Rich McCormick warns against slowing US AI data center expansion

Representative Rich McCormick wants America to keep building data centers, and he wants it done fast. The Georgia Republican, who chairs the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, appeared on Bloomberg This Weekend to argue that the US should continue expanding its data center footprint to maintain its lead in artificial intelligence. The power problem nobody can ignore According to BloombergNEF, US data centers currently consume about 5.9% of the nation’s electricity. That figure is projected to hit roughly 12% by 2030 and climb to approximately 20% by 2035. BloombergNEF estimates data centers could reach around 194 GW of US power demand by 2035. The power-hungry facilities are already clustering in states like Virginia and Texas, which host the largest concentrations of data centers in the country. McCormick addressed these tensions directly during a February 24, 2026 hearing titled “Powering America’s AI Future.” He argued that current permitting and approval processes for infrastructure development need to match the pace of AI advancement rather than act as a brake on it. Moratoriums are ‘dangerous,’ McCormick says McCormi...