LPPC President Tom Falcone Testifies Before House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy

President Tom Falcone represented LPPC members and public power at this week’s House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Energy hearing, “AI and the Grid: Meeting Growing Power Demand While Protecting Ratepayers.” His testimony addressed a package of seven proposed bills focused on large-load growth, load forecasting, ratepayer protection, advanced grid technologies, and transmission planning and cost allocation.

In his testimony, Tom explained how LPPC members are on the front lines of large-load growth. LPPC members currently power more than 18 percent of U.S. AI and data center load and account for approximately 36 percent of expected new data center interconnections over the next five years. As public power utilities, LPPC members provide reliable electricity at cost and are directly accountable to the communities they serve.

LPPC urged Congress to advance policies that support needed grid investment while protecting existing customers from higher energy costs. Key priorities include:

• Promote credible load forecasts, cost-causation-based rates, and practical customer commitments. Large-load customers should pay the costs of the infrastructure and services needed to serve them.
• Support best practices and information sharing while preserving state and local discretion over resource adequacy and retail ratemaking.
• Clarify Treasury and IRS private business use regulations so public power utilities can secure prudent long-term customer commitments without jeopardizing tax-exempt financing.
• Apply disciplined transmission principles: require tangible net customer benefits, allocate costs based on benefits and cost causation, require region-level consent for interregional cost allocation, allow meaningful input from affected communities, and rely on project-specific review before mandating advanced technologies.
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Read Tom's testimony →
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Pictured above, President Tom Falcone with Rep. Bob Latta, Chair of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce's Subcommittee on Energy