By Gloria Ogbonna
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum warned that excessive regulatory hurdles in the American energy sector are putting the United States at a strategic disadvantage in the global race for artificial intelligence dominance—particularly against China, which he said operates with far fewer bureaucratic constraints.
Speaking at a policy event hosted by Breitbart News, Burgum told Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle that America’s energy policies are deeply intertwined with its ability to compete in the rapidly expanding AI sector. As chairman of President Donald Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council, Burgum argued that increasing domestic energy production is essential if the U.S. hopes to outpace China in advanced technologies.
According to Burgum, even major technology leaders who may not align politically with Trump recognize the critical link between energy supply and AI development. He pointed to the visible presence of prominent Silicon Valley executives at Trump’s 2024 inauguration as evidence of a broader alignment around energy and technological competitiveness.
“In November ’24, who was standing on stage at the inauguration? Tim Cook, Elon Musk, [and] Mark Zuckerberg,” Burgum said. “Silicon Valley Titans were all standing there within 20 feet of the president. Think, why?”
Burgum argued that these industry leaders understand that AI systems—particularly large-scale data centers—require enormous amounts of electricity. Without reliable and abundant energy, he said, the United States risks falling behind in what he described as an “AI arms race.”
“They all got behind electing a president that understood that we needed more energy,” Burgum stated. “We could not win the AI arms race without more electricity, and the policies that the competition was offering were going to end up with energy subtraction.”
China, meanwhile, has made its ambitions clear. The Chinese Communist Party has publicly declared its goal of reaching “world-leading levels” in artificial intelligence and becoming the world’s primary AI innovation center by 2030. In his recent book Code Red, Breitbart’s Wynton Hall noted that nearly half of the world’s top AI researchers are Chinese and that China produces nearly twice as many AI-focused PhDs as the United States.
Burgum said Trump’s focus on defeating China in AI sparked what he described as a “giant shift” among American technology companies, encouraging them to rally behind an agenda centered on energy expansion and regulatory reform.
“If we were going down a path which was continuing to do energy subtraction, we have no chance,” Burgum argued. “Now, we have a chance.”
A central part of that strategy, he said, involves reforming federal permitting processes that he believes unnecessarily delay energy projects. Burgum singled out the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which governs environmental reviews for federal projects. While emphasizing that environmental safeguards remain important, he argued that much of the red tape imposed over the years goes beyond what the law originally required.
“At Interior, as we go back and release the rules around NEPA, we found that 80 percent of what people were being held accountable for was never in the original law,” Burgum said. “If you want to go through NEPA right now on a DOI property, you’re going to focus on the 20 percent that’s actually in the law.”
According to Burgum, streamlining these procedures has dramatically shortened timelines without sacrificing legal compliance. He cited examples of an Environmental Assessment (EA) completed in 12 days and an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) finalized in 24 days—processes that traditionally can take years.
“These take two years,” he noted. “People say, ‘How is that possible? You must be cutting corners.’ No.”
Instead, Burgum attributed previous delays to internal bureaucratic practices, where documents were passed between offices with extended review periods.
“It was all like, ‘I’m going to send it to Matt.’ Matt gets back to me in 30 days. Then Matt sends it to John for 30 days,” he said, describing what he called a cumbersome government workflow.
By contrast, Burgum argued, China moves quickly because it does not face the same permitting challenges or litigation risks. “They don’t have to worry about the permitting issue,” he said. “They go fast.”
As global competition in artificial intelligence intensifies, Burgum framed the debate as more than just an energy issue. In his view, it is a question of whether the United States can modernize its regulatory systems quickly enough to maintain technological leadership in the face of a determined and rapidly advancing rival.
Source Breitbart
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