It took energy to power America’s first 250 years, and it will take energy to power the next 250 years. To meet growing global energy demand, and fulfill President Donald Trump’s American energy dominance goals, America needs its next energy revolution.

America’s success is rooted in its ability to innovate – and that same spirit is shaping the next era of energy leadership. Right now, American entrepreneurs and engineers are developing breakthroughs in LNG, nuclear energy and leveraging more than a century of oil and gas expertise to deploy geothermal energy. Other next-generation technologies are also moving forward to define the future of affordable, reliable and clean energy. (RELATED: America’s Energy Dominance: The Fruit Of Freedom On Our 250th)

Here’s the roadmap: innovate fast, build here, sell globally.

In 1912, LNG arrived on the scene when the first LNG plant was built in West Virginia. Almost a century later, advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing sparked the “Shale Revolution” in 2008, unlocking vast domestic natural gas reserves, making the U.S. the world’s top producer, and laying the foundation for its modern LNG export industry. In 2022, the U.S. became the largest LNG exporter in the world.

Today, the LNG industry supports 495,000 well-paying American jobs. Here’s another way to look at it: since 2016, the U.S. has supplied enough LNG to power the energy use of about 400 million people globally. A stunning number over 100 years in the making.

Can you imagine the U.S. without the shale revolution? The loss of wealth, jobs, and security for our country would be staggering – not to mention the opportunity to reduce global emissions by replacing higher-emitting foreign fuels with U.S. LNG, which is among the lowest-carbon, natural gas options on Earth.

Building on success and lessons from the past, it’s time for America to set its sights on future horizons as electricity demand will surge by 50% over the next two decades in the U.S. alone. Just as the LNG revolution drove America’s energy security during the first quarter of the 21st century, new sources of power generation will need to be commercialized at scale to drive American jobs and energy dominance through the rest of the century.

Enter advanced nuclear technologies, which have the potential to unlock a new era of abundant, carbon-free, baseload power. Fortunately, the Trump Administration’s emphasis on energy abundance and energy security helped reposition nuclear power from a legacy industry into a strategic national initiative.

President Trump set a clear goal: quadruple American nuclear capacity to 400GW. This hinges on one question, can we build fast enough? The administration’s May 2025 Executive Orders were written to ensure we can. American industry is already responding.

Two advanced reactor companies have achieved criticality through the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program. The Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) just announced $17.5 billion in loans to help procure long-lead components for the 10 large reactors the president aims to have under construction by 2030.

Meanwhile, the EOs, along with years of bipartisan Congressional action, are also working to modernize the regulatory environment. This is paying dividends – the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a construction permit for TerraPower’s Natrium reactor eight months early. American industry is building faster than it has in decades.

We know this: the nuclear industry of the future will build on the proven foundation of the fleet we have today. Advanced reactor designs and next-generation fuels promise even greater safety and flexibility, with more affordable construction.

These technologies are attracting growing interest from utilities, industrial customers, technology companies and investors seeking dependable clean electricity in America. This is true internationally too. Commercializing these technologies will open enormous export opportunities that support American jobs and reindustrialization.

These benefits won’t come automatically, though. policymakers establish predictable regulations, create targeted support for the fuel cycle and supply chain, and allow innovative companies to compete, advanced nuclear power become the next scalable source of clean, reliable energy. Not because governments mandate it, but because markets reward technologies that deliver affordability, reliability and performance.

The comparison to the shale revolution is instructive. Before shale, many experts feared a future of energy scarcity. Innovation changed the equation. Resources once considered inaccessible became abundant, investment flowed, and a new energy era emerged.

Today, advanced nuclear technologies offer a similar possibility. If we imagine a world without hydraulic fracturing, we are reminded how profoundly a single technological breakthrough can transform a nation’s future.

The lesson from 250 years of powering America is clear: innovation – not regulation – wins.

Jeremy Harrell

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