    [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025)]
    [Senate]
    [Page S1318]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                     Energy

      Mr. President, this afternoon, we are going to vote on a resolution
    to end the energy emergency that President Trump declared upon taking
    office.
      Apparently, according to the resolution's authors, this energy
    emergency declaration isn't justified. In response to that, I would
    like to just read a headline from the Washington Post last March. That
    headline is:

           Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power.

      Let me just repeat that for my Democratic colleagues:

           Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power.
         [Running out of power.]

      The article stated:

           Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running
         short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean
         technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving
         utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to
         expand the nation's creaking power grid.

      Then, of course, there was this headline from another major news
    outlet in December:

           More than half the US faces blackout risks in next decade,
         NERC finds.

      Again:

           More than half the US faces blackout risks in next decade .
         . .
           Large swaths of the US--

      The article noted--

      could experience rolling blackouts due to capacity shortfalls during
    extreme weather events in the next decade, according to a grid
    reliability analysis released Tuesday.
           The Midcontinent Independent System Operator faces the
         highest risk of energy shortfalls starting as soon as this
         summer, according to the report from the North American
         Electric Reliability Corp., which can force grid operators to
         trigger rolling outages to prevent wider system harm.

      These aren't niche publications. These are mainstream media outlets--
    mainstream media outlets reporting on the fact that ``America is
    running out of power.''
      If my Democrat colleagues don't consider that an emergency, I just
    don't know what to say.
      As these articles--and others--make clear, the U.S. electric grid is
    extremely shaky.
      Thanks in substantial part to a movement to shut down fossil fuel-
    fired powerplants before reliable sources of clean energy are available
    to replace them, America is running out of power, even as we face huge
    new power demands. The boom in data center construction--in particular
    to power the rise of artificial intelligence--is placing, and will
    place, vast new demands upon the grid.
      A recent CNBC headline noted:

           Data centers powering artificial intelligence could use
         more electricity than entire cities. [ . . . more electricity
         than entire cities.]

      If we continue on our current course, there is a very real risk that
    we are not going to be able to meet that demand; that we are going to
    end up with widespread brownouts and blackouts or electricity rationing
    or de facto rationing forced by sky-high energy bills.
      I realize that this is an inconvenient truth to my Democrat
    colleagues. Why? Because it interferes with their plans to force the
    United States off conventional energy.
      If Democrats acknowledge that we are rapidly approaching an energy
    crisis, they might have to actually consider the consequences of their
    energy plans; to consider what might happen when you put immense new
    power demands on an already shaky grid by forcing Americans into
    electric vehicles; to consider what might happen if you drastically
    limit domestic oil and gas production, even as the Nation continues to
    require steady and affordable supply of conventional fuels.
      So I do understand why Democrats prefer not to acknowledge our
    national energy emergency. But acknowledge it or not, it is there. And
    if we don't take action, we are going to be facing some very serious
    problems in the very near future.
      So I am grateful to have a President who recognizes and acknowledges
    the energy emergency facing our Nation, and I look forward to working
    with him to unleash American energy production and achieve a secure,
    affordable, and reliable energy future with the American people.
      I yield the floor.
      I suggest the absence of a quorum.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
      The senior assistant executive clerk proceeded to call the roll.
      Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
    for the quorum call be rescinded.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.