In a conversation with Breitbart News’s Washington Bureau Chief, Matt Boyle, American Petroleum Institute President Mike Sommers said the tide is turning. After years of climate hysteria, he believes that “energy reality has finally taken hold in the United States” as Americans reject the left’s doomsday climate narrative.
“We are not transitioning from anything to anything,” Sommers told Breitbart News. “We are going to need more energy, more kinds of energy going forward, and that is going to include a lot more oil and gas in the future.”
Sommers pointed to rapidly growing electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence and expanding data infrastructure. During President Trump’s first term, energy demand stayed relatively flat, increasing just one to two percent annually. But with the rise of AI, demand is expected to climb by 25 percent before 2030 and by 50 percent before 2050.
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“Natural gas is going to be the primary source to power the AI future,” he emphasized.
Boyle also asked Sommers about the International Energy Agency (IEA), which recently projected that global oil demand would peak by 2030. Boyle called that forecast “ludicrous and political.” Sommers agreed, noting the IEA has lost credibility in recent years.
“So we don’t need to get rid of the IEA. We need an IEA,” Sommers clarified. “We need better leadership. Leadership at IEA that looks at things, calls balls and strikes as an umpire, rather than as a politicized agency that is doing things that are in line with a political ideology.”
Sommers explained that the International Energy Agency was created by Secretary Henry Kissinger during the oil crisis of the 1970s with two core missions. First, to serve as a statistical agency Americans could trust for real data on the energy industry, and second, to help ensure adequate emergency energy supplies, such as through the creation of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Sommers recalled that President Trump agreed to exclude oil and gas from new tariffs after energy industry leaders made the request during a meeting at the White House in March.
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Trump recognized that energy trade is different from other sectors. His administration has worked to preserve key energy relationships with countries like Canada and Mexico, where American refineries process foreign oil for domestic use.
Sommers also raised alarm over growing pressure from Europe. He pointed to the European Union’s corporate sustainability guidance, which he described as a non-tariff trade barrier designed to export failed European energy policies around the world. The guidance could result in a 5 percent tax on American energy companies that refuse to comply.
“What they’re essentially trying to do is export failed European energy policies all over the world,” Sommers warned.
Looking beyond Europe, Sommers stated many countries still impose restrictions on U.S. energy exports. He expressed optimism that once negotiations are complete, President Trump will succeed in removing both tariff and non-tariff barriers and opening new markets for American energy.
“I think we have a huge opportunity once we get the big, beautiful bill done, to really focus on comprehensive, permanent reform on a bipartisan basis,” he concluded. “If we’re going to supply the energy that the world and the United States needs, it has to get done.”
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