Energy and Natural Resource Chair Sen. Mike Lee and ranking member Martin Heinrich sent a letter Tuesday to members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission expressing support for the Trump administration’s push to quickly connect data centers to interstate transmission grids.
Their joint outreach to FERC, shared first with POLITICO, shows two senators who had been at odds with each other taking a bipartisan interest in addressing energy constraints facing the rollout of AI, which the Trump administration has called an existential priority for the U.S.
It concerns Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s request under Section 403 of the Department of Energy Organization Act for the commission to initiate a rule speeding connection of data centers to the grid.
“We support the Commission’s consideration of efforts to improve large-load and new generation interconnections so that the grid can reliably and affordably meet growing demand and capture the historic opportunities it presents for our nation,” Lee and Heinrich wrote to Chair Laura Swett and Commissioners David Rosner, Lindsay See, Judy Chang and David LaCerte.
