Energy has been a highlight of the Trump 2.0 presidency. But the administration needs more cooperation from Lansing and Baton Rouge to bring its ambitious goals to fruition.

Michigan and Louisiana may not have a lot in common, but there are few places in the U.S. more critical to the Trump administration’s energy agenda. Michigan, an industrial powerhouse, needs abundant affordable energy to fuel the “manufacturing boom” that the White House is promising. Louisiana, a leading liquid natural gas exporter, is key to Team Trump’s goal to make the U.S. the signature supplier of energy to domestic industries and foreign allies.

Yet politicized lawsuits against oil and gas companies are proliferating in both states, backed by rivals and fair weather friends whose lawfare crusades are undercutting President Trump’s energy dominance agenda.

For Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Louisiana’s Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, it’s time to decide whether to get behind America First energy policies or side with powerful forces within their states that are pushing in the opposite direction.

Whitmer, widely viewed as a 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful, nonetheless quotes Trump’s call for a “golden age of American manufacturing.”

During her tenure as governor, Michigan has leaned into aspirational net-zero timelines, discouraged

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