The Energy Build-Out Is Happening. Here’s Proof.

Americans voted for energy abundance, and the door Washington spent years holding shut is finally open. Families want lower bills, workers want good jobs, and communities want a real chance to grow again. After years of being told no, the country is walking through that door fast.

The good news: progress is moving from executive orders into real-world action. Long-stalled pipelines are coming back to life; oil and gas lease sales are moving forward, federal agencies are clearing red tape, and advanced nuclear projects are headed for demonstration. None of this is easy — it takes engineering, money, approvals, and skilled labor, but the direction has changed — and the results are starting to show.

Take the new Alberta-to-Wyoming crude oil pipeline. President Trump signed a cross-border permit in late April. Within days, oil companies committed to shipping at least 400,000 barrels per day — 72 percent of the pipeline's initial 550,000-barrel capacity — closing in on the 80 percent mark that usually signals a green light for construction.

The project picks up nearly 100 miles of pipeline already installed in the ground from Keystone XL, recklessly canceled by the prior administration, and follows an existing pipeline corridor through Montana and Wyoming. Using a path that already exists means faster permits, less red tape, and quicker relief at the pump and on the home heating bill. This is a $2 billion investment that strengthens North American energy security at a time of serious global instability. Based on similar projects projects, it should create thousands of well-paying jobs across both states.

Meanwhile, on the East Coast, Williams Companies broke ground April 14 on the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline — a $1 billion natural gas line running from New Jersey to New York City. State officials had blocked it repeatedly since 2017. The Trump administration's National Energy Dominance Council brokered the deal with Governor Hochul, who finally acknowledged that New York needs to "govern in reality."

The result: enough natural gas to serve 2.3 million homes, creating more than 3,000 regional jobs, and $240 million in economic activity for New Jersey. Target completion is next fall. A project stuck in permitting purgatory for seven years is now sprinting to the finish.

In the heartland, the Department of Interior's latest National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska lease sale generated over $163 million, the most revenue the program has ever brought in. That money flows back to the U.S. Treasury and the state of Alaska, funding services without raising a single tax, while the leases themselves mean more American production and steadier prices down the line.

The administration’s deregulation push keeps delivering. The Department of Energy is cutting 47 burdensome regulations estimated to save Americans $11 billion. EPA launched 31 deregulatory actions, as well as the biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history — a projected $1.3 trillion in savings for taxpayers. Interior rescinded 18 outdated energy rules. And new emergency permitting is doing in 28 days what used to take years.

The future of energy is moving fast, too. The Department of Energy is backing two small modular reactor projects — one at Tennessee’s Clinch River site and the other beside the restarted Palisades plant in Michigan. These reactors deliver round-the-clock power for American factories and cutting-edge technology, — something solar and wind simply cannot do without huge added cost — no matter how hard the prior administration tried to make the numbers work.

Here is the part that’s easy to miss. Major U.S. infrastructure projects have historically taken 10 to 15 years from conception to completion. Environmental reviews alone averaged nearly three years. Against that baseline, moving the Alberta-Wyoming pipeline from permit to near-construction in weeks, breaking ground on NESE after a seven-year blockade, and racing to build the next generation of safe, reliable nuclear power is nothing short of extraordinary.

The momentum is real. Pipelines are getting permitted. Lease sales are setting record bids. Nuclear reactors are moving from blueprints to construction sites. Decades of red tape are being cleared away at historically unprecedented speed.

These things can’t happen overnight. But they are happening. And they are happening at the fastest pace in modern American history.

Ted Ellis is director of the Power America campaign and deputy policy director for Energy & Environment at the America First Policy Institute.

Ambassador Carla Sands is chair of the Foreign Policy Initiative and senior fellow for Energy Policy at the America First Policy Institute.