A House Natural Resources subcommittee will hold a hearing this week to explore ways to increase oil and gas drilling and coal mining and expand the electricity grid on federal lands to meet growing power demand from “technological innovations” like artificial intelligence.
Wednesday’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing will focus on Republicans’ goal of removing regulatory barriers to fossil fuels development and new transmission line capacity and assisting President Donald Trump’s efforts to do so.
The hearing, titled “Unleashing a Golden Age: Examining the Use of Federal Lands to Power American Technological Innovation,” is expected to center on “the growing need for energy production in America given new technologies and demands on our power grid,” according to hearing information provided by Natural Resources Republicans.
Republicans have long blamed “cumbersome” regulations, such as lengthy National Environmental Policy Act reviews, for stifling progress to expand and upgrade the nation’s already stressed power grid.
