2026 Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO: Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.)

[applause] Thank you very much for having me here today and thank you for being here. You would not be here if you didn't care and we need people who care in this in this country and I appreciate you being here and certainly energy resources are something that is extremely important to us on the Energy and Commerce Committee. It's extremely important to us in Congress. I'm Buddy Carter. As you heard, I have the honor and privilege of representing the first congressional district of Georgia. That includes the entire coast of Georgia. Over 100 miles of pristine coastline. Two major seap ports. The port of Savannah, the number three container port in the country, the fastest growing container port in the country. Also, the port of Brunswick, the number one roll on rolloff port in the country in terms of vehicles and trucks and cars that go through that port. So, they've really found their niche there. We also have a strong military presence with Hunter Army Airfield, Kings Bay Naval Base, Fort Stewart, two Coast Guard stations, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. A lot to be thankful for. As you heard, forestry is a big part of our district as well, a big part of my portfolio. And also agriculture. All of those are very important. So, it's a great district. I tell people all the time, 435 districts in the United States, and I get the honor and privilege of representing the very best one. And I truly rem I I truly believe that uh it's my home. It's where I've lived all my life and where I intend to live the rest of my life. It's also one of the reasons why I get so frustrated sometimes when people particularly outsiders who don't know and understand how Congress works when they try to label us all Republicans care about in the way of energy is oil and gas and that all Democrats care about is is clean energy. Nothing could be further from the truth. That is not the case at all. We all believe in in making sure that we take care of our environment. As I mentioned, I I grew up in the in the on the coast of Georgia. Some of my fondest memories growing up or going fishing with my dad. I want my children, my grandchildren to have those same kind of opportunities to make memories. I care about our environment and I I truly believe that Republicans care about our envir environment. I serve as vice chair of the conservative climate caucus. That is something that's very important. A couple of years ago when the Democrats were in the majority in in the House, we had a select committee on climate change. I actually advocated to be on that committee and served on that committee. It's very important and certainly very important for us. Now, let me tell you about the state of Georgia. For 12 years in a row, the state of Georgia has been the number one state in which to do business. And there's a number of reasons for that. Yes, the fertile environment, if you will, that we have in Georgia, welcoming businesses, but also because we are able to provide energy, affordable, reliable energy to our to our businesses, and that's extremely important. And in Georgia, I would submit to you that we have a good mixture of the types of energy that we have. Yes, we use natural gas, but we also use nuclear energy, which is clean energy. Nuclear energy accounts for almost a third of all the energy that is produced in the state of Georgia and used in the state of Georgia. We are proud to be home to the largest clean energy plant in America and that is plant vogal. The first two nuclear reactors that were built in the last 30 years were built at plant Vogle. Plant Vogle along with plant hatch which is in my district provide as I say almost a third of the energy needs through nuclear power in the state of Georgia. We're also in the number seven state in the use of solar power. That's very important. We don't have any wind tunnels any any windmills in Georgia but we do use a lot of solar. We do use nuclear. We do use a lot of clean energy. It is very important for us. One of the things that we are tackling here in Congress and particularly on the Energy and Commerce Committee is the permitting reform. Look, we understand we've got to have permitting reform. It has always been frustrating to me to think that, oh, just because it takes five years to get a permit, that means you've done it correctly. You can't do it correctly in two and a half or three years. No, you can do it in two and a half and three years. you can do it and you can still be efficient and you can still make sure that you are protecting our environment. All of that is extremely important. We passed the Clear Act. The Clear Act is my legislation that that refineses the Clean Air Act and it's actually passed out of committee. We passed the Speed Act. We passed it out of the House. It's in the Senate right now. It calls for for permitting reform and it is techneutral. When I say techneutral, I mean that the permitting applies to all forms of energy, whether it be clean energy or whether it be fossil fuels or whatever it may be. It is techneutral and that is very important. It's also important to note that it is it was passed in a bipartisan fashion. Energy is we all understand we're going to need every electron that we can use in the near future. There's no question about that. That's why I truly am an advocate for an all of the- above type energy strategy. We've got to make sure that we provide energy, particularly with the advent of data centers. All of you know that data centers are a big user of energy. We've got to make sure that we can provide that energy to the data centers to make sure that we win the AI war and that China does not win that war that we win it. That is going to be extremely important. I also want to tell you about uh another area that I've worked in and that is something that we just got out of the environmental subcommittee hearing today in the energy and commerce committee and that is streamlining critical minerals permitting and that is some something that is extremely important. We actually had a hearing on that act this morning and we'll be bringing it up before the subcommittee to vote on that act in the very near future. When we think about energy, we need to think about it more than just transmission and production of energy. You also have to think about critical minerals. Critical minerals are very important in energy. Making sure we have enough nickel, enough lithium, enough of all of the critical minerals that go into batteries or that go into the energy process. All of that is very important. That's why the streamlining critical minerals act, that's why it reforms the permitting process to to allow companies to have temporary permits so that they don't have to wait for the three or five years in order to get the permit that they can go ahead and get started under certain conditions. This will speed up the permitting process as well. So my message to you today is that we're working diligently here in Congress and particularly on the Energy and Commerce Committee to make sure that we are reforming the permitting process without hurting our environment. We are working together in a bipartisan fashion to make sure that we meet the energy needs and the transmission needs of our country. We work together to make sure that that happens in a bipartisan fashion. So I appreciate again the opportunity to be here today. I appreciate you being here. As I said at the beginning, you wouldn't be here if you didn't care. Clean energy is a big part of what we do, a big part of what I'm involved and up here on the energy and commerce committee as well as as I mentioned earlier as a co-chair of the climate of the conservative climate caucus. All of these are important. They're important for me, for my district, the coast of Georgia, and they're important for our country. So again, I thank you for having me here today. God bless. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. Questions. Um, yeah, sure. Um, uh, Mr. Carter has time. If anyone in the audience has a question, um, please feel free to raise your hand. Um, >> oh, so, uh, sure. Uh, where did Yasm mean go? Uh, Yasm mean has a microphone. She's just going to bring it over here. >> Okay, >> great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> How much time do you think? >> Um, >> 510. >> Five. >> Five. Great. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Carter. [clears throat] Thank you for being here. I have a question for you. I'm from Georgia. >> Oh, what part? >> I get it. I'm in the Roswell area. So >> Oh, great. Yeah, >> I'm on the other end. But we've seen the growth of data centers. >> Yes, >> we have too. And I know you've seen it on the coast even. >> So with that growth, I'm just asking I know you had bipartisan support this year for some changes to the way we regulate them, >> right? right? >> Like bring your own energy or things like uh tax breaks for equipment, >> right? >> I can't believe they passed tax breaks for equipment again. That got overridden by the governor. What is the thinking from you guys, especially with your perspective on just allowing whatever? >> You know, it's amazing to me that this has become essentially a hot button issue, and it has. There are a lot of communities that don't want data centers because they think that it's going to use up all of their resources, all of their energy, make their energy bills go up. As you know, we have a public service commission in the state of Georgia. And that commission has passed a law that says that the the price of the energy cannot go up as a result of data centers. But let me warn you about this, okay? And I'm not advocating for data centers. We've got to work. Look, I was a former mayor in another life. I served in the state legislature. I've I've been through I've been through the chairs, if you will. I get it. I understand the heavy hand of of government, particularly the federal government. I was in business for 32 years, so I understand it all too well. I don't like that. So, I do think we need to be working with the local communities. However, I mentioned earlier, and this is what I want you to keep in mind, okay? I mentioned earlier, we're in a war, an AI war with China. China does not want us to win that battle. They want to be the leader in AI. We can ill afford to let that happen. I would submit to you that a lot of what is going on right now, not all of it, it is legitimate. There's no question about it. There's no question about a community being concerned about the water resources, about their infrastructure being able to handle some of these data centers. But a lot of what you're seeing also, I will submit to you, is the is a and and I hate to use this word, but it is China and a conspiracy to make sure that they are the ones who succeed and not us. So, I just warn you to look at this with an open mind. Yes, there are concerns. No question about it. I couldn't agree with you more. We've got to work with the local governments, but at the same time, let's not let China win this AI war. We can ill afford to let that happen. >> Thanks. Um, Mr. >> That sounds like a politician talking out of both sides of his mouth. It is. >> Fair enough. You're allowed. Um, so I posed this question uh to the panel. Um, that uh I was really interested in what they had to say. You know, permitting reform is kind of the topic of this panel. It's what everyone wants to talk about. I'm sure you talk about it constantly uh with people coming in to visit you. Um, but what's actually at stake uh from your perspective? Um, our panelists, I think, all kind of sort of oriented themselves around the idea that sooner is better, there's a cost of delay, but I'm curious to hear what you think about that idea that, you know, the longer we put this off, there'll be more unknown unknown, you know, no more unknown unknowns happening and sort of what's at stake for you, uh, you know, right now for getting this done. You know, I don't care what committee you go to up here at the Capitol. Everyone's talking about China and about our competition with China and about making sure that we don't let China overtake us. This is an example of it. And you know, China doesn't have the permitting that we have. Now, I am not suggesting that we go to their model because their model is there in the model. They just when they want to do something, the government says do it and they start doing it. We can't afford to do that. But we can do better than what we do. And as I said earlier, it's not necessarily, oh, if it takes five years, that means it's a good permitting process. If it takes three, must be a problem. No, we just got to be smart about this. You know, I I I had a business for 32 years. I had my ownies and and you talk about swimming with sharks. When you're an independent retail pharmacist competing against the CVS's and the Walmarts and the Walgreens in the world, I always stress to my employees, yeah, we got to work hard, but we got to work smart, too. So, I'm just asking us to work smart with the permitting process. Some of the issues that we're dealing with are duplicate and and and we don't need to be that that detailed on them. So, again, that that's just the point I'm trying to make here. >> Great. Well, thank you. Um there do you have time for one more? Is there one more one? We've got Mr. Tonko, your twin actually. Different shirt and tie, but uh any other questions from the audience before Oh, I see one in the back. Yes. Me and we'll go back with the microphone. Thank you, sir. >> Coming, Congressman, and you're probably the right person to ask um based on your track record here working across the aisle. I spent about 10 years working on the Virginia offshore wind project. I've represented the chemical industry. I've done clean coal projects. And I know to many people in the room that's a contradiction in terms, but we did what we could. Um, and one of the challenging things there is that the arbitrary nature of being able to just blow these projects up. And at some point, hopefully some of you that have some record of working across the aisle with each other need to come together and say, "Look, we can't do this. We can't have one administration come in from one party and blow up their work or this one come in from that one. That is just absolutely brutally self-destructive. What kind of insight can you give us on where we might be in those discussions? >> Well, let me applaud you for what I think is a very astute point. You get it. You see what's happening here, you know, and and it it really is. And I I' I'd be interested maybe maybe Congressman Tonko will will comment on this when he talks, but you know, we've we've gotten to the point now in the legislative branch where we've conceded a lot of our authority to the executive branch. And the country is being run on executive orders. And executive orders change every four years or every time you have a change in administration. Not every four years, but when you have a change in administration. That's one of the things that we've got to to correct. We've got to get the authority back into Congress where our forefathers meant for it to be back into into Congress and not necessarily so much, you know, those those scales of justice. They they get a little out of whack sometimes and I'm afraid it has happened. But but working bipartisan is in particularly on the committee that Paul and I serve on on the energy and com commerce committee. I would submit to you that the energy and commerce committee is one of the if not the most bipartisan committees in Congress mainly because of the issues that we deal with energy you know everybody needs energy health care everybody needs health care I often say as a health care professional wean a Democrat or an independent you want affordable accessible quality health care we work together on those kind of things but that's the kind of thing we've got to do we got to work across the aisle we've got to work together. It one thing I want to mention and I mentioned this that that some of these permitting reforms that we have passed have been techneutral. They apply to all types of energy, not just to clean energy, not just to fossil fuel energy, but all energy. Those are the type of reforms that we need that are techneutral. >> Thanks, Cameron. I appreciate that. >> Okay, thank you all again. Thank you very much. Thanks so much for coming to life.