The current national emphasis on meeting the power demands of AI and data centers is urgent, but the U.S. must also focus on providing the energy needs of five manufacturing sectors that are key to the nation’s defense readiness: semiconductor fabrication, aluminum smelting, automobile manufacturing, steelmaking, and petroleum refining.
SAFE’s Center for Grid Security’s latest short report, “Powering Prosperity: Transmission & America’s Industrial Golden Age,” identified that the U.S. lags China in four out of five of these essential sectors.
Semiconductors are needed to operate virtually every piece of military hardware, but the U.S. holds only 10 percent of global semiconductor fabrication capacity. Current U.S. aluminum production only meets 15 percent of the nation’s needs. While the U.S. saw a decline in automobile and steel production between 1999 and 2023, the trend in China was the very opposite. In 2023, the Chinese auto industry was three times as large as that of the United States, while the steel industry was 12 times as large.
The U.S. does outpace China in petroleum refining, which the Department of War relies on steady supplies of jet fuel, diesel, and naval distillates. To compete with China’s growing industrial edge and reindustrialize, the United States requires an affordable and reliable energy system capable of meeting large scale, 24-hour demand.
Top recommendations:
- Expand transmission capacity, with priority for high voltage and interregional lines.
- Publish a National Reindustrialization Action Plan that puts industrial expansion on the same national priority level as AI leadership.
If the United States can power both AI and large-scale domestic manufacturing, it will position itself to lead the next industrial era, strengthen national security, and ensure enduring national competitiveness.
SAFE launches new report at webinar
On December 16, 2025, SAFE’s Center for Grid Security released its “Powering Prosperity: Transmission & America’s Industrial Golden Age” report via webinar, hosting a panel of speakers from the aluminum, steel, and energy industries. Speakers discussed findings from the report and focused on how high voltage and interregional lines can bring reliable, affordable, and resilient power to large manufacturers and AI clusters.
Speakers included:
- Hollie Mitchell, Manager of Clean Energy Procurement & Carbon Accounting, Steel Dynamics, Inc
- Matthew Aboud, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, Century Aluminum
- Patrick Whitty, Senior Vice President, Transmission Public Affairs, Invenergy LLC
- Moderated by: Danielle Russo, Executive Director, SAFE’s Center for Grid Security
