To highlight the importance of America’s existing grid technology and the necessary updates to keep up with demand, CRES Academy’s first session of 2026 brought together dozens of staffers and industry leaders to discuss the need to build and expand America’s energy capacity.
With CRES Forum’s Director of Government Affairs Tommy Reynolds providing opening remarks, the session was kicked off by laying the groundwork for two panels—each focused on federal policy and what Congress needs to do to deploy next-generation upgrades.
Following Tommy’s remarks, CRES Forum’s Senior Vice President Christina Baworowsky moderated two panels with the featured speakers:
- Jeff McClure,Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF)
- Tom Hucker,Senior Advisor (Contractor), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Dominance Financing (EDF)
Together, Jeff and Tom discussed how the Trump Administration is paving the way to keep our electrical grid modernized and incentivizing new business opportunities and they explained how the EDF is being used to maximize existing infrastructure so we can meet growing energy demand created by AI and datacenters.
After concluding the first panel, Christina welcomed the next set of featured speakers:
- Yvonne McIntyre, Vice President, Federal Affairs, PG&E Corporation
- Carlos Casablanca, Managing Director of Transmission Planning, American Electric Power Co. (AEP)
- Adele Borne, Director, U.S. Government Affairs & Policy, GE Vernova
The event concluded with a common theme: To keep up with the nation’s growing energy demand, we must modernize our grid and ensure federal policy backs it up.
CRES Forum was grateful to host the dozens of staffers in attendance and the industry leaders who lent their voices to this ongoing discussion.