Trump’s Energy Council Faces Its Biggest Test: Keeping Its Own Permitting Deal Alive

President Donald Trump created the National Energy Dominance Council in 2025 to supercharge American energy production. Its biggest obstacle may now be Trump himself.

On Monday, just before the Senate passed a bipartisan permitting overhaul bill in a key procedural vote, Trump told reporters that he wouldn’t approve wind projects – a key reason Democrats signed on to the legislation.

By that evening, officials from the NEDC and others in the administration were trying to keep a fragile coalition together by burning up the phones, said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM).

“My phone blew up,” said Heinrich, one of the permitting bill’s Democratic co-sponsors. “The White House was like, you know, ‘Sorry -- he just says stuff.’”

Democrats are so far brushing off Trump’s comments. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), one of the bill’s sponsors, said that they “chalk that up to him being 80.”

“Discussions are ongoing, but it is clear that Democrats expect to see substantial action on wind permitting in the coming days,” he said.

The permitting bill is the most public effort so far by the NEDC, which has spent most of its existence working behind the scenes to speed permitting for a broad range of energy projects. Whether it can shepherd this legislation to the president’s desk, a week after the Republican Election Day humiliation and amid a West Wing staff shakeup at the highest levels, will help determine the council’s relevance for the next two years – and serves as a major test for bipartisanship in the Beltway’s new power dynamics.

“This is a test for Congress, it's a test for the administration,” said Rich Goldberg, who helped establish the energy council last year, served as its senior counselor and is now a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish foreign policy think tank. “It's a test for the ability to do something big together on a bipartisan level.”

Though the Senate has passed the bill, it faces an uncertain fate in the House, where some Democrats have said they want to reopen the deal.

The White House said in a statement that Trump had signed off on the bipartisan deal, noting that he formed the NEDC to spearhead energy initiatives such as the permitting overhaul currently being considered by Congress. The statement did not address why Trump had vowed to block wind turbines.

Trump said he supported the bill on Monday during a briefing before reporters. But during that same appearance Trump said that he would not approve wind projects – which Democrats have conditioned their support for the bill on – because “wind turbines are a major loser.” (He also sent a Truth Social post on Monday urging all senators to vote for the legislation.)

On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum broke from Trump and said “negotiations are over, the bill is the bill.” He also acknowledged that Trump has long been a critic of wind projects.

Nico Portuondo, Kelsey Tamborrino and Carlos Anchondo contributed to this report.