Energy World
Intensifying political, economic, and technological competition are colliding with an evolving global energy system shaped by emerging technologies and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to slow climate change. At the same time, soaring domestic oil and natural gas production, booming AI-driven electricity consumption, tensions in other energy-producing regions, and demand for critical minerals and other energy-related commodities are powerfully affecting American national security, U.S. competitiveness, relations with key allies, and global energy markets. Energy World covers the implications of these developments in one of the most strategic—and most complex—economic sectors.
The Center for the National Interest gratefully acknowledges support from Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power for The National Interest’s Energy World blog. The National Interest’s editors retain sole control over Energy World’s content.
Trump’s “Energy Dominance,” in Practice, is Self-Contradictory
Energy dominance, though a laudable goal, is problematic at a time when OPEC+ seems to be trying to shoehorn its own volumes into the market. These are not good times...
Stories from Energy World
Building the Future: Empowering India’s Smaller Cities for Climate Action
Empowering India’s smaller cities and making them able to weather the worsening effects of climate change will be imperative as CO₂ emissions continue to rise. India’s urbanization trajectory is set...
Make America Great Again . . . With Tariffs?
The choirs of energy and economic experts are singing the same song: Tariffs are not the way to make America great again. Free trade – trade with no tariff barriers...
After Paris: Adapting to American Abdication of Climate Governance
After the American abdication of climate governance as a result of the Trump administration’s decisions, what will the world look like? The emerging doctrine of the second Trump administration—or at...
Nuclear Energy Policy in the Second Trump Administration
As the Trump administration makes key nuclear energy policy appointments, tariffs threaten to undermine U.S. competitiveness in next-generation reactors. In the early days of the second Trump administration, two schools...
Neither Rapprochement With Russia nor a Deal with Ukraine Will Yield a Windfall
Neither rapprochement with Russia nor a deal with Ukraine will give either the United States or American companies what they want in the region. There has been an enormous amount...
Recalibrating Exports: Russia’s Strategic Moves in the Fertilizer Market
Russia’s strategic moves in the fertilizer market have enabled it to evade European Union sanctions in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. As a result, the EU must start...
Geothermal: An Energy Source We Can Agree On?
Does Trump have a plan to build out a low-carbon energy source? Since at least the time of William Blake’s “dark satanic mills,” there has been tension between the productive...
Emerging Energy Security Risks in Today’s Context
Emerging energy security risks include both old geopolitical threats and new cyber and rare earth-related dangers that the policymakers who are responsible for managing the green energy transition must take...
America-China Economic Competition in Latin America is Not a Zero-Sum Game
Despite the dog-eat-dog mentality of international politics, the America-China competition in Latin America is not a game where there can be only one winner. In his first official international trip...
Rising Tariffs Pose Long-Term Threat to U.S. LNG Growth
Rising tariffs pose a threat in the long-term towards the domestic growth of the LNG sector. For the most part, the strong growth which has taken place in global trade...
The Lone Star Paradigm: A Texan Blueprint for U.S. Energy Leadership in the Twenty-First Century
The blueprint for U.S. energy leadership is that it must establish a resilient domestic energy strategy to remain globally competitive. Texas already provides a compelling model of success. The Trump...
The Collapse of Offshore Wind Power is Only the Beginning
The collapse of offshore wind power is only the first step in showing why the green energy transition is not competitive in a free market. The “clean energy transition” —...