Today, POLITICO Energy reporter Kelsey Tamborrino sits down for an exclusive interview with Laura Swett, the chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, after the agency released a new strategy recently for managing the growing demand data centers are placing on America’s power grid. They discuss why FERC rejected a one-size-fits-all national rule and what this historic decision means for the data center boom and every day Americans. Kelsey Tamborrino is a reporter covering clean energy for POLITICO. Nirmal Mulaikal is the co-host and executive producer of POLITICO Energy. KJ Cline is the video producer for POLITICO Energy. Matt Daily is the energy editor for POLITICO. Debra Kahn is the editorial director for energy and environmental coverage at POLITICO. Veronica Tejera is the deputy head of Audio/Video at POLITICO. Our theme music is by Pran Bandi. Follow the show on Apple, Spotify, Youtube and Instagram. Follow POLITICO here: ➤ X: https://x.com/politico/ ➤ Instagram: / politico ➤ Facebook: / politico For more reporting on energy and the environment, subscribe to Power Switch, our free evening newsletter: https://www.politico.com/power-switch And for even deeper coverage and analysis, read our Morning Energy newsletter by subscribing to POLITICO Pro: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter-archive/morning-energy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FERC's Swett explains the agency’s historic data center plan

POLITICO Energy

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** POLITICO Energy

## Transcript

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Hey, welcome back to the POLITICO Energy podcast, where we explore the stories and people shaping energy and climate policy. I'm Nirmal Malaykal, your Wednesday and Friday host and executive producer of the show. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is requiring the nation's power grid operators to answer increasingly urgent questions, like how should data centers connect to the U.S. power grid and who should pay the costs of that buildout?

Last week, FERC decided against creating one national rulebook or regulation for handling those costs. Instead, it released a strategy that would put it on the states and regions to figure it out through show-cause orders. That's basically regulatory jargon for telling the regional grid operators to explain why their current rules are fair and reasonable or to propose new ones.

The decision has drawn support from both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, and it comes at a pivotal moment. President Donald Trump and major technology companies are pushing to build more data centers in order to win the AI race. But there's growing concern about whether America's power grid can keep up and if those costs will eventually get passed on to you and me.

So today we've got an exclusive interview for you between Politico's Kelsey Tamburino and FERC Chair Laura Sweat right after she and her fellow commissioners put out this new strategy. It's Wednesday, June 24th. Chairman Laura Sweat, thanks for joining the Politico Energy podcast. We really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, and I appreciate you doing this on such a busy day.

I think maybe to start, it makes sense to chat through the decision to go with these show-cause orders instead of doing a broader rulemaking. The commission put out a notice last night ahead of this. Can you kind of talk through what went into that process and when did you make the decision to do these orders targeted at specific RTOs? Yes, that is – I would love to talk about that, actually. So I'll unpack your question a little bit.

First of all, we put out an amendment to the Sunshine Notice last night, like you said, and that was a very deliberate decision on my part because I have represented FERC jurisdictional entities for my entire career. I've also prosecuted them on behalf of FERC. And worked on them in the building here.

And I have learned from watching other chairmen and commission actions that a divorced approach fro...

FERC's Swett explains the agency’s historic data center plan

Transcript

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FERC's Swett explains the agency’s historic data center plan

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

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Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.