Aliya Haq and Rich Powell on Energy Affordability and the New Congress

Bill Loveless

As part of that, energy affordability has become the most politically consequential issue in US energy policy.

Aliya Haq

Affordability was absolutely at the center of this election, I energy affordability was a big piece of that as well as other kinds of affordability.

Aliya Haq

I what's so funny about what it means moving forward is I think it's extremely unclear what the next Congress will actually do about energy specifically because it's all it's really wrapped up in so many other pieces, whether that's the Iran war, whether that's data centers, whether that's the fear of AI.

Rich Powell

The thing we know they could do is reform the federal permitting and transmission system.

Aliya Haq

but there's a universe where you could imagine getting to 60 votes, getting a few Republican senators to vote with Democrats on things over the next couple years.

Aliya Haq

I actually think that there's a universe where we could we could do something significant.

Aliya Haq

It will absolutely lower the costs of the entire system.

Aliya Haq

I think one of one of the reasons that achieving permanent reform in this Congress has been so difficult has been the fighting over whether or not the permits that are issued will have the stability and certainty that they can actually move forward.

Rich Powell

I think to go back to where we started, to go back to where started us, the message from the last two election cycles has been abundantly crystal clear that affordability is a top of mind priority for Americans.

Rich Powell

We we know that there's low hanging fruit before us, for example, in in reconductoring the electricity grids that we have today that could happen relatively quickly.

Aliya Haq

Is affordability a trap or is affordability an opportunity for Congress?

Aliya Haq

I think actually the affordability focus is more a sense of the rules are written in a way that people feel like they cannot get ahead.

Aliya Haq

You know, if anything like quoting someone else to say like, all candidates are tripping over their pitch forks, they hate data centers more.

Aliya Haq

That said, it is now completely intertwined in people's minds that more electricity might be helping AI and we really need to figure out this entire morass.