President pledges an era of ‘energy dominance’ by boosting nuclear and liquid natural gas and opening federal lands.

President Donald Trump declared a new age of “energy dominance” by the U.S. on Thursday as he outlined plans to roll back Obama era restrictions and regulations meant to protect the environment. In a speech at the Energy Department, the president promised to expand the country’s nuclear-energy sector and open up more federal lands and offshore sites to oil and natural-gas drilling. Mr. Trump also celebrated his decision earlier this month to withdraw the U.S. from the 195-country Paris climate accord and the Environmental Protection Agency’s rescindment this week of the Obama administration’s clean-water rules that farmers and business groups found onerous.

“We don’t want to let other countries take away our sovereignty and tell us what to do and how to do it,” Mr. Trump said. Mr. Trump also issued a special permit authorizing the construction of a new pipeline between the U.S. and Mexico that would carry fuels across the border in Texas, the State Department said. The president’s intent to resurrect coal and nuclear power comes as many other countries are trying to curb their use. He made only scant mention of renewable energy such as solar and wind power, which now account for 10% of total U.S. electricity generation and a far higher percentage in some European countries. Mr. Trump’s speech caps a week the White House has devoted to energy issues. The proposals Mr. Trump laid out are in keeping with the more robust approach to energy extraction he promised during last year’s campaign and offer another instance of the new administration acting quickly to reverse his predecessor’s policies. “We applaud President Trump’s support of energy policies that secure and expand U.S. energy supplies and position our country as a world supplier,” Barry Worthington, executive director of the U.S. Energy Association, said in a statement. “An all-of-the-above energy strategy... advances U.S. energy security, but it also protects our allies.”

Environmental groups criticized the moves as shortsighted and perilous for the environment. “Trump’s dirty energy nightmare is a wake-up call for the country,” said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We get the [environmental] harm, foreign countries get the power, and big oil, gas and coal take the profits.”

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