Former FERC chiefs say Trump's push for control risks regulatory instability
A former Republican chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday warned against White House intrusions on the agency's independence and stressed that meeting the U.S. tech industry's massive electricity needs requires leaders to rethink partisan policy positions.
'We are about to face an unprecedented surge in demand,' said former FERC Chair Neil Chatterjee, who served during the first Trump administration. 'In order to meet that, I think both parties are going to have to kind of reevaluate their energy priorities.'
Much of the focus of POLITICO's annual Energy Summit in Washington was on how to meet a huge projected increase in electricity demand tied to Silicon Valley's expansion of computing power and data centers for artificial intelligence and for the needs of advanced manufacturing, electric cars, and home heating and cooling.
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Chatterjee cautioned Republican and Democratic leaders against digging in their heels on either side of a debate about whether federal policy should emphasize fossil fuels for power generation or focus on bringing more wind and solar power onto the grid along with battery storage and energy efficiency.
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Associated Press
36 minutes ago
- Associated Press
'Shocked' and 'sickened' Democrats react with fury to video of Padilla's removal
WASHINGTON (AP) — When videos first rocketed around the Internet Thursday afternoon showing security officers forcibly removing Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla from a press conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in California, senators in both parties were already gathered together for a long series of votes. There are strict rules against using cellphones on the Senate floor. But senators immediately shared the video with each other anyway. 'I showed it to as many people as I could,' said Democratic Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware. That included Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who she said seemed 'as shocked as we were.' The videos, which showed officers aggressively pushing Padilla out of Noem's press conference and eventually restraining him on the floor outside the room, shook Senate Democrats to the core. Beaten down politically for months as President Donald Trump has returned to power and ruled Washington with a united Republican Congress, the Democrats' anger exploded as they skipped their traditional Thursday flights home and stayed on the floor to speak out against the incident, calling it the latest and most inflammatory example of what they say is Trump's gradual assault on democracy. The incident came just days after U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted on federal charges alleging she assaulted and interfered with immigration officers outside a detention center in New Jersey. 'What was really hard for me to see was that a member of this body was driven to his knees and made to kneel before authorities,' said New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, his raised voice booming through the Senate chamber walls. 'This is a test. This is a crossroads. This is a day in which the character of this body will be defined.' Washington Sen. Patty Murray said it was the closest she had come to tearing up on the floor in her 32 years in the Senate. Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said she was so angry she was shaking. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine waved around a pocket Constitution and said the administration is trying to make Padilla and others 'afraid to exercise their rights.' Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said what he saw 'sickened my stomach' and demanded immediate answers 'to what the hell went on.' Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for an investigation. 'This is what a dictatorship looks like,' said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen. 'We have to stand up.' Pleading for Republicans to speak out against the incident, New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim said that 'this is not a time to put your finger up in the air and figure out which way the wind is blowing, to try to think through what type of reaction might come from the White House if we speak out against this.' Senate Republicans were mostly silent on the situation. Thune said that he would have a response, 'but I want to know the facts, find out exactly what happened.' Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she had seen a clip of the video on the Senate floor and it was 'disturbing,' though she said she didn't know the details of what came before it. 'It looks like he's being manhandled and physically removed, and it's hard to imagine a justification for that,' Collins said. Other Republicans were less sympathetic. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican, raised his voice when asked about the incident and said that Padilla should have been at work in Washington. He said he had not watched the video. 'Was he being disruptive?' asked South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who also had not seen the video. 'He got what he wanted, he's on video.' Padilla was forcibly removed from the press conference after introducing himself and saying he had questions for Secretary Noem amid immigration raids in his state that have led to protests. Video shows a Secret Service agent on Noem's security detail grabbing the California senator by his jacket and shoving him from the room as he yells, 'Hands off!' Later video shows Padilla on his knees and pushed to the ground with several officers on top of him. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Padilla 'chose disrespectful political theater and interrupted a live news conference.' They defended the officers' conduct and claimed erroneously that Padilla did not identify himself and said Secret Service believed him to be an attacker. The Democrats described Padilla, the son of immigrants from Mexico, as a 'kind and gentle person' and said that disrespect is not a crime in the United States. They also invoked the end of Trump's last presidency, when a mob of his supporters attacked the Capitol and sent them running. 'I have never, ever — other than January 6 — been so outraged at the conduct of an administration,' said Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz.
The Verge
38 minutes ago
- The Verge
Trump's protest threats raise surveillance alarms around his military parade
President Donald Trump's warning that protesters of Saturday's US military parade in Washington, DC, will be met with 'very heavy force' threatens to chill speech and underscores the need for protesters to take precautions around digital surveillance, privacy advocates tell The Verge. In remarks from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump did not distinguish between peaceful and non-peaceful protesters. 'For those people who want to protest, they're going to be met with very big force,' Trump said. (Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later said, 'Of course, the president supports peaceful protests. What a stupid question.') 'No Kings' protests are set to take place in many cities across the country, but organizers specifically excluded DC from their plans to draw attention away from the parade, which also coincides with Trump's 79th birthday. It's impossible to predict with certainty whether surveillance tools — like facial recognition for identifying people in crowds, automatic license plate readers that track vehicles entering certain areas, cell site simulators that collect information on mobile phones, or geofence warrants that require tech companies to hand over information on all of the users present at a certain time in a given area — will be used by law enforcement to monitor protests. The White House, through an unsigned email from a general press office account, did not answer a question about whether the administration planned to deploy surveillance technologies, but it pointed to recent remarks about the protests by Trump and Leavitt. The DC Metropolitan Police pointed to remarks this week by Matt McCool, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Washington field office, who said the agency and its partners would operate drones during the military parade. Even if it's not clear whether other surveillance tools might be used, experts say that it's prudent for demonstrators to assume they will be. Past government use of such technologies strengthens their reason for concern, as does Trump's recent deployment of military troops to Los Angeles in response to protests over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, an escalation made against Gov. Gavin Newsom's wishes. 'If we're talking about a president who is threatening heavy force in Washington, is already using heavy force in Los Angeles, I think it would be certainly unwise to rule out any potential surveillance uses,' says American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) senior policy counsel Chad Marlow. The Department of Homeland Security admitted to using drones to monitor Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in 2020. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used geofence warrants in 2022 to seek information on Android users in the vicinity of an attempted arson at a police union headquarters in Seattle, which came amid protests over the police shooting of 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake. This week in Los Angeles, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed it was flying Predator drones over the city for 'officer safety surveillance.' ICE's aggressive attempts to meet Trump's mass deportation demands, and the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles, raise even greater alarms, experts say. 'I've been helping to lead protests since I was in middle school, and I have never seen a moment of more chilling brutality, with the level of violence and militarization being directed at those exercising their First Amendment rights to dissent against President Trump's abuses of office,' says Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), sitting in front of his collection of copies of George Orwell's 1984. 'It really is taking us into uncharted territory, and I say that a full recognition that our starting point in this entire saga was an awful one.' 'There is damage there that can't be reversed' Surveillance data can be used to retaliate against protesters, and Marlow and Cahn both say that when law enforcement collects it, we usually don't find out until after the fact. Information on protesters' whereabouts and activities could be used against them, for example, to allege they engaged in crimes or assist a deportation — and some surveillance tools, like facial recognition, can cause false identifications, especially among people of color. The courts have so far blocked many attempted actions by the Trump administration. But Marlow warns that even if groups like the ACLU secure wins in court later on against the use of surveillance technology, some damage could already be done — including scaring people away from showing up to protest. 'There is damage there that can't be reversed,' he says. Protesters can take steps to limit their privacy risks. Those include wearing a face covering to weaken the efficacy of facial recognition technology, leaving your smartphone at home — or at least logging out of accounts in case it's seized — and writing down important phone numbers like emergency contacts and legal aid on your arm. The ACLU maintains a list of protesters' rights, and The Verge has a guide on how to secure your phone ahead of a protest. 'At a moment like this, we just don't know what the risks are as the rule of law in this country continues to erode' Marlow and Cahn note that these warnings might make some people reticent to exercise their First Amendment rights — but they're important to deliver anyway. 'As public interest lawyers, our role is to give people honest information. And in chilling moments, that data might make some unwilling to protest,' Cahn says. 'But the goal isn't to spread fear, and I think we also combat a lot of misinformation as well. But it's so important, not just to equip protesters with an understanding of what their rights are, with an understanding of what tactics help preserve their privacy, but with an honest assessment of the risks. And frustratingly, at a moment like this, we just don't know what the risks are as the rule of law in this country continues to erode.' It's because of this chilling effect that Cahn says 'protest surveillance is simply not compatible with freedom of speech. When you give the government the power to create a dossier of everyone who raises their voice in dissent, it's going to silence millions.'
The Verge
40 minutes ago
- The Verge
Apple's upgraded Siri might not arrive until next spring
Apple is aiming to launch the upgraded Siri that it originally previewed at WWDC 2024 in spring 2026 with iOS 26.4, according to Bloomberg. At WWDC last year, Apple showed off how Siri would be able to do things like understand your personal context or take actions based on what's on your screen. But in March, Apple delayed these features, saying in a statement that 'it's going to take us longer than we thought' to deliver them. That statement vaguely said that 'we anticipate' rolling out the features 'in the coming year.' However, SVP of worldwide marketing Greg Joswiak clarified in an interview this week that Apple was saying 2026. The company hasn't decided an exact date internally, Bloomberg reports. If past trends continue, it's possible that iOS 26.4 could arrive in March: iOS 18.4 launched on March 31st, while iOS 17.4 was released on March 5th. Apple originally planned to release the upgraded Siri in the fall alongside the iPhone 16 lineup, Bloomberg says. In reality, Apple's initial Apple Intelligence features – which, for Siri, only included a new design – didn't launch until more than a month after those phones came out. The company debuted iOS 26 this week at WWDC 2025. The biggest feature for the update is its Liquid Glass design language, but it includes Apple Intelligence-powered features like live translation on phone and video calls and the ability to use emoji as prompts to make new Genmoji.
