Electric Supply Chain Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. LATTA. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of my legislation, H.R. 3638, the Electric Supply Chain Act.
My legislation would direct the Department of Energy to conduct ongoing assessments and report to Congress on all matters affecting the supply chain for the power sector.
The Electric Supply Chain Act will seek to uncover risks, vulnerabilities, and security considerations in the availability of manufactured grid components that are necessary to maintain and expand our electric infrastructure.
As part of the comprehensive evaluation of supply chains, the Secretary would maintain discretion over the appropriate office in DOE with the right expertise necessary to complete the assessment.
In addition, the legislation will leverage power sector experts spanning the industry to improve DOE's understanding and strengthen supply chains that are essential to meet the growing needs of our bulk power system.
During my tenure in Congress, I have remained focused on the security of the bulk power system and have championed efforts to enhance the resilience of our systems, particularly for small and rural utilities.
The Electric Supply Chain Act will boost these efforts by putting DOE in the driver's seat to attentively monitor emerging threats and allow the Department to utilize their existing authorities to address vulnerabilities.
In recent years, we have seen how supply chain constraints and bottlenecks for key grid components, such as distribution transformers and natural gas turbines, can stifle infrastructure development.
By establishing periodic assessments under this legislation, the Department will remain in a proactive posture to identify and address matters affecting our power sector supply chain as they arise. In fact, in the last 2 months, DOE has taken 52 actions to secure our grid and lower energy prices.
It is clear that our Nation is on the precipice of great technological advancements that are straining our electricity supplies, primarily driven by energy-intensive users such as data centers and domestic manufacturing.
The timing of projected demands is occurring as historic levels of baseload power are leaving the system due to a confluence of State and Federal actions that have attacked fossil fuels and subsidized preferred sources of intermittent generation.
In fact, while 115 gigawatts of baseload power is expected to retire over the next few years, U.S. electricity demand is projected to increase by over 170 gigawatts.
These job-creating industries remain vital to economic prosperity and our national security. We cannot sit idly by while our adversaries seek to gain competitive advantage to control the next-generation economy.
This legislation takes an important step to prepare our Federal agencies against supply chain constraints that could occur as our Nation seeks to address timely development of electric generation and transmission infrastructure.
Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3638.
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