Top White House Energy Official Details Plans to Accelerate Nuclear, Grid, and Permitting Reforms

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2025 – A senior White House energy adviser said Wednesday the administration was moving forward with a sweeping plan for “energy dominance” by accelerating domestic fossil, nuclear, and grid infrastructure projects.

National Energy Dominance Council executive director Jarrod Agen on Wednesday tied the push for grid reliability directly to national competitiveness in artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure, outlining a three-phase approach to “stabilize, optimize, and expand” the nation’s power systems.

Agen defined “energy dominance” as the United States’ ability to chart its own course in global energy markets, insulated from geopolitical volatility. 

“No matter what turmoil there might be geopolitically, there is not going to be massive changes here in the U.S.,” he said in a conversation with Joseph Majkut, director of the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The “stabilization” phase of the administration’s three-part plan, Agen said, relies on the Department of Energy’s section 202(c) authority to keep coal-fired power plants online during periods of grid stress. The “optimization” phase focuses on improving efficiency through substation and transmission upgrades. The final “growth” phase centers on integrating new nuclear generation.

“The president has some large scale goals on nuclears,” Agen said, including an ambitious target of bringing 10 new large scale nuclear reactors under construction by 2030, part of a broader effort to revive the U.S. nuclear sector.

Agen said the Energy Dominance Council was created to cut through layers of bureaucracy that often slow or stall energy projects, describing it as a small White House team that works directly with the Departments of Energy, Interior, and Commerce to expedite approvals. 

One area he said was a “top priority” for the administration was permitting reform. “Everyone complains about permitting,” he said. 

Agen said certain permitting reforms were left out of the administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill due to constraints such as the Senate’s Byrd Rule. One proposal still under consideration, he said, is “permit by rule,” which would allow projects similar to those previously approved to move forward without restarting lengthy environmental reviews.

Another priority, Agen said, was expanding U.S. energy exports as a driver of economic growth. “How do we grow our economy and our GDP by selling that energy overseas?” he asked. 

Agen said the administration views energy exports as central to strengthening trade relationships with allied nations and advancing what he called “the age of abundance” in American energy production.