“When we’re talking about data centers and AI, there is no second place – we have to win.”
WASHINGTON, DC – In remarks Monday evening before a dinner meeting of The Ripon Society, U.S. Reps. Bob Latta (OH-05) and Cliff Bentz (OR-02) discussed the growing demand for energy in the United States and the effort they are leading to make sure American families and businesses have the energy they need to be secure and successful in the coming years.
The two Members of Congress both serve on the Energy & Commerce Committee. Latta, who has been a member of the committee for 15 years and serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, opened the discussion by outlining his efforts to rebuild and fortify America’s energy grid.
“We’ve had multiple hearings since the beginning of this Congress. The same question I’ve asked everybody in the last four years is, ‘Do we have to have more energy in this country or less?’ And everybody has answered the same thing – we have to have more energy.
“Not only do we have to have more energy, but we also can’t be taking anything off generation right now. We have got to keep all generation going because when you look at the numbers out there, they’re talking about taking off a hundred gigawatts of power in the very near future at the exact same time we’re supposed to be adding on 150 gigawatts just to make it to where we’re supposed to be.”
The Chairman then discussed the importance of tackling permitting reform as soon as possible because, “if you can get the energy up, but you can’t get where it needs to be, it is a massive issue.”
He also noted that there’s a new strain on America’s energy grid: AI data centers.
“When you look at the data centers, we were being told that they’d probably be using about four and a half to six percent more of the energy out there, but we’re really probably going to need up to ten percent this year alone – and, it’s not that they only have one source of power, they’ve got to have two backups – it’s a massive amount of energy that has to be produced for those centers.
“Right now, we’re leading the world. I want to make sure we keep leading the world because when we’re talking about data centers and AI, there is no second place – we have to win.”
Latta then discussed the Committee’s “all-of-the-above” approach to energy production.
“We’re talking about bringing Three Mile Island back online. If you said that ten years ago, we’d have been laughed at, but we need to bring these on, and also Palisades up in Michigan, to bring that back online. We’re talking about everything out there when it comes to energy. We’re not picking the winners. We’re not picking the losers. Nuclear is going to play a massive role in this.”
Bentz, who is serving his third term in Congress and first term on E&C, reflected on his time both as a state legislator and as the Water Subcommittee Chairman on the Natural Resources Committee, and how his experience supports his current work on E&C.
“I saw the synergy that would exist between our two committees. In my background of twelve years in the Oregon legislature, I was on water all those years, but I also got on energy, because I realized that the future in many respects was going to be in that space. I realized – exactly what the Chairman just said – that we could not give away this kind of balancing power in that case.”
Later on, the pair of legislators fielded a number of questions, including one on permitting reform.
“It has got to get done because what good is it to be able to be the number one in the world in natural gas production and be able to outproduce Russia and Saudi Arabia in oil production on any given day if we can’t move from point A to point B? We have got to get this done,” Latta answered.
“There’s no alternative,” the Ohio lawmaker continued. “Because if you always start over at zero every Congress, we’re going backwards. We’re never moving forward. We have got to get this done because we have great possibilities – what we can do out there, not only in this country, but around the world.”
The Members were also asked to share the top concerns they’re hearing from constituents back home. Latta answered first.
“They want us to get the job done. They say they don’t want to hear it on TV. They just want to see action. They want to see something concrete into the future. And because people worry about their jobs, they worry about their children, and they want to make sure that we’re moving forward.”
Bentz, who is the sole Republican in Oregon’s congressional delegation, shared that his constituents are supportive of the Big Beautiful Bill.
“Tariffs are a great big deal in many, many spaces. For the most part, there’s a huge support for the tax bill. Huge, huge, huge. You don’t hear as much about it as you or I would like, but there’s no doubt that people believe that if we don’t get that tax bill passed, there will be a recession.”
To view the remarks of Latta and Bentz before The Ripon Society Monday evening, please click the link below:
The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.