Grid Reliability

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to start this speech with a real-time exercise. I wanted to suddenly have all the lights go out in here. Imagine what would happen if we did that. It would be pitch black in this room. Everything would come to a halt. The microphones would stop. We wouldn't be able to see each other. People watching online would certainly be confused. We would all wonder what was going on.

Would we be able to see to walk around, to get out? Would anyone panic? Then, let's imagine if the outage wasn't just in this room or this building, but all across Washington, D.C. At first, there would be silence, but it wouldn't take long before confusion and, perhaps, chaos ensued.

Now, let's imagine this happening in my State of North Dakota where just this week, temperatures dropped to minus 22 degrees for many days in a row. In fact, this morning was the first day it rose above zero.

What would that mean to lose power when it is 22 below? People's livelihoods be at risk. Children couldn't go to school. Hospitals would be unable to care for people. Businesses would come to a standstill. Energy production would halt. Livestock would be threatened. Homes and properties would freeze up.

It wouldn't take very long in that kind of weather for the economy of North Dakota to grind to a halt and for people to die if we had no power. This isn't some farfetched scenario. This is a real threat in America today.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation warns that two- thirds of the United States is at an elevated risk of blackouts, of not having enough reliable power to meet demand when we need it the most. This map clearly illustrates the problem.

Every area of America in red and yellow on this map has an elevated risk of not having enough power to meet demand; not tomorrow, not in 5 years or 10 years, today. This is the scenario today in America.

That is why I am on the House floor today to sound the alarm about our grid reliability crisis and to highlight five practical solutions to keep the lights on. First, let's talk about why this happening. What is driving this problem?

It really comes down to one thing: We are retiring power plants faster than we are replacing them. Seriously, it is that simple. In States throughout our Nation, power providers are shutting down massive amounts of traditional power generation from power plants that can be turned on, up or down, as needed to follow demand.

They are retiring these generators faster than they are able to bring on new generators that can provide the same kind of always-available power. Grid operators measure this availability in terms of capacity, and there are two kinds.

First, there is installed capacity. That is the maximum amount of power a generator can churn out in the best conditions. For example, most wind farms in North Dakota have a nameplate capacity of 300 megawatts. Our largest coal fire facility is 1,100 megawatts. Over on this chart, the blue line on top represents nameplate capacity.

The second capacity term, is called accredited capacity. That is the amount of power that can be counted on, regardless of conditions. Grid operators determine the value of accredited capacity. They look at performance of a generator over time, how it works in different conditions, and they determine how much of that power they can rely on when they need it the most in any weather condition.

That same wind farm would likely have an accredited capacity that is 30 percent of its nameplate capacity or in a 300-megawatt wind farm, a fraction of that would be accredited capacity. The coal facility probably comes in at about 80 to 90 percent of nameplate capacity, so about 950 megawatts of accredited capacity.

In the MISO market, this region here in red, that serves 15 States. Roughly, 42 million Americans get their power in the MISO region. The operators in that region warn that the accredited capacity, the line on the bottom here, the red, is shrinking dramatically even though we are spending a lot of money installing more and more generation on a nameplate capacity.

You can see this clearly in these two lines. The top line, the blue, is nameplate capacity. Americans are paying for that to be installed. The red line below is accredited capacity. Americans are already paying for that, too. The red line is what you can count on when times are tough, when it is 22 below. The blue line is questionable. That is dependent on the weather.

If you ever wonder why your utility prices are rising, but you face more risk for blackouts or brownouts, this gap is why. That is why NERC keeps warning us with reports, forecasts, and maps like this. MISO is in the red zone on this map. All the yellow zones also have elevated risk.

In a nation as blessed with natural resources and brilliant people like the United States, there is no reason to ever run short of power. Our whole country should be blue. We should never run short of power ever.

We will have storms that knock the power off for a time, but to not have enough power to meet demand, that is just bad planning and terrible leadership. That is the bad news today. The good news is this: We can fix this. We have the resources. We have the technology, and now we just need to act.

Here are the five key steps--the five solutions to this problem. First, we need regulatory relief. Right now, Federal regulations are strangling our energy producers, making it nearly impossible for them to meet our power demand. We must repeal the EPA's greenhouse gas rule. We must eliminate the methane fee rule and roll back the BLM resource management plan for North Dakota and other States. We must reform the new source performance standards that prevent power providers from making efficiency improvements to their existing fleets, the ones that are already connected to the grid, to improve them, to help them produce more power in a cleaner and more efficient way.

That new source performance standard is just bad policy. It makes no sense at all. These are just a few examples of Biden administration policies that have imposed crushing costs and regulatory burdens on the power sector. They are jeopardizing the stability of our grid and the livelihoods of hardworking Americans.

Second, we must reevaluate Federal incentives for energy production. Our government has distorted the energy market with subsidies that favor certain resources while neglecting others. This has resulted in a grid that is too dependent on the weather. Think back to the map from NERC, two-thirds of the country at an elevated risk of not having enough power to meet demand.

It is time to realign these incentives. Today, our grid operators are calling for more dispatchable generation, more capacity. They want to fill that gap in those two lines that I showed earlier.

Think of the MISO zone in red on my first map. MISO is desperate for more power resources that can be turned on when needed, but here is the stack of resources that are in line to connect with the MISO grid. You see this over time, it goes back to the year 2000, and shows back then there was a decent amount of gas--the blue lines are gas, and then you start seeing wind coming online.

If you go all the way over to the far side of this map, you see this stack of resources currently in line in MISO, 171 gigawatts of resources, actually more resources than the entire nameplate or the entire peak demand in MISO is currently in line.

Today, in that column, you see it is almost filled with solar and wind resources. Fortunately, some battery too, but those are not the dispatchable resources MISO is calling for and clamoring for. Only a sliver of gas on the bottom is in line to connect to MISO, even though they are desperate for more gas to help make it a more stable grid.

We must ensure that our Federal policy doesn't exacerbate this problem and current vulnerabilities that have been created by a flood of wind and solar, which are weather-dependent generation. Instead, we must support fair markets that better encourage the investments needed to meet growing demand and long-term grid reliability and stability.

Third, we need to speed up the permitting process. Right now, it can take years, sometimes decades, to get approval for new energy projects. This is unacceptable, especially when we have transformative technologies ready to go, like small modular reactors. These advanced nuclear systems are safe, reliable, clean, and capable of powering entire communities.

I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and leaders, like Energy Secretary Chris Wright, to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and accelerate deployment of these new technologies.

Fourth, we must implement rules that protect grid reliability. As I mentioned earlier, it was well below freezing throughout North Dakota this week. My State and region weathered those temperatures largely because of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power.

This chart here is straight from MISO data. It illustrates the energy that was used this week in the MISO region to meet demand. As you can see, fully 80 percent of those resources were coal, natural gas, and nuclear. That is what came online when the temperatures were 22 below to keep the power on for all the people living in those cold areas.

Yet, despite this reality, States are racing to shut down these reliable baseload power generators that are responsible for powering our communities, replacing it with intermittent resources--that huge stack that was in the queue in the line in MISO, that huge stake of wind and solar--the intermittent resources that cannot reliably meet all the demands of our grid or the people who depend on it.

I have nothing against wind and solar. North Dakota has tons of wind generation online, but it is simply not capable today to meet the demands of the grid. The people who are responsible for making sure our grids are reliable are the ones saying that over and over.

This is reckless. We need Federal safeguards to ensure before a power plant is retired, there is a reliable replacement ready to go online. We cannot afford to gamble with our Nation's energy security. Energy security is national security.

Finally, we need to better understand the growing demands of the AI industry. AI and other data-intensive technologies are driving massive increases in energy consumption.

As Vice President Vance acknowledged in Paris this week, if we are to remain competitive in the global economy, we need to remove the barriers to development and unleash the full potential of American energy resources. This means embracing an all-of-the-above strategy that includes battery technology to back up renewables, but also oil, gas, nuclear, and hydropower, whatever it takes to power our future.

Mr. Speaker, grid reliability is not a partisan issue. It is an American issue. Our security, our economy, and our way of life depend on it. We cannot be a beacon for the world, or even safe in our own homes, if we are sitting in the dark without power. We have the resources. We have the technology. Now, we must act. America can and must remain the most powerful, prosperous, and innovative Nation on Earth. I look forward to working with my colleagues to do just that.

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Mrs. FEDORCHAK. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Kim. She has lived this in her State of California, and I appreciate her bringing attention to the false choice of one or the other. We can and must do it all.

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Mrs. FEDORCHAK. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Haridopolos. We certainly need a lot of power to get out in space. His dreams and his leadership in that area are certainly noted. We need power to fuel those, too, and I thank him for being here today.

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Mrs. FEDORCHAK. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Weber for being here and leaving us with that really great phrase. The things that make America great are the things that America makes. I love that.

Mr. Speaker, we can and we must meet the challenge of a reliable, affordable, sustainable power grid.

As President Trump said: ``In America, the impossible is what we do best.'' We can do this, and we will lead the world in this venture.

Mr. Speaker, we have talked a lot about the challenges that face American energy. I want to talk about the opportunities we have, too. With an energy supply that is affordable, reliable, and dependable, the United States can lead the way on emissions reductions and artificial intelligence.

Today, I want to talk about AI. To be AI dominant, we must first be energy dominant. That is why today I am announcing my plans to create an AI and Energy Working Group.

While my colleagues are thankfully working hard on regulations, speech, and other components of AI, this working group will focus exclusively on AI and the energy this growing technology demands.

This work will be complementary to and not duplicative of other efforts by my colleagues, including the Speaker's Task Force on AI, which completed its work last December. My goal is to bring in experts and stakeholders, legislators, and other interested parties to fully explore these power needs, the current barriers to meeting them, and Federal policy solutions to help reliably, affordably, and sustainably power the future of AI. I plan to follow four main pillars.

My first pillar is: Meeting AI energy demands requires American energy dominance.

Today, AI searches consume nearly 10 times the electricity of standard internet searches. In 2024, data centers accounted for 4.3 percent of total U.S. power demand. Analysts predict this could climb to as much as 12 percent by 2030.

To put that into perspective, that would be more electricity than the entire State of Texas uses today. Yet, the U.S. isn't scaling up reliable baseload power quickly enough to support this rapid growth. In fact, the Biden administration's policies are forcing this baseload power offline.

If we don't act, we risk energy shortages, higher costs, and a slowdown in technological advancement. To secure their energy needs, major tech companies are locking in exclusive long-term power contracts.

For example, in September, Microsoft entered an agreement to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to reliably power its AI data center. While I support these types of agreements, we must also ensure that smaller companies and new players in the AI industry have access to the power they need to innovate and compete.

Meeting the energy demands of AI isn't just about powering technology. It is about powering America's future.

Now that brings us to pillar number two: A strong, secure electronic grid.

The rapid, forced transition to intermittent power sources, paired with the retirement of reliable baseload generators, has left our electric grid increasingly vulnerable to outages.

Today, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warns that two-thirds of the United States faces an elevated risk of not having enough power to meet the demand of having blackouts.

As we have become more reliant on power-dependent digital infrastructure, the stakes are even higher.

Having enough power isn't our only concern. Cyberattacks targeting U.S. grid operations and infrastructure are a growing threat that could disrupt everything from everyday conveniences to our national security. If AI is to flourish, we must prioritize grid reliability and security.

This leads me to pillar number three: This requires the right energy regulations.

According to the report from the bipartisan House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, new AI models are developed roughly every 6 months, and data centers are built within 1 to 2 years.

Meanwhile, new power plants and transmission infrastructure can take at least 5 to 10 years to build. This creates, obviously, a significant gap between the rapid growth of AI and the slow growth of the power supply needed to support it.

Our current energy regulatory environment is not equipped to bridge this gap. I know this environment well. I served 12 years as a State energy regulator.

We need forward-thinking regulations that empower both small innovators, who depend on the bulk power system, and larger firms that secure power through long-term agreements.

By ensuring a level energy playing field, we can position America as the global leader in AI development, and we can outpace China.

This leads me to pillar number four: America, not China, must be the global leader of AI innovation.

On January 20 of this year, China unveiled DeepSeek-R1. It is the most advanced large language model reportedly developed with less advanced processors at a fraction of the cost of U.S. models. This proves that China is rapidly closing the gap, and we can't afford to fall behind.

The Trump administration recognizes this urgency. That is why, just 3 days after the new Chinese revelation, on January 23, President Trump signed Executive Order No. 14179: Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.

This order overturned President Biden's mandates that had stifled American investment and innovation in AI. With this decisive action, we are reclaiming our competitive edge. It is time to take the handcuffs off our AI industry and unleash the full potential of American ingenuity.

Winning the future of AI requires bold action, smart energy policy, and a commitment to American innovation. That is why I will engage with a broad range of voices and stakeholders, big and small, to craft a legislative framework that secures our energy dominance, strengthens our electric grid, and positions America as the global leader in AI.

For those with ideas on how we can achieve these goals, my door is always open. Together, we can power the future of AI and assure that America, not China, leads the way back.

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Mrs. FEDORCHAK. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Cline for taking the time to participate in the Special Order this afternoon, especially on a fly- out day when everyone is heading back to their districts to be with the citizens they represent.

Energy dominance and energy independence is the foundation for the massive new agenda that we must move forward with in America today. It is the foundation for driving down inflation, for lowering costs of everything from housing to utilities to rent to groceries and gas. The cost of power is baked into everything we buy. It is the foundation for powering economic growth. It is the foundation for becoming AI dominant, and it is clearly the foundation for national security.

I thank everyone who participated in this Special Order this afternoon, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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