Congressman Brett Guthrie, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Congressman Bob Latta, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, announced on April 22 a hearing titled "AI and the Grid: Meeting Growing Power Demand While Protecting Ratepayers."
The hearing aims to address how advancements in artificial intelligence are impacting power demand across the United States while ensuring that electricity remains affordable and reliable for families and businesses. The event will examine legislative efforts to strengthen the nation's electric grid, manage costs for consumers, and improve overall reliability.
"Across the country, families and businesses deserve power that is affordable, reliable, and secure. While we work to win the race to AI dominance with China and keep the United States at the forefront of innovation, we must continue to deploy commonsense solutions to meet our industrial scale energy needs while protecting consumers," said Chairmen Guthrie and Latta. "This hearing will examine legislation to harden the grid and increase capacity, protect ratepayers from higher costs, and strengthen reliability to deliver the baseload power Americans depend upon."
The Subcommittee on Energy's hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, April 29 at 10:15 AM Eastern Time in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The session will discuss several bills including proposals such as Load Forecasting Enhancement Act (Rep. Balderson), Affordable Innovation for the Grid Act (Rep. Harshbarger), Advanced Transmission Technology to Reduce Rates Act, Ratepayer Protection Act, Fair Allocation of Interstate Rates Act (H.R. 6336 by Rep. Fedorchak), High-Capacity Grid Act (H.R. 6633 by Rep. Fedorchak), and Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act (H.R. 6529 by Rep. Landsman).
The House Energy and Commerce Committee plays a key role in shaping legislation related to energy policy as well as health care issues according to its official website. The committee has also influenced policy in areas such as energy innovation initiatives, broadband deployment strategies, environmental protection measures, telecommunications oversight, pharmaceutical pricing reforms,according to its official website.
Established as one of Congress’s oldest standing committees,the committee traces its origins backto its formation in 1795 as the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures.
The upcoming hearing is open both to members of the public as well as press representatives; it will be live streamed online via energycommerce.house.gov.
