President Donald Trump’s energy dominance agenda is built on a simple premise. A nation that cannot reliably power its economy cannot remain prosperous, secure or free.
Affordable and abundant energy is not a luxury. It is the backbone of American leadership.
Yet even as the administration works to dismantle Biden-era regulations and restore sanity to energy policy, a highly coordinated activist network is working aggressively to undermine that effort. A new report from the American Energy Institute, which I lead, exposes how this network operates, who funds it, and why its ambitions extend far beyond climate or environmental policy.
The common thread uniting these organizations is not conservation, sustainability, or public health. It is hostility toward American power, American industry, and American leadership.
The same groups attacking U.S. oil, gas and coal are often found protesting Israel’s right to defend itself, opposing action against Venezuela’s narco-state dictatorship and condemning U.S. foreign policy as “imperialism.” These are not disconnected causes. They are manifestations of the same worldview, one that sees American strength as inherently illegitimate.
The report documents how organizations like the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and the Union of Concerned Scientists function as part of an integrated political apparatus. They share staff, messaging, legal strategies and financial backers.
When voters reject their agenda, they bypass democracy through regulation and litigation. When that fails, they escalate to obstruction, protests and in some cases sabotage of critical infrastructure.
This strategy was not accidental. More than a decade ago, climate activists explicitly modeled their approach on tobacco litigation, aiming to use the courts to cripple American energy companies when they could not win at the ballot box. Today’s climate lawsuits, regulatory ambushes and coordinated protests are the predictable result.
What is striking is how seamlessly this same activist infrastructure pivots from domestic energy policy to foreign policy agitation. Groups that claim to oppose American energy production because it supposedly harms the planet suddenly rally to defend Venezuela’s socialist dictatorship, a regime built on corruption, murder, drug trafficking and environmental devastation. Others loudly oppose Israel while remaining conspicuously silent about terrorism, authoritarianism, and human rights abuses committed by America’s adversaries.
These positions are not contradictory. They are consistent.
Weakening American energy weakens American industry. Weakening American industry weakens American influence.
And weakening American influence creates opportunities for hostile regimes like China, Iran and Russia. That is why so many of these activists praise China’s energy policies while condemning American producers or defend Iranian and Venezuelan regimes while attacking U.S. enforcement actions.
The funding behind this movement tells the same story. Tens of millions of dollars flow through dark money networks such as Arabella Advisors, the Tides Foundation, and the Energy Foundation.
These entities exist to shield donors from scrutiny while financing political activism under the guise of charity. Major foundations, including Packard, Hewlett, Rockefeller, Ford and MacArthur, bankroll this effort with remarkable consistency across issue areas.
This is not grassroots activism. It is a permanent political machine designed to constrain American power at home and abroad.
Energy dominance threatens this machine because it restores the conditions that made the United States prosperous and independent in the first place. Reliable electricity lowers costs for families. Abundant energy strengthens manufacturing and agriculture.
Energy security reduces dependence on hostile foreign suppliers. That is why these groups oppose it so fiercely.
Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly prioritize affordability and reliability over ideological crusades. That reality explains why the activist class prefers regulation, litigation, and street protests to elections. Their agenda cannot survive democratic accountability.
If Trump’s energy agenda is to succeed, policymakers must recognize what they are up against. This is not a debate about climate models or preferred technologies. It is a struggle over whether the United States will continue to lead economically and geopolitically or whether it will be deliberately weakened by an unaccountable activist elite.
America’s energy future cannot be dictated by groups that oppose American prosperity as a matter of principle. The path forward is clear. Expose the networks. Defund the dark money. Restore the rule of law.
And reject the ideology that treats American strength as a problem rather than a virtue.
Mr. Isaac, a former member of the Texas House of Representatives, is CEO of the American Energy Institute.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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