McCormick comes to Washington County to promote energy bill
Asserting that the United States is locked in a competition with China “and where we’re lagging is energy,” U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick came to the northern part of Washington County Wednesday afternoon to talk about a bill he has introduced that he says will fuel growth in the energy sector and pare back regulations that dampen it.
“We’re on the verge of another revolution here in Pennsylvania,” said McCormick, the commonwealth’s junior senator, at the Fort Cherry Development District in Robinson Township. “We have to seize the moment.”
Robinson Township was the third stop on a day that had McCormick visiting the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Plant in Shippingport and the Shippingport Industrial Park. McCormick, a Republican, has been in the area to talk up the Unlock American Energy and Jobs Act of 2026, which he introduced last week. He says the measure would limit environmental review litigation, modernize the licensing of nuclear energy, set a one-year deadline for states that use the Clean Water Act to block energy projects and boost approvals for facilities that liquify natural gas.
“It shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” McCormick explained. When asked whether there was a chance the bill would actually become law this year, he said, “I think there’s a real chance we’ll get it done this year,” but said if it doesn’t happen, he would possibly offer smaller, targeted bills.
He characterized the legislation as “a grand vision of where we need to go.”
The clock is ticking for McCormick and his Republican colleagues when it comes to the bill. The party holds 53 seats in the Senate, but that could be reduced or eliminated after the midterm elections in November. Most prognosticators believe the House of Representatives, which currently has a paper-thin GOP majority, is likely to switch back to the Democrats.
“I wanted to try to put the pressure on,” McCormick said. “It’s not just about energy. It’s about America’s future.”
It was announced a little more than a year ago that the Fort Cherry Development District will be the home of a power generation facility that will meet the energy needs of industrial facilities, data centers and other businesses that use large amounts of energy. Data centers have become a flashpoint across the political spectrum, with voters concerned about the impact they could have on the environment and on their energy bills. However, McCormick described opponents of data centers as “naysayers.”
“To get in front of that has been a monumental task,” McCormick said.