Representative Scott Peters

Dear [salutation],

It's great to be home in San Diego meeting with community members and organizations doing important work in CA50.

Throughout August, my weekly newsletter will feature a series analyzing key policies that affect San Diego. This week I'm talking about clean energy and the consequences of not building enough energy supply fast enough.

Energy Demand is Rising and we are Reducing Supply

The U.S. is about to see an explosive demand for electricity from new AI data centers and factories. Over the next five years, demand is expected to grow by almost 16 percent, according to Grid Strategies. Comparatively, since 2005, power consumption has never increased by more than 1 percent each year.

In the last few years, American companies have responded. With the help of incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022, they have heavily invested in more energy, including wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects. Utility companies have been counting on these projects to deliver more energy – enough to power 227 million homes. Unfortunately, Republicans' "Big Beautiful Bill," which President Trump signed into law on July 4th, wipes out clean energy investments for wind and solar projects, as well as batteries for energy storage. That means many of these projects will be cancelled – less energy when we need much more.

And removing incentives isn’t the only obstacle – there are regulatory roadblocks also. A new order gives Interior Secretary Doug Burgum sole authority to approve or reject all new wind and solar energy projects, even for the most routine activities, and even after energy companies have cleared all the other regulatory red tape. The Trump Administration is making it nearly impossible to build the renewable energy we need to prevent blackouts and lower consumers' electricity bills.

China Advances while we Lag Behind

China, on the other hand, is preparing for the energy needs of the future with a strategic all-of-the-above approach. In 2024, China developed 80 gigawatts (GW) of wind power and 227 GW of solar power. For context, a single gigawatt can power roughly 750,000 homes and is equivalent to the power output of a typical nuclear reactor. China has an additional 720 GW of solar power coming soon. They are not developing all this renewable energy because they care about climate change (though that is certainly an added benefit). They understand that in order to keep electricity prices down and prevent blackouts, they need more energy from every possible source. They understand that building more energy as quickly as possible is the only way to meet demand – and wind and solar are critical parts of that mix.

The U.S. is also not building enough transmission — the wires needed to carry all this energy from where it’s produced to our communities. Since 2014, North America has completed 7 new GW of interregional transmission. In the same timeframe, South America completed 22 GW and Europe completed 44 GW. China completed 260 GW.

Our outdated permitting laws prevent us from building enough energy supply and getting it where it’s needed most. I am working to reform the permitting process to fix that. And I’ve made it clear that Republicans and the Trump Administration must uphold the law and faithfully implement any bipartisan energy legislation – not just the parts they like.

Not only are we failing to compete against China in the development of new energy technologies, we are not even working to meet our own national energy needs. When President Trump came into office, he promised to cut your energy bill in half. But his policies, combined with outdated and lengthy permitting processes, will only send your electricity costs soaring and cause preventable blackouts. The time to build a cleaner, more reliable, and affordable energy system is now.

Scott’s Reads

The Washington Examiner dives into the history of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and attempts to modernize it.
The New York Times highlights Escondido’s innovative approach to wildfire preparedness and housing development.
Heatmap talks about the rise in electricity costs across the country and how it's exacerbating inflation.

Finally, I aim for this newsletter to be an informative, fact-based recap of what’s happening in Washington and the work I’m doing to address what’s important to San Diego. If you know folks who would appreciate these updates like you do, please feel free to forward this email or encourage them to sign up to receive them here.

Thanks, and take care.

Scott H. Peters
Member of Congress

Energy Demand is Rising and we are Reducing Supply

China Advances while we Lag Behind

Scott’s Reads

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