production. It does so by finally establishing a predictable schedule for the consideration of public lands and waters that can be tapped for resource extraction. The private sector will have long-term certainty thanks to quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales, and biannual offshore lease sales. President Biden infamously halted these sales and issued the fewest leases since the 1960s. Opening a competitive and responsible bid process for federal acreage will ensure a steady pipeline of future energy projects.
Their proposal also focuses on bringing down production costs by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act's misguided fee increase on oil and gas produced on federal lands. It delivers a 25% cut to that fee, making production less expensive and more attractive for drillers to extract fossil fuels—likely yielding downstream consumer benefits. Higher taxes and fees ultimately disincentivize activities, and the inverse is also true.
The Energy and Commerce Committee's portion of the bill will expedite the construction of energy infrastructure by cutting government red tape and allowing the private sector to bring energy from the ground to market more quickly. It accelerates permitting with a one-year timeline for carbon dioxide, oil, and hydrogen pipeline projects and for liquefied natural gas export facilities. It would also exempt most of these projects from frivolous, activist litigation to avoid 'delay-to-die' schemes.
And while the Biden Administration emptied the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for political purposes, the Republican bill begins the process of responsibly refilling it. The Reserve currently sits at historically low levels, a scary reality in today's uncertain world. Its purpose is to safeguard against real emergencies, like natural disasters or major supply disruptions, not political worries.
It's refreshing to see Congress engage on sensible energy policy after the boondoggles of the Biden years.
Urgency on this issue is crucial since energy is a building block of our modern society and is woven into every facet of our lives. We need oil and natural gas to help grow crops, transport goods, power our factories, energize our homes, and much more. Without it, our entire way of life would be threatened.
More energy, lower costs, and a reliable electricity supply: that's the vision Republicans and President Trump are hoping to accomplish with their reconciliation bill. The right course of action, and the necessary one, is for policymakers to keep these provisions in the final proposal that reaches the Oval Office. Praise be to Republicans for advancing a strong America-first energy policy.
Thomas Aiello is Senior Director of Government Affairs at National Taxpayers Union

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