Energy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Congressman Bob Latta (OH-05), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, led a hearing titled Securing America’s Energy Infrastructure: Addressing Cyber and Physical Threats to the Grid . “Addressing cyber and physical threats represents another challenge to the reliable delivery of energy and power. Incapacitating the grid with cyber or physical attacks will have widespread, devastating impacts, which makes security particularly vital to our nation's security, economy, our health, and welfare,” said Chairman Latta. “Addressing these threats is difficult. The avenues for malicious attack only increase with increased digitization, and the growing linkages of gas pipelines, new generating resources, and expanded transmission.” Watch the full hearing here . Below are key excerpts from yesterday’s hearing: Congressman Troy Balderson (OH-12): “Two weeks ago, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission released their 2025 report to Congress. In this report, the commission stated that the extensive use of Chinese components in the U.S. grid creates risks for cyber espionage and sabotage. As our nation looks to increase grid resiliency and reliability in the face of historic electricity demand growth, Congress and all relevant energy stakeholders must work to reduce our reliance on foreign adversaries, such as China, to meet our energy needs.” Congressman August Pfluger (TX-11): “Mr. Ball, in your testimony, you indicated that the PRC campaigns, like Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, represent the most persistent and adaptive threats targeting our infrastructure. We know that the Chinese Communist Party is actively seeking to do damage and gather intelligence. But can you describe, at an operational level, what utilities are doing differently today than has been done before to detect and to stop these campaigns, and then what gaps still exist that we need to be worried about?” Mr. Ball: “ I think the best way to describe that is that we see an industry that is evolving in its capabilities, and it’s based on awareness. We have seen a significant awakening, and I’m not saying it’s enough, but we have seen a significant awakening to the threat within our industry. And, you know, when it boils down to it, despite the sophisticated capabilities that threat actors like the PRC have, a lot of the things that make us resilient still boil down to basic practices and making yourself and our utilities more resilient. We need to continue to bolster that capability for our industry, whether it’s large ISOs or down to the municipals and cooperatives. I think you’re hearing even today how this industry is awake to that. And I think we need to continue to empower them to be able to build a more resilient system.” Congressman Nick Langworthy (NY-23): “Mr. Chairman, our witnesses know better than anyone how frequently adversaries test our defenses and target the operators who keep power flowing. As we consider these vulnerabilities, we must also recognize the broader point: cyber and physical threats don’t just expose weaknesses in the electrical system — they highlight the danger of relying on a single source of energy. When states or cities adopt policies that eliminate natural gas or restrict access to other fuels, they don’t just limit consumer choice — they reduce resiliency. Electricity is essential, but it only works when the grid is functioning. If a cyberattack or a physical incident takes the grid offline, everything that depends on electricity stops. Natural gas and propane, however, can be delivered directly to the home or facility and continue to operate independently of the electrical grid. They provide heat, hot water, cooking capabilities, and even fuel for backup generators during an outage. These fuels don’t replace electricity, but they give families, hospitals, and emergency services a critical lifeline when the grid is down. Removing these options leaves communities with only one energy source to rely on — and one point of failure.”   ###

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – This week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce is holding two Subcommittee Hearings and one Full Committee Markup. Read more below.  SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING: The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade is holding a hearing to examine ways to protect children and teens online.  DATE: Tuesday, December 2, 2025  TIME: 10:15 AM ET  LOCATION: 2123 Rayburn House Office Building  SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING: The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy is holding a hearing to discuss the cyber and physical security of our electric grid.  DATE: Tuesday, December 2, 2025  TIME: 10:30 AM ET  LOCATION: 2141 Rayburn House Office Building  FULL COMMITTEE MARKUP: The Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a markup of 15 bills.  DATE: Wednesday, December 3, 2025  TIME: 10:00 AM ET  LOCATION: 2123 Rayburn House Office Building     ###

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Congressman Bob Latta (OH-05), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, delivered the following opening statement at today’s hearing titled Securing America’s Energy Infrastructure: Addressing Cyber and Physical Threats to the Grid. Subcommittee Chairman Latta’s opening statement as prepared for delivery: “Good morning and welcome to today’s hearing. We will examine how the electric industry is addressing cyber and physical threats to the electric grid—a key component of our nation’s critical energy infrastructure. “We will look at the challenges to securing this infrastructure at a time of tremendous growth in power demand. “This hearing will inform the Subcommittee on current initiatives and practices to secure our nation’s critical electric infrastructure from the various malicious threats to the delivery of power. “This year we have frequently heard about the challenges to the reliable delivery of energy and power. “Grid operators have testified about the massive premature loss of dispatchable baseload power in our electric grid without adequate replacement. This has resulted in increased blackout risks in certain regions of the nation during times of peak demand. “Addressing cyber and physical threats represents another challenge to the reliable delivery of energy and power. Incapacitating the grid with cyber or physical attacks will have widespread, devastating impacts, which makes security particularly vital to our nation’s security, economy, our health, and welfare. “Addressing these threats is difficult. The avenues for malicious attack only increase with increased digitization, and the growing linkages of gas pipelines, new generating resources, and expanded transmission. These linkages have been rapidly increasing as the nation works to meet growing power demand, particularly from AI and manufacturing. “As the public security assessments note, the nation faces an evolving landscape of threats – from nation states to criminal and ideologically motivated cyber attackers. “Russia has long been a persistent threat to our energy systems. Yet China has become particularly worrisome. “Even as we race with China on AI, the U.S. intelligence community reports in its public assessments that China remains the most active and persistent threat to American critical infrastructure networks. China’s proxies have pre-positioned attack capabilities in American infrastructure, to be used during a major crisis or conflict. “More local risks relating to physical attacks also threaten communities and other important infrastructure. “Just two years ago, this Subcommittee held a field hearing in North Carolina to examine the threats surrounding an attack on electric substations. The attack in question left 30,000 people without power and exposed how targeted physical attacks can impact people and industry, even the military, in critical regions.   “Addressing cyber and physical threats is made more complicated by individual utilities’ particular capabilities, resources, and access to threat intelligence and other information. “Our witnesses this morning will help us understand how the industry works to overcome these challenges. “We’ll hear testimony from grid executives representing both investor-owned utilities and the nonprofit Cooperatives—which together cover the bulk of American electric infrastructure. “We’ll also hear from the head of the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or E-ISAC. This operation, run by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, provides important information-sharing services to assist industry with critical infrastructure threats. “Given that Congress has charged NERC with assuring reliability of the electric system, a perspective on what is necessary to coordinate grid security to effectively address growing vulnerabilities will be important. “We’ll hear from a grid security expert at Carnegie Mellon who has been active on the National Security Council. “And, finally, we’ll hear from the Associate Laboratory Director for national security at Idaho National Laboratory. He will provide insights into threats and into how the U.S. government is working to help industry be more informed about the most consequential risks, and to better plan and protect our grid. “Energy and Commerce has led on enactment of several laws over the past decade to ensure appropriate national attention to cyber and physical risks in our nation’s critical energy infrastructure. “This work ranged from clarifying government authorities in the Federal Power Act to authorizing several technical assistance and information sharing programs to assist utilities of all sizes. “The hearing today should inform us as we seek to update and reauthorize various provisions that aim to make the nation more secure.” ###

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Today, Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Congressman Bob Latta (OH-05), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, sent a letter to Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), highlighting the IEA’s decision to restore the inclusion of objective data analysis in the World Energy Outlook (WEO). By bringing back the Current Policies Scenario (CPS) in the report, the IEA is returning to its core mission and working to promote energy security. “Strengthening our nation’s energy security is vital to securing our grid, powering AI and domestic manufacturing, and ensuring that Americans have the energy resources they need,” said Chairmen Guthrie and Latta. “For the last several years, IEA forecasts incorrectly assumed the peak demand for oil and natural gas would come before 2030. As a result, these forecasts deterred investments by painting an inaccurate picture of what energy markets will need in the future. By finally standing up to activist pressure opposing the use of oil and natural gas to power our economy, the IEA will once again be able to provide the unbiased market forecasts decision makers rely on to provide reliable and affordable energy into the future.”   Key excerpts from the letter:   “Maintaining objective data analysis, free from activism, is imperative. The IEA has long stood as an invaluable source of unbiased data and analysis on the security of oil markets. The agency’s work carries significant weight for policymakers, the energy industry, and global financial firms. “Yet in 2020, the IEA, under pressure from climate activists eager to exploit the agency’s credibility to discourage oil and gas investment, abandoned its longstanding CPS, and began only publishing WEOs that relied on subjective scenarios that assumed different degrees of adherence to climate action agreements. These aggressive Stated Policies Scenarios (STEPS), rely heavily on policy aspirations, while ignoring market realities. “In the United States alone, oil and natural gas account for about 74 percent of the primary energy sources consumed every year, with natural gas accounting for approximately 43 percent of electric power generation. Due to artificial intelligence and other technologies, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts significant natural gas demand growth over the next several years. As you know, the EIA maintains the use of a policy-neutral baseline reference case. “Politicized and censored demand scenarios can distort policy decisions and misguide capital investment. Just last year, the Biden-Harris Administration leveraged these questionable IEA projections, while ignoring EIA data, to support banning liquefied natural gas export projects. This decision discouraged sufficient capital allocation toward critical energy supplies and emboldened Russia’s war machine.”   CLICK HERE to read the full letter. ###

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Yesterday, Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, along with Congressman Bob Latta (OH-05), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy, penned a letter to Secretary Jennifer Granholm questioning the Department of Energy’s involvement in the Biden-Harris Administration’s decision to prevent new offshore oil and gas production, leading to higher prices for consumers and harming U.S. energy security. KEY LETTER EXCERPT: “Closing off swaths of U.S. offshore areas to energy production, as the Biden-Harris Administration reportedly intends to do, will lead to higher energy prices for American families, the loss of American jobs, and greatly diminish our country’s energy security. As the Secretary of Energy, you have an obligation to weigh in on this matter and insist on a full review of the energy security and economic impacts before any decisions are finalized. “The United States stands at an energy crossroads, facing mounting global security threats and soaring demand for power. Instead of leading the world in energy production, we’ve allowed misguided “green” policies to hamstring our potential. It’s time to unleash American energy dominance again—the federal government must become an ally, not an obstacle, to our nation’s energy security. We look forward to your prompt response to this request, no later than January 10, 2025.” Read the story  here . BACKGROUND: This morning, the Biden Administration announced that more than 625 million square miles of coastline would be off-limits for energy production. Republican Members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have continuously called on the Biden-Harris Administration to end its attack on American energy production before leaving office on January 20th. The letter requests an explanation of the DOE’s involvement in the decision and whether the White House or the Department of Interior consulted with the DOE about the plans to close off access to offshore resources. Any decision to shut down access to significant American energy resources impacts U.S. energy policy and should be reviewed by the DOE. The Biden Administration’s energy policies have continued to create major harm to America’s energy production and workforce. A unilateral ban on energy production in large swaths of the U.S. coastline will have lasting impacts on American energy production and security.

“DOE is threatening domestic jobs and economic development, weakening the energy security of European allies, and strengthening our adversaries” Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee Chair Jeff Duncan (R-SC), and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA) sent a letter to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm demanding the agency stop rushing to prematurely release its anti-liquefied natural gas (LNG) study, which aims to hamstring the incoming Presidential administration. The letter also calls for DOE to lift the pause on LNG exports, which was a politically motivated decision by the Biden administration to appease radical environmental activists at the expense of American energy security and the security of our allies. KEY LETTER EXCERPTS: “Despite DOE’s prior findings and published reviews in favor of U.S. LNG exports, and contrary to DOE’s limited statutory authority under the NGA, the Biden administration’s DOE announced that it would expand its environmental review as part of a ‘managed transition’ to reduce use of fossil fuels. Recent press reports indicate that DOE is racing to complete a study on the climate impacts of LNG exports to hamper the incoming Republican administration and provide opportunities to challenge future project approvals in court.” [...] “ The results of the 2024 presidential election are clear, and DOE leadership will soon change. As a traditional part of the peaceful transfer of power, DOE should immediately stop work on any plans to expand the scope of review or add new conditions to LNG export licenses. DOE should immediately lift the ban on LNG export approvals in compliance with the NGA and the District Court order.” BACKGROUND: January 26, 2024 : The Biden administration announces indefinite “pause” on LNG export permits. Chair Rodgers immediately rebukes the decision, calling it a “gift to Putin.” February 5, 2024 : More than 150 House Republicans demand President Biden ends his de facto ban on American LNG exports. February 15, 2024 : E&C Republicans lead bipartisan passage of H.R. 7176 to reverse President Biden’s LNG export ban. April 8, 2024 : The Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security holds a field hearing in Port Arthur, Texas, with local leaders and energy workers to highlight the economic and public benefits of American energy production, including job creation. November 7, 2024 : Bloomberg Law reports that the “Biden administration is racing to complete a study that could complicate President-Elect Donald Trump’s plan to immediately approve new liquefied natural gas export terminals.” CLICK HERE to read the full letter.