During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) spoke about the growing energy demand to fuel artificial intelligence development.
00:00Mr. President, I came to the floor to talk about a different topic, but listening to the minority leader, I couldn't help myself but to talk about just how far to the left the Democrats have gone.
00:13And so it's no surprise that they're at their lowest level ever in the polls, front page of the Wall Street Journal this weekend.
00:21Democrats at an all-time low in the history of polling, in terms of people who identify with the Democrat Party and who reject the Democrat Party.
00:30Only one in three accept what the Democrats are preaching.
00:35Sixty-three percent of the American people do not identify with that at all, and that's no surprise.
00:42Given the Democrats' goal of raising taxes, making illegal immigration easier for people to continue to recruit more illegal immigrants to this nation by a lot of free things that the Democrats want to continue to do.
00:57But that's not the reason I came to the floor today, Mr. President.
01:00I came to the floor to talk about another critical issue facing our nation.
01:05And, Mr. President, that's to speak about an arms race, an arms race that America is currently engaged in.
01:12It's an arms race regarding artificial intelligence.
01:18And energy is the ammunition in that arms race.
01:22Whoever powers the AI revolution will win the AI arms race.
01:29As we unleash affordable, reliable American energy, America will lead the world when it comes to artificial intelligence.
01:37The fact is, artificial intelligence takes power, brain power, computing power, and above all else, it takes literal power, energy, electricity, to power these powerful computers.
01:53Artificial intelligence is ground-breaking technology.
01:57It's more than just chatbots and search engines.
02:00It is next-generation defense systems.
02:03It's life-saving medical breakthroughs.
02:05It's revitalized manufacture and real-time data.
02:08These are huge advantages of artificial intelligence.
02:12But to harness artificial intelligence's potential, we need computer servers.
02:17And to power those servers, we need energy and lots of it.
02:20Because of AI, we're seeing the biggest surge of energy demand in decades.
02:26The New York Times put it this way in a story.
02:28It was on front page of the New York Times.
02:30It said, in the next five years, new demand for energy, including demand power to power AI, will be like adding another California to the electric grid.
02:41That's how much energy we need, Mr. President.
02:44So the question for this body is simple.
02:47Where is the energy going to come from?
02:48Now, my Democrat colleagues, they're going to hate what I'm going to say.
02:52Because adequate energy is not going to come from windmills and wishful thinking.
02:58It's not going to come from climate mandates or from Chinese solar panels.
03:04Democrats tried that during the Biden administration.
03:07Remember, Joe Biden told the Environmental Protection Agency to prioritize climate over energy that was affordable, available, and reliable.
03:16How'd that turn out?
03:17Well, Mr. President, as you remember, as a result, energy prices rose 31 percent in the four years of the Biden administration.
03:27Today, our energy grids, because of what the Biden administration did, are stressed, stretched, and strained.
03:38One informed advisor said this week, the largest grid in America simply has no new capacity to meet the new demand.
03:51America's going to lose the AI race unless we break our dependence on foreign minerals and foreign energy.
03:56The energy we need is not going to come from Democrat Green Deal fantasies.
04:02It's going to come from America's energy breadbasket.
04:05My home state of Wyoming is at the heart of America's energy breadbasket.
04:10It's where America's energy future begins.
04:14Wyoming has powered America for more than a century.
04:16And now, once again, Wyoming is answering the call.
04:20We're drilling, we're mining, we're producing, and we are building.
04:23Earlier this month, I visited Brook Mine.
04:26It's located just outside Sheridan, Wyoming.
04:29The Brook Mine is the first new coal mine in Wyoming in 50 years.
04:33It's also the first rare earth mineral mine in America in 70 years.
04:38This mine holds over a billion tons of coal and nearly two million tons of critical rare earth minerals.
04:48This is how Republicans are bringing jobs, energy, and security back to America.
04:55We're doing so at a time when the world needs American energy more than ever.
05:00President Trump just this weekend announced a historic energy trade deal with the European Union.
05:05President Trump secured an agreement for the EU to buy $750 billion of American energy.
05:14The deal also brings $600 billion in new investments right here home into the United States.
05:21President Trump is a master dealmaker, and he's proved so once again this week.
05:28Wyoming energy workers are ready to power the world.
05:32And it's not just with our allies abroad.
05:34Private companies are announcing historic investments in America because of our pro-growth Republican policies.
05:41Just look at what Senator Dave McCormick has been able to do with his successful summit in Pennsylvania this month.
05:46We've seen the stories.
05:47We've seen the headlines.
05:48We've seen the reports in terms of what Dave McCormick is able to do in Pennsylvania with energy.
05:54He brought members of industry together to focus on energy innovation.
05:57That made commitments, and they made commitments to invest more than $90 billion right here in America.
06:04That's good for our grid.
06:05It's good for our economy.
06:07And it's good for American workers.
06:10This moment goes beyond technology or trade.
06:12This is about the future of our freedoms.
06:14While America invests in innovation, China continues to pursue censorship, surveillance, and state control.
06:24This week in Shanghai, China released plans for a so-called world AI cooperation organization.
06:33Let's be realistic here, Mr. President.
06:36President, China's vision of AI is not about cooperation.
06:41It's about domination and control.
06:44Their AI policy is built on oppression.
06:49Ours is built on freedom, privacy, innovation.
06:54America must lead the AI revolution.
06:57And President Trump recently announced an AI action plan.
07:01The plan releases American innovators from the painful, punishing regulations they've been living under.
07:08It tears down barriers to building new data centers.
07:11It encourages more private investors.
07:13Most importantly, it recognizes America's AI future depends on America's energy future.
07:20Republicans have made great progress in unleashing American energy.
07:24But, Mr. President, as you know, this is only the beginning.
07:27Because American workers are fueling American AI dominance with American energy dominance.
