Breitbart News hosted a policy discussion on Monday titled “Harnessing American Power” with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), where McCormick said America’s competition with China requires coordinated work across government, energy, artificial intelligence, capital markets, and labor.
Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle asked McCormick about the Pennsylvania event he hosted last year, which drew more than $90 billion in commitments, and what those investments mean for the Commonwealth going forward.
McCormick said the Pennsylvania event brought together President Donald Trump, most of his Cabinet, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), energy executives, AI and hyperscaler leaders, investment executives, global investors, and national labor leaders.
McCormick said two points stood out from the Pennsylvania event.
“First…I think it’s the first time to my knowledge that you had that level, the president, the cabinet, but also leaders, not just from energy, but from AI, and from the world of capital markets and labor leadership all in the same room, and that’s what it takes,” he said.
“By the way, it was bipartisan,” McCormick continued. “This is a team sport. If we’re going to win in this existential battle with China, we need to get all those people today. We can’t get the AI companies out on their own or the energy companies out. Everybody needs to be integrated. This is like winning World War Two. That’s the kind of integration across America to be able to persevere.”
McCormick also described the scale and focus of the investment commitments, saying energy infrastructure made up more than half of the total.
“Second thing in the investment, there’s $92 billion. $50 billion of the $92 billion was energy infrastructure. So, we have to invest enormously to be able to keep up with the demand. $40 billion was in data centers,” McCormick stated.
He explained the energy infrastructure component included both new production capacity and transmission needs.
“And on the energy infrastructure side, there’s new production capability,” McCormick said. “I want to talk about some of the things going on there. It’s remarkable. But there’s also the transmission and having the energy infrastructure to be able to keep up with this demand.”
“By most estimates, I think the energy demand is supposed to triple the next 15 years or so, so the transmission and everything along with that needs to keep up,” he added.
“And I think with President Trump’s leadership, we’re in the right direction, but it can’t be done by executive order alone,” McCormick remarked. “There’s got to be a lot of congressional work, permitting reform, and lots of things to make it reality.”
Read the full article here