President Donald Trump released memoranda invoking the Defense Production Act to expand domestic oil, coal, and natural gas production for United States defense readiness on Monday. The memos directed the energy secretary to implement the determinations by making necessary purchases, commitments, and financial instruments to enable the projects.

The memoranda cited a Jan. 20, 2025 executive order declaring a national energy emergency, and stated that U.S.-based oil, coal, and natural gas production must expand to avert an industrial resource or critical technology item shortfall that would severely impair national defense capability. One memorandum said, "It emphasized that our Nation's current inadequate and intermittent energy supply leaves us vulnerable to hostile foreign actors and poses an imminent and growing threat to the United States' prosperity and national security."

"Consistent with that declaration, I find that ensuring resilient domestic petroleum production, refining, and logistics capacity is central to United States defense readiness," Trump said. "Petroleum fuels the Nation's Armed Forces, industrial base, and crucial infrastructure. Without immediate Federal action, United States defense capabilities will remain vulnerable to disruption."

The Defense Production Act is Cold War–era legislation that gives the president power to protect U.S. defense efforts by expanding and expediting the supply of materials and services from the domestic industrial base, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Trump has worked to bolster the U.S. oil and gas industry since assuming his second term in office. The industry donated more than $75 million to his campaign. He signed an order aiming to unleash American energy, overturned vehicle-emissions standards, curtailed restrictions on petroleum expansion in Alaska, and removed Joe Biden's January 2024 pause on approving applications for the exportation of liquefied natural gas to some countries. In December 2024, the White House released an analysis showing that expansion of liquefied natural gas exports would increase domestic liquefied natural gas costs.

Gas prices have increased since the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran, affecting world oil markets and disrupting multiple industries dependent on petroleum production, including fertilizer. Hope for a diplomatic resolution had helped lower oil prices, and prices rose after the U.S. seized an Iranian ship.