A DOGE Reboot Is Vital to Energy Dominance
President Trump’s vision to Unleash American Energy requires a functional government to execute it. Yet the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made government less functional. With Elon Musk stepping down from DOGE, now is the time for DOGE 2.0 to live up to its name. Otherwise, the president’s energy objectives are in jeopardy.
The administrative state was overdue for reform. The Government Accountability Office identified federal “waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement” ripe for a DOGE renovation. DOGE’s energy reforms should fix what is broken, including the red tape that stifles the energy infrastructure fueling American artificial intelligence supremacy. Overhauling permitting requires functional agencies, where staff deftly revise rules that reduce litigation risk and streamline processes.
DOGE should also enhance what works: agency-led reforms that lower energy costs. These require expertly staffed agencies to build robust legal records. For example, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued bipartisan rulemakings that improved the efficiency of connecting new power plants to the grid and to build more efficient transmission lines.
Public administration fails when presidents pursue extralegal side agendas that their successors or the courts quickly overturn. For example, President Biden undermined energy supply by restricting permitting and leasing for oil and gas projects and forcing infeasible environmental rules on power plants and automakers. President Trump should respond by embracing an all-of-the-above energy strategy.
In his first term, President Trump was successful when deregulatory actions adhered to the rule of law. When they legally deviated, they encountered extensive setbacks. Conservative lawyers have identified where Trump will likely succeed, such as rulemakings to reduce Biden’s overreaching environmental regulations.
To leave an enduring energy legacy, Trump’s second term needs to unleash a series of legally defensible strikes to enhance government efficiency. DOGE has often done the opposite. The courts have balked at DOGE’s slash-and-burn ambush on federal agencies. Government efficiency experts find DOGE to be typified by massive layoffs, erroneous assumptions, and abrupt reversals, whose “fire-first, ask-questions-later” approach is far from its stated goals. If left uncorrected, DOGE will be better known as DOGI: the Department of Government Inefficiency.
DOGE’s missteps reflect a fundamental misdiagnosis. The deep faults of the administrative energy state are rooted in defective statutes, like the National Environmental Policy Act, not pencil-pushing bureaucrats. No president can fix this alone. President Trump would be wise to work with Congress to prioritize statutory reforms that streamline energy permitting, right-size environmental regulation, and liberate consumers from monopoly utilities.
Congress aside, DOGE must drop the sledgehammer and pick up scalpels. The sledgehammer’s collateral damage already includes slower permitting by laying off staff needed to approve permits. Gutting bureaucracies with legal obligations erodes government efficiency. Agencies need the staff and tools to comply with statutory requirements, flawed as statutes may be. Government efficiency requires shrewd public management.
A judicious way to shrink bloated bureaucracies is to reorganize agencies to support statutory obligations only. Another is to reduce their workforce consistent with staff performance, like purging underperformers long insulated by public union rules. This boosts productivity by cutting fat, not muscle. DOGE’s initial push fell along these lines, which prompted sound guidance to agencies on better personnel management. Such discipline has been the calling card of the Office of Management and Budget to boost agency efficiency.
Instead, DOGE adopted capricious “reduction in force” measures. These obtuse staffing decisions were made by individuals unfamiliar with the agency at hand. Unsurprisingly, it has induced unforced errors that undermine the administration’s energy objectives.
Instead, DOGE adopted capricious “reduction in force” measures. These obtuse staffing decisions were made by individuals unfamiliar with the agency at hand. Unsurprisingly, it has induced unforced errors that undermine the administration’s energy objectives.
DOGE’s DOE sledgehammer now risks corroding America’s energy innovation engine. A Wall Street Journal headline bluntly stated “DOGE is Endangering U.S. Energy Dominance.” Now Congressional Republicans voice concerns over DOGE’s DOE nuclear and research cuts. A true efficiency agenda would lower DOE’s budget and increase results. This includes pivoting public funds toward better uses like basic research, bolstering performance metrics and program evaluation, and phasing-out government investment when the private sector is willing to commercialize technologies.
Contrary to DOGE’s modus operandi, additions to understaffed, essential agency functions are necessary to make government efficient. For example, industry promoted hires at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to provide expertise to modernize regulations for advanced reactors. Without it, hopes for a nuclear renaissance diminish.
A DOGE course correction is essential to deliver taxpayer promises and energy dominance. The difference between limited, effective government and gutted, ineffective government is profound. Refocusing DOGE on limited, effective government will lower energy costs, boost supply, and propel America’s technology advantage.