Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
House lawmakers will hear from an ex-FERC commissioner and a top utility trade group on AI power use next week, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The Energy and Commerce Energy Subcommittee hearing Tuesday is one of the first times the House side has touched on AI's energy implications in depth, despite a storm of industry warnings that power demand is set to spike.
Driving the news: The committee will hear testimony from Tony Clark, a former GOP FERC commissioner who's now with Wilkinson Barker Knauer, and Philip Dion of the Edison Electric Institute.
- Also on the witness list is Tom Hassenboehler, a onetime top energy aide for E&C under Greg Walden. He is on the advisory council of the Electricity Customer Alliance, a group dedicated to "customer-centric solutions to modernize the grid."
Zoom in: Republicans on the committee view this as a "background hearing" to tee up the issue for possible legislation, per a GOP committee aide.
Our thought bubble: Policy wonks off the Hill have put a lot of focus on building out transmission more expeditiously to meet the power suck of AI and new chips manufacturing.
- But that debate among lawmakers has been largely partisan, with Republicans focused on maintaining existing fossil fuel generation and Democrats arguing for transmission as a climate imperative.
- The hearing has potential to either bridge that gap -- or lock in more of the same.
What we're watching: Expect to hear about EPA's power plant emissions rules.
- When Senate Energy and Natural Resources held a similar hearing last week, industry witnesses argued the regulations could make the power demand equation more difficult by forcing early natural gas and coal retirements.
What's next: E&C aides say they don't have energy-specific AI legislation on tap yet.
- But it's already a wrinkle in the broader discussion of environmental permitting and transmission siting that's consumed Hill energy committees for the last two years.
