Congress lacked authority, they could not protect trade between foreign nations and other states.
The United States historically had far less imperial actions in comparison to their European counterparts. The United States did not have massive colonial empires like Britain or France. The United States acquired some territories outside of the "continental" US however, it did not maintain an imperial presence like any of its European cohorts.
This is of course a very subjective question, but most would argue that it is rather reasonable for the EU to have been slow to meet its energy goals, since it is dealing with a large number of separate countries with different emissions patterns.
