By Robert O’BRIEN
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has made it clear that the United States cannot rely on foreign entities for its energy needs, whether for fossil fuels, nuclear power, or renewables. The world is a dangerous and unpredictable place. Instability in any country or Region, thousands of miles away, can cause ripple effects that affect American workers and harm our economy. That is why President Trump has prioritized restoring American energy dominance and reducing our dependence on unstable foreign sources. The president recognized this vulnerability early on. His policies helped turn the United States into an energy exporter during his first term, and now he is taking steps to further expand domestic production and the resilience of the energy grid.
Fortunately, abundant energy resources are something we already have within our borders. We need to harness them all. That includes solar power. Leading in solar power, as part of an all-energy approach, is especially important given its national security implications in our competition with China. China is aggressively working to dominate global solar panel production and battery supply chains. If the United States fails to lead in this area, we risk replacing one form of energy dependence with another, this time from an energy source controlled by Beijing. China is prioritizing solar power generation in part because it recognizes its unique capacity to capture and store solar energy in batteries. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this stored electrical energy can be used at any time, even “after the sun has set,” making this energy source, in effect, “an insurance policy for sunny days.”
Solar power, combined with energy storage technology, is not only affordable. It is also the fastest-growing energy source of all currently available, allowing us to expand our energy capacity in a fraction of the time it takes to expand other sources. In the event of a national security emergency, policymakers must ensure that the United States, not China, has the upper hand in this regard. China and other adversaries aligned with Iran are racing to surpass the United States in production, with the goal of gaining decisive influence over our economic security. As a recent report in Time magazine notes: “Today, the means to weaponize energy are broader and more diverse. Countries no longer rely solely on cutting production or physically disrupting supply. They also use a wider range of instruments—control over infrastructure, shipping lanes, financial systems, trade, and critical supply chains.”
If energy can be used as a weapon against us, the United States must be in a position to control its own energy supply. That means producing more energy domestically, from whatever sources are available. To revitalize American manufacturing for the 21st century, we must also do more to diversify our supply chain and increase domestic supplies of rare earth metals that are essential for renewable energy technologies.
China currently controls 70 percent of the world’s rare earth mining and 90 percent of its refining. The United States should not depend on a hostile power for the batteries and other materials that power our modern energy systems. Lithium, for example, is used in electric vehicles and batteries for drones and other advanced weapons. Yet China dominates the global lithium market. If the United States can successfully move lithium production domestically, it will strengthen our economic resilience and our position as a global leader. We also need to modernize our energy grid and not rely on centralized energy sources that can be disrupted by others. We need a diverse and distributed grid that is harder to take down in a crisis.
President Trump is doing just that—working to strengthen the national energy grid while increasing domestic energy production. But we need to do more to overcome the bureaucratic obstacles that prevent us from developing more types of energy, including solar. When it comes to fossil fuels, the United States is a producer of oil and natural gas, which supports a robust industry that provides the livelihoods of about 11 million Americans. We don’t need to import something we already have in abundance. Domestic energy production is not just a matter of national pride; it is a key source of economic stability and national security. We must make sure we consistently treat it as such.