Exelon CEO says rising energy costs can be addressed with easier rules

The rising costs of electricity and the insatiable demand for power will require new plants and technologies, as well as the easing of rules such as permitting reform, Exelon CEO Calvin Butler said Thursday.

“It’s supply and demand. We have inadequate supply to meet this rising demand, and until we address that issue, all of our bills are going to continue to go up,” Butler said at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC.

He added that the federal government could help by making permitting reform easier. Although the Trump administration has been pushing for that, “this is something that has to be done in Congress,” he said.

Speaking on the same panel, Honeywell CEO Vimal Kapur noted that it’s not only AI data centers that have created huge demand for energy; developing countries are also growing and will need more capacity. That requires investing in all forms of power generation including nuclear, biofuels, and other sources, he said.

“Everything has a place to play,” Kapur said. “If you become more philosophical — this is ‘bad’ this is ‘good’ — you lose a window of opportunity to scale something.”