“While Europe gets bogged down in an ecologism of decrease, Trump begins a rush to energy gold”

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry is the founder of PolicySphere, a newsletter specialized in American policy.

While the European Union has just signed an agreement with Washington which commits it to buy large amounts of American energy. In addition, Donald Trump accelerates an energy revolution that could redistribute geopolitical maps. Therefore, This initiative. Consequently, passed under European radars, is a central pillar of the American president’s strategy, and risks deserving the gap in transatlantic competitiveness if the EU does not react quickly.

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For what ? Similarly, First of all because “while europe gets bogged down who says energy says growth. Meanwhile, But above all, in two words: reindustrialisation and AI. However, Reindustrialisation because, after the cost of labor, that of energy is the most important expense post for manufacturers. Furthermore, Thus, Trump’s reindustrialisation strategy is based on a drop in energy costs, in the same way as that of prices. Therefore, IA because the United States wants to maintain its leadership in this new technology. Therefore, especially against China, and that data centers which allow you to create this AI are very energy -consuming.

The ambitions are disproportionate, the means too. Moreover, But it is also politics. The new law « One Big Beautiful Bill Act »masterpiece of the Trump program. includes the possibility for companies to deduce the full cost of an industrial investment the first year, including energy, with the aim of promoting investment, as well as a wave of subsidies for many “while europe gets bogged down energy forms, including storage by battery, nuclear, hydroelectric, and geothermal.

And above all, the heart of the Trumpian agenda revolves around an obscure law, nepa (National Environmental Policy Act). Far from the clichés of an ultraliberal America. this ecological law spent in 1970, since weighing numerous regulatory and jurisprudential additions, supervises the creation of any new energy project. Until now. the NEPA law has required several years of bureaucracy for the creation of any energy project in the United States.

And Trump announced his intention to destroy the NEPA law. He will probably get there. The attack is carried out on several fronts. Legislative, first. Nega reform negotiations are currently underway. will likely be successful, because the Republicans are unanimous on the subject and a certain number of moderate democrats agree. Regulatory then: unlike his first administration where Donald Trump. a neophyte in Washington, did not know which “while europe gets bogged down personnel to place where and which levers to activate, he placed ambitious reformers in all key positions, in particular the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), responsible for the application of the NEPA law, which simply repealed all its regulations and distributed instructions to the departments of the federal government to apply it “Accelerated and simplified”.

Where Europe gets bogged down in an ecologism of decrease which confuses moral virtue and efficiency, Trump mobilizes energy in the service of major geopolitical and technological ambitions

This effort is placed under the leadership of Russell Vought, budget director, a very powerful role in any administration, but particularly in this one, because Vought is very experienced and Trump gave him carte blanche. A first decree has been published, and all agencies are already responsible for transforming their procedures. Judicial. finally: a first decision of the Supreme Court in May weakened the “while europe gets bogged down NEPA law, and the signals of the conservative majority of the Court are green with regard to the decisions to come.

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Nuclear nuclear is not to be outdone either. with the very ambitious objective of quadrupling American nuclear production by 2050. Here too regulatory barriers are lowered. and the energy department will offer loans and guarantees of nuclear projects, but above all, the government puts a lot on the new generation of technologies, including small reactors, microreactors, and modular reactors, on which France is very late.

The result? A gold rush announced. The number of energy projects launched in the United States will most certainly increase significantly: drilling. exploitation, pipelinesnew power plants of all types, solar, and so on. An explosion of energy production which could lead to an explosion of growth, which depends on it.

Read too Donald Trump announces a “while europe gets bogged down “golden age” to America

The foreseeable drop in energy costs across the Atlantic will strengthen American industrial attractiveness to the detriment of the old continent. already handicapped by a stronger euro, more heavy taxation and more tatillon regulations. It could also increase the geopolitical dependence of Europe. if it allows the United States to widen even more its advantage in the field of AI, and other key industrial areas that require energy, such as chemistry and metals.

The contrast to the European Green Deal is striking. Where Europe gets bogged down in an ecologism of decrease which confuses moral virtue. efficiency, Trump mobilizes energy in the service of geopolitical and technological ambitions (dominate AI, reindustrialisation, challenge China). Faced with this new challenge, France and Europe must quickly choose between decline and ambition.