Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told members of the Petroleum Club of Houston on Friday that the Trump administration’s “energy dominance” doctrine is anchoring its broader economic agenda and shielding the United States from foreign shocks.
Bessent contrasted Texas with California, describing the two states as illustrations of opposing policy paths. He said California’s foreign oil imports have tripled over the past two decades, its output has fallen by more than 75%, and half of its refineries have closed. Texas, he said, now produces more than 20 times as much as California.
The secretary pointed to migration and corporate relocation patterns, saying a taxpayer moves to Texas every five minutes as two leave California. He also noted that Texas led the nation in job gains last year while California led in layoffs, and that Texas recently became home to the most Fortune 500 companies in the country, according to remarks posted by the Treasury Department.
Bessent said private-sector employment has grown by more than 900,000 since Inauguration Day and that real GDP has risen by 2.6% over the past four quarters. He described the administration’s strategy as resting on three pillars: tax, trade, and deregulation.
On energy policy, Bessent said the administration has opened hundreds of millions of acres to oil and gas production, approved 6,000 new drilling permits, withdrawn from restrictive global agreements, and reduced regulatory costs by trillions. He said the United States is now the world’s largest producer and exporter of petroleum, with natural gas production expected to reach record highs this year and next.
Bessent tied energy supply to future industrial and technological growth. He said the artificial intelligence boom is expected to raise U.S. energy demand by 50% by 2040, while industrial power consumption could grow by up to 3% annually amid reshoring.
“The AI race may be accelerated by the elegance of our code, but it will be won by the abundance of our energy,” Bessent said.
The secretary also framed energy production as a national security matter, saying domestic output has cushioned the economy against recent shocks tied to Iran. He cited a Boston Fed assessment from the prior week that he said affirmed domestic production has blunted the impact of energy-price swings.
Bessent said the European Union imported a record 57% of its liquefied natural gas from the United States during President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, and that Asian nations signed more than $56 billion in new energy deals.
“The age of managed decline is over. We are choosing abundance over scarcity,” Bessent said. ” And as we work to unleash American energy, Texas will go from holding the line to leading the charge.”
