00:00 - This program has been paid

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00:05 - Welcome to PMA perspective, your weekly half hour news

00:08 - program on Pennsylvania business, government and politics.

00:12 - I'm your host, David Taylor, president

00:13 - and CEO of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association.

00:17 - Later on, PMA Carl Moreira discusses Pennsylvania's opportunity

00:21 - with artificial intelligence,

00:23 - with Brian Kennedy of the Pittsburgh Technology Council.

00:26 - But first, you will see my news maker interview

00:29 - with Tom Clark, Canada's Consul general for Pennsylvania.

00:32 - PMA perspective starts now.

00:36 - You're watching PMA perspective, a statewide source

00:39 - for business, government, and policy news.

00:52 - Newsmaker interviews

00:53 - with your host David and Taylor, and reports from the field

00:57 - with PMS Carl Moreira and Joy Johnson.

01:00 - From our studios in Harrisburg.

01:03 - PMA perspective starts now.

01:05 - I want to welcome Tom Clark, the Consul General of Canada, whose region includes

01:10 - servicing Pennsylvania.

01:12 - It's always so nice to have you here in Harrisburg.

01:14 - I love being in Harrisburg, and I'm glad to be back in this room with you as well.

01:18 - Well, thank you, sir. And for the viewers.

01:19 - Let's just talk about what has your itinerary in Pennsylvania

01:23 - been like this trip?

01:24 - Well, on this trip it is.

01:27 - I had the wonderful privilege of being able to address the house,

01:33 - which was my

01:34 - opportunity to update legislators in terms of

01:39 - how Canada is seeing the world, how Canada is seeing the relationship

01:42 - in North America, but more particularly how we are integrating

01:46 - continue to integrate with Pennsylvania on a business level.

01:49 - And so that sort of a an update I love giving when I, when I come here,

01:54 - and then you try and meet as many people as you possibly can.

01:58 - But the nice thing about where I am and the fact that I'm responsible

02:01 - for Pennsylvania

02:03 - is that if I missed a conversation this week, I can always have it next week.

02:06 - So, you know, it's a continuing conversation.

02:09 - I want to make clear to the to the viewers who might not know,

02:12 - they probably have a feeling, but they might not know for sure

02:15 - that Canada is Pennsylvania's largest international trading partner.

02:20 - It is, and we are the largest customer in Pennsylvania.

02:24 - We are larger than the next four countries combined.

02:29 - So we are way and above the biggest,

02:33 - not only importer of Pennsylvania goods.

02:36 - Our trade is pretty balanced, by the way, in terms of the in and out

02:40 - between Canada and and Pennsylvania.

02:43 - We're we're we're pretty much right on balance.

02:46 - So it's fair trade.

02:47 - Yes. Number one mutually beneficial hugely beneficial.

02:51 - It's growing.

02:53 - We have increased our trade with Pennsylvania in the last

02:56 - five years or seven years,

02:59 - by more than 25%.

03:01 - And, which is always good.

03:03 - It's growing and moving, always moving in the right direction.

03:06 - And then the last thing we've got that is not evident.

03:10 - You don't see it on the streets, but we're big investors.

03:14 - We've got some of the biggest, pension funds in the world.

03:19 - Believe it or not, from Canada, but we do.

03:21 - We're the biggest investor in the United States.

03:23 - We are bigger than Japan.

03:25 - We have more money invested in the United States

03:29 - than any other country in the world.

03:31 - And we are a lot of that money is invested in Pennsylvania.

03:34 - You don't see it.

03:35 - It's not, you know, there's not a big sign saying 30% of this is funded

03:40 - by Canadian, taxpayers,

03:43 - or teachers or whoever, but

03:46 - we are heavily invested in Pennsylvania, you know, and as you say, that the

03:50 - the trade, moves in both directions, but also from,

03:55 - you know, the concern of manufacturers is that, you know, there are many inputs

03:59 - that go into making a finished goods and that a lot of those,

04:03 - you know, suppliers,

04:05 - you know, are sending us goods from Canada to be part of our manufacturing

04:08 - processes, around 70%

04:11 - of everything that we sell into the United States.

04:14 - And that would apply to Pennsylvania 70% and up as inputs

04:19 - in American products that are then sold around the world. Yes.

04:23 - So a huge amount of the inputs into manufacturing in Pennsylvania

04:29 - come from Canada.

04:30 - Tom, let's talk about the opportunities that you see for, for

04:34 - continued growth and continued expansion of that partnership.

04:39 - Well, let's start with the number one issue.

04:42 - When you're looking at the economy of the future, and that is energy.

04:46 - Everybody is saying we need it and we don't have enough.

04:49 - But there are tremendous energy opportunities in Pennsylvania.

04:52 - You have natural gas supplies that you can tap.

04:55 - You've got all sorts of other things that you're developing and moving,

04:59 - but think of what it would be like if

05:03 - our energy goals were somehow

05:09 - united.

05:10 - What if we had coordinated energy policy

05:13 - so that somebody building in in Pennsylvania might say,

05:18 - you know, I'd love to do this, but the draw on the grid is, you know, I

05:22 - it would be too expensive or not available to me.

05:25 - One phone call could take care of that.

05:27 - We are by far the biggest supplier of oil to the United States of any other country

05:31 - in the world.

05:32 - 56% of American imported oil comes from Canada.

05:36 - So start with that.

05:38 - And then we, you know,

05:39 - variously, you know, we're doubling down in some parts of the country on nuclear.

05:43 - We're going very big on nuclear.

05:45 - We have,

05:47 - you know, green renewable energy coming from Quebec, the hydroelectric power.

05:51 - And so. Yes. But we're facing this as well.

05:54 - So we're actively building more and more supply.

05:59 - And I think that, you know, we're we're all in this together.

06:02 - We ought to get to the same place and we got the same problem.

06:06 - We've got collectively

06:08 - between us a lot of resources.

06:12 - And so I think we just have to be smarter about saying, how can we maximize the

06:17 - the resources that we do have collectively between the, between the two countries?

06:22 - So rather than seeing ourselves as competitors, let's see ourselves

06:26 - as collaborators.

06:27 - And I think it's just always worthy of mention that,

06:33 - that Canada and the US that, you know,

06:36 - that history has made us neighbors, but we choose to be friends.

06:40 - And of any, you know, two nations on earth, despite the,

06:44 - you know, meaningful differences between the character of our nations,

06:49 - we are probably more similar

06:53 - to one another than any other set of nations.

06:56 - I can think of in the world.

06:58 - And so as a result, it makes all the sense in the world that when the U.S.

07:03 - is looking at,

07:05 - you know, international relations, whether it's political, military

07:09 - or economic, that we would turn first to our neighbor,

07:14 - our largest trading partner, our our closest friend.

07:17 - Chances are we're already there. Yeah.

07:18 - I mean, when you take a look at security, we're embedded with American security,

07:24 - because American security is Canadian security.

07:27 - A threat to the United States is a threat to Canada, and vice versa.

07:30 - We treat it that way.

07:31 - Yeah.

07:31 - Security is about the security of North America.

07:34 - That's number one.

07:35 - And, you know, we have decades, in fact, over 100 years of,

07:42 - proof of concept that collaboration works.

07:47 - And so I think we have an opportunity

07:52 - to create the wealthiest economic unit

07:55 - that the world has ever seen

07:58 - in North America.

08:00 - But we have to stop putting the puck in our own net,

08:04 - because that is stopping us collectively from where we want to go.

08:09 - But if we can do that, if we can sort of recognize the fact

08:13 - that America has built

08:16 - the most incredible economic unit that the world has ever seen.

08:21 - But we could probably if we're smart, we could tell that. Yes.

08:25 - And so, and of course, the critical instrument

08:29 - that we have, in place is the trade agreement between,

08:34 - the US, Canada and Mexico.

08:35 - Could you just give an update on where everything stands with that?

08:39 - So it was baked into the first agreement that,

08:43 - President Trump signed in his first term, the Usmca, it's called here.

08:48 - We have a different name for it.

08:50 - And what they

08:52 - decided then was that six years in, on July 1st,

08:55 - all the parties would sit down and say, is it good the way it is?

08:59 - If so, great thumbs up. Let's just keep on going.

09:02 - Did they choose Canada Day on purpose? Well,

09:05 - I'm not sure about that.

09:06 - I think I think it's, you know,

09:09 - just chatting, you know,

09:11 - something about that, but.

09:14 - Okay, so the one revision we'll put in is we want the next review to be on

09:18 - July 4th.

09:18 - Very good.

09:19 - Okay. Fair enough. No. But here's the thing.

09:21 - So you've got a couple of choices.

09:23 - You can just look at it and say, yeah, it's good.

09:25 - Let's just keep on going.

09:26 - You could look at it and say, you know,

09:28 - we could tweak a little bit here, a little bit here.

09:30 - You know,

09:30 - we should put in some language on AI perhaps, which is what we want to do.

09:35 - I know the Americans want to take a look at some agricultural and some dairy.

09:40 - These are stuff. This is not a negotiation.

09:42 - This is just a review process, right?

09:45 - The deal itself goes until at least 2036.

09:50 - And the only thing that

09:52 - we don't want to happen, and I don't think the Americans want this to happen

09:57 - either, is that you go through this review every single year,

10:02 - and the point of a good trade deal is that it is predictable. Yes.

10:07 - You know, what's going to happen, that it's in perpetuity.

10:11 - It's a it's bedrock.

10:12 - You can make your business plans five years out, ten years out,

10:16 - knowing more or less what the landscape is going to be.

10:19 - So what we're trying to do, with, with the United States and with Mexico,

10:24 - who's the third partner in all of this, is to build a really resilient good,

10:29 - you know, updated version of this that will see us through easily to 2036.

10:35 - And hopefully the people who are sitting around

10:36 - the table in 2036 will say, let's just keep this going for ten years.

10:40 - Yes. So that's that's the objective.

10:42 - July 1st is the date when that decision will be made.

10:46 - Okay.

10:47 - So, as you continue your travels, where are you headed next?

10:51 - Well, I'm headed back to New York City,

10:55 - where I live with my team.

10:58 - The one thing I really would love to say to your viewers, though,

11:02 - is don't think that because we're in New York City

11:05 - that we're only interested in New York City. Understood.

11:07 - We are very, as I said, right at the beginning,

11:10 - we are deeply invested in Pennsylvania.

11:14 - We care a lot.

11:15 - This is really this is really important to us.

11:18 - So that, you know, I treat my office in New York

11:23 - as the office of Canada, Pennsylvania relationships in New York.

11:28 - We've got material, we've got data.

11:31 - We've got all sorts of expertise,

11:34 - that is at the disposal of manufacturers and business people in general.

11:39 - In in Pennsylvania.

11:41 - Where easy to find where the consulate general of Canada in New York City.

11:46 - Lexington and 46 if anybody knows New York.

11:48 - What's the website?

11:50 - The website is.

11:51 - Well, you could write to me directly. Okay.

11:54 - Right to the top.

11:55 - So yeah, these these.

11:56 - It's Tom Dot Clark. Clark.

12:00 - At international dot GC okay.

12:04 - Outstanding. That comes right to me. All right.

12:07 - And I'm happy

12:08 - then to make sure it gets into the right hands

12:10 - of whoever needs outstanding top to talk to the man at the top.

12:13 - Yeah.

12:13 - Consul general Tom Clark, thanks so much for being with us.

12:16 - It is my pleasure.

12:17 - I always enjoy this conversation.

12:19 - Until next time. You bet.

12:23 - Every AI interaction streamed movie, every document that you save,

12:27 - every Google search that you make, is sustained by

12:30 - a very physical network of infrastructure that has to be built somewhere,

12:34 - and increasingly, that somewhere is here in Pennsylvania.

12:39 - I'm joined by Brian Kennedy, senior vice president for operations

12:42 - and government affairs

12:43 - at the Pittsburgh Technology Council, to talk more about this important topic.

12:47 - Brian has an incredibly impressive resume.

12:49 - He previously served as director of community and Economic development

12:52 - for the US Senate, and held leadership roles with the Ben Franklin.

12:56 - Technology Development Authority and the local Government Academy.

12:59 - He also mentors emerging global leaders through the German Marshall Fund.

13:03 - Brian, thank you so much for lending your expertise today on PMA perspective.

13:07 - Hey, thank you for having me here.

13:09 - And thank you for everything you do on behalf of manufacturers in Pennsylvania.

13:12 - Well, let's let's just jump right in.

13:13 - You describe Pennsylvania as building the backbone of the future economy.

13:19 - What does that actually mean in practical terms?

13:21 - We talking in separate buckets when we talk about AI

13:25 - and when we talk about data centers. Right.

13:27 - There's all this as if they're almost completely different things.

13:31 - And the reality is AI are data centers, and data centers are manufactured goods.

13:37 - The the the

13:38 - world of AI is intrinsically linked to, I think, as you put it,

13:43 - the things that Pennsylvania already does exceptionally

13:46 - well, right, in terms of manufacturing the world's energy grid.

13:50 - And so we've here at the Pittsburgh Technology Council,

13:53 - we've been talking a lot about George Westinghouse, right.

13:57 - George Westinghouse in this Empire of Lights, that he built here

14:01 - in, in Pennsylvania that grew to be an empire of tens of thousands of jobs.

14:06 - And that literally electrified America.

14:09 - And I do think that industry has been,

14:13 - you know, in kind of a subdued mode for so many decades

14:17 - that people, even in Pennsylvania, have forgotten that the world's energy

14:21 - grid is built right here.

14:22 - It was invented here. It's built here.

14:24 - And when an industry comes along that needs electricity,

14:28 - that spells nothing but job creation for western Pennsylvania.

14:31 - And so we're very excited not only about how AI is going

14:35 - to transform the economy, it's going to transform learning.

14:39 - It's going to be an amazing equalizer

14:42 - in so many different ways, for people across the planet.

14:45 - But thinking selfishly, AI is great for Western Pennsylvania

14:49 - because we're going to be building that future right here.

14:52 - So we talk about the cloud, right?

14:55 - And all that information kind of being stored digitally.

14:59 - But the cloud isn't something that's abstract.

15:02 - There's actually something

15:03 - very physical in nature about it and the infrastructure behind it.

15:07 - Explain to the viewers what that looks like.

15:10 - Let's talk about right now what we're doing here right now.

15:13 - Right.

15:13 - We're having a live video call that, was when I was a kid.

15:18 - Science fiction. Right.

15:19 - They they would do it, but you couldn't really do it.

15:22 - Video calls themselves were actually invented by a Pittsburgh company.

15:27 - So any time we're communicating with each other,

15:30 - any time we're doing anything that requires processing,

15:32 - that requires hardware, hardware that changes and evolves,

15:36 - you know, every 2 to 3 years, it's completely different technology.

15:40 - It needs to be built somewhere.

15:42 - Unfortunately, you know, we've been comfortable

15:45 - in America with building that in other parts of the world.

15:48 - But today that manufacturing, by and large, is going

15:52 - to start moving back to the United States for a whole host of reasons.

15:55 - But the very first component of it, right, which is power,

15:59 - is something that you just can't steal, right?

16:01 - We are producing the nuclear power, the gas, natural gas power.

16:05 - So Western PA literally benefits when people need power.

16:11 - When when folks call up that that power switch, they're calling Pittsburgh.

16:16 - So our study I think that you referenced, you know, we joined forces

16:20 - with the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technology to kind of gauge a scale.

16:24 - Right? Here's some of the things we found.

16:26 - Pennsylvania exports more electricity,

16:30 - more electricity than any state in the Union.

16:33 - Now, one hand, that's great, right?

16:34 - It means we're importing people's money, right?

16:36 - People are paying us to power their great things.

16:39 - On the other hand, it's not a great sign.

16:41 - There's a reason why we make more power than we use.

16:43 - And that's because of the decline of energy intensive manufacturing.

16:47 - And that's because our our economy

16:49 - has suffered greatly as we've seen jobs moved to China, moved to Asia.

16:53 - And it's time for that trend to reverse, and for people

16:56 - to, you know, bring manufacturing back to the United States.

16:59 - And the reality is, the people who have the power are going to win that war,

17:04 - right?

17:04 - People who can produce reliable, 24/7 power are going to win that war.

17:07 - And that right now is Pennsylvania.

17:10 - So why is Pennsylvania more uniquely positioned

17:13 - to capture this investment than other competitor states?

17:16 - When we talk about data centers, invariably people talk about this

17:20 - giant box, that's going to be filled with data centers and isn't going to need,

17:24 - you know, comparatively, that many people to run it.

17:28 - I mean, I just kind of accepted that, right?

17:30 - Data centers don't create a lot of jobs.

17:33 - But the reality was, that's true in some states, right?

17:38 - Because there are three ways that data centers can create jobs.

17:42 - And if you can't play in all three of those spaces,

17:45 - they don't create that many jobs.

17:47 - Let me talk about the three ways they can create jobs.

17:49 - First, you can build a data centers and you can operate them.

17:51 - So of course when you build them you're going to create thousands of jobs.

17:55 - And I get really upset when people are like,

17:56 - but those are only temporary jobs

17:58 - or construction jobs by their nature are always temporary jobs.

18:02 - And then okay, so then the second part of building

18:04 - and operating them is the operation.

18:05 - Our study has has shown that within the next ten years,

18:08 - we're going to have 8000 people, 8000 Pennsylvanians working

18:11 - inside of data centers to operate those data centers.

18:15 - And approximately two and a half times that working outside the data centers,

18:20 - because people forget that data centers rely

18:23 - on a very large group of support contractors to operate.

18:26 - The second way is you could power them, right?

18:29 - You can produce the energy

18:30 - that's that's a very, very expensive component of operating a data centers.

18:35 - And if you think about that, that means that a farmer

18:39 - in Washington County is directly involved in the data center industry,

18:43 - because that farmer might have licensed you know, Marcellus Shale, right.

18:48 - That gas is being produced and shipped to a,

18:51 - you know, a midstream provider who's going to ship that up to,

18:54 - Homer City, who's going to produce power to power a data center?

18:57 - And it is incredibly localized, right.

19:00 - So data centers are able to keep most of their economic impact

19:05 - in the state that that they're producing the power in.

19:08 - The third way that you can create jobs for data centers

19:12 - is if you manufacture the goods,

19:16 - and services that they need to operate.

19:18 - Right.

19:19 - So build operate the data centers, power the data centers, manufacture

19:23 - the goods and services.

19:24 - So, we started looking into that right through this study.

19:27 - We looked at, you know, what is Pennsylvania producing?

19:30 - And I think I think if I've got the number right, $24 billion

19:35 - worth of manufactured goods and services are being exported

19:38 - just to our peer states on the PJM power grid.

19:42 - Right, 24 billion.

19:43 - Virginia, I think, was exporting less than 2 billion.

19:46 - So put that in perspective.

19:48 - So let's talk about the evidence right.

19:51 - Let's let's get out of this like just giving you a bunch of numbers.

19:54 - Let's talk about

19:55 - real evidence that, you know, and I can really only talk about Western.

19:59 - So I'm going to apologize.

20:00 - I know you have a statewide audience, but I can talk about Western PA.

20:03 - We've seen some press releases in the last,

20:05 - but really, all these are just in the last year.

20:07 - And I'll kind of go through some of them, $2 billion investment from Nvidia

20:13 - into a Butler County organization known as coherent, which used to be called

20:17 - two six to develop and to buy optical computing components.

20:21 - Beaver County has just attracted an $86 million

20:25 - new factory from Mitsubishi Electric to build switchgear for the power grid.

20:29 - Washington County was just attracted GE Ivanova to invest $100 million.

20:34 - Westmore land County attracted a $70 million investment

20:38 - for multiple new factories from Hitachi Energy.

20:41 - Westinghouse Electric just signed an $80

20:44 - billion, contract to build, I think, ten new reactors.

20:48 - Most of those are data center related.

20:50 - I'm from Beaver County.

20:52 - I grew up a mile from the first commercial nuclear reactor in America.

20:56 - That site was set to be mothballed and never produced power again.

21:00 - We've seen a second life now,

21:02 - a company called Vistra has come in and purchased that plant

21:05 - and plans to sell that power and boost the power from the nuclear plant by 20%.

21:09 - So the reality here is that George Westinghouse created an empire of lights.

21:14 - It has survived. It has endured.

21:16 - And right when the nation needs power the most,

21:18 - it's ready to ramp up manufacturing and provide those components.

21:21 - This is a Pennsylvania moment like you've never seen before,

21:25 - and the reason you should be rooting for data centers is not for the data center.

21:29 - It's because it is going to create manufacturing jobs

21:32 - like we haven't seen before.

21:34 - And it's already happened.

21:35 - All of these things, these are announced,

21:37 - these factories are mostly done and on their way towards completion.

21:40 - And we haven't even started building data centers in Pennsylvania yet.

21:44 - I'm glad you brought all this up, because, I mean, it really becomes an ecosystem.

21:48 - And with the manufacturing plants, with the power plants

21:51 - and the data centers themselves, I mean, are these

21:54 - you cited a number of major investments in western Pennsylvania,

21:58 - but we know it's true across the rest of Pennsylvania as well.

22:01 - These are isolated winds, right?

22:04 - This is this is the start of a broader and larger trend.

22:07 - Yeah.

22:07 - At our summit, you know, last year, one of our,

22:11 - keynotes was from Constellation Energy, which, as you know, has restarted

22:16 - a mothballed reactor that was that was shut down five years ago.

22:19 - If you're for the planet,

22:22 - this is a huge win, right?

22:24 - Because this doesn't create really any CO2.

22:27 - This is just taking, you know, essentially a discarded power facility

22:31 - and putting it back on the grid, creating thousands of jobs and construction

22:35 - and, and, and manufacturing without creating massive amounts of CO2.

22:40 - Now, Brookfield has announced a couple billion dollar hydroelectric,

22:45 - plant in eastern Pennsylvania, earlier, late last year.

22:49 - So, yeah, I mean, eastern PA has actually been on the front line

22:52 - there further down the road in terms of actually

22:54 - standing up data centers than we are here in Western PA,

22:58 - but because you know, because of the boom that you had seen going on in Virginia,

23:03 - we've been serving that with our power and with our manufactured components.

23:07 - Here's I don't want to say it's an alarming statistic

23:11 - because it's one that you're optimistic about.

23:12 - But I want you to to thoroughly explain

23:14 - this, that Pennsylvania's data center capacity could grow.

23:18 - Pennsylvania's energy needs by 4,000%,

23:22 - what's needed to make that a reality?

23:25 - And why are you optimistic about data centers are, compared to each other

23:30 - based on the energy capacity that they can they can generate.

23:34 - And so right now we have 182MW of data center capacity in Pennsylvania.

23:39 - And I'm sure your listeners really have no idea how to put that in context.

23:43 - So let me do that.

23:44 - Ohio has 3000MW of capacity and they're already building data centers.

23:51 - But they're nothing

23:52 - compared to the Northern Virginia area that has 13,000MW.

23:56 - Now, let me talk to you about some of these things that you hear and you accept.

24:00 - People say data centers are coming in and it's going to suck up all of our power

24:04 - and our our prices are going to go through the roof.

24:06 - But let me give you the actual so if you were going to prove the point

24:10 - that when data centers come to your state,

24:12 - electricity prices skyrocket and,

24:16 - you can't possibly afford to pay your electric bill right?

24:19 - Well, I just gave you a couple examples.

24:21 - Let's go to Virginia.

24:22 - Right.

24:22 - So, Virginia, we have 182MW of data center capacity in Pennsylvania.

24:26 - Virginia has 13,000.

24:28 - So it goes if you accept, you know, what you're hearing from the advocacy groups

24:32 - that Virginia must have insane power prices.

24:37 - Virginia's power is 25% lower cost,

24:41 - both commercially and for consumers.

24:44 - Then Pennsylvania's

24:46 - right.

24:46 - So how do you make this case?

24:48 - The data centers are going to come in

24:49 - and destroy your electric markets, and they're going to turn your lights off.

24:52 - The reality is this when you buy the kind of power that people in Northern

24:57 - Virginia by, guess what you get, you get buying power, you get efficiencies.

25:03 - And so all of these stories that you hear about,

25:06 - there's going to be no water, there's going to be no air.

25:07 - And our electric rates,

25:08 - when you start doing just a little bit deeper, they turn out to

25:11 - not only not be true sometimes, but to be the exact opposite story.

25:15 - So look, data centers, I'm not saying they're the panacea to all needs.

25:21 - I am going to tell you that Americans are never going to go back.

25:24 - AI is never going away.

25:27 - It's it's here.

25:28 - It's here to stay. It's going to make our lives better.

25:30 - The really cool thing is that in order to build it,

25:33 - it's going to require things we make right here in Pennsylvania.

25:36 - And for the love of God, if you're going to go out and protest

25:39 - the data center, at least go and visit one.

25:42 - Right.

25:42 - And, and at least look around inside, because I promise,

25:46 - if we kill data centers, we are killing jobs right here in Western PA.

25:50 - And most of the people that I talk to, you don't even know that.

25:53 - Let's close with this.

25:55 - If you could quickly summarize what should policymakers

26:00 - and business leaders be doing today to not miss out on this opportunity?

26:05 - I really just want to encourage legislators to take time

26:09 - to understand the full scope of economic opportunity from data center.

26:14 - So I'm not telling you to do any specific bill, but just take time to understand.

26:18 - Listen to the Boilermakers and the IBEW and the carpenters,

26:23 - and then go and visit the manufacturers in your districts

26:26 - who are manufacturing components for the electrical grid.

26:30 - I'm going to tell you what they're going to hear from every one of those companies.

26:33 - We've never had it better.

26:36 - Every every company involved

26:37 - in manufacturing things for the electric grid is at their peak right now.

26:41 - And to be honest with you,

26:42 - our policymakers ought to be going out around the country

26:46 - and talking to every single switchgear manufacturer, every every transformer

26:51 - manufacturer, every company that makes power for the energy grid,

26:54 - because all of them are going to be building new manufacturing facilities.

26:58 - To understand that you should go and talk to those people first.

27:00 - You have to understand what's happening, and you do have to understand

27:03 - that that is as a direct result of data center development.

27:06 - The last thing, of course, is, don't kill your energy industry.

27:10 - I think we've all come to the same page in the last six weeks.

27:12 - We need energy in America and when you don't make it, you

27:16 - the price for it goes up.

27:17 - So do not kill the golden goose.

27:20 - In Pennsylvania, which has been our nuclear power plant, our natural gas,

27:25 - and all of these Westinghouse Empire Manufacturing related companies,

27:28 - those are your sources of family sustaining jobs that are so future proofed

27:33 - right now because the future is eye in the eye needs what we make.

27:37 - Brian, you've been so generous with your time.

27:39 - Thank you for lending your expertise to us.

27:40 - Where can the viewers go to learn more about you and your organization?

27:43 - Well, come visit us at PG tech, Dawg.

27:46 - And I think what you'll find is that if you're looking for talent looking

27:49 - to connect with customers, you need your story told in the right venues.

27:53 - That that's our mission.

27:54 - And, we'd love to have you join. Thanks again. Brian.

27:59 - Well, that's all the time we have for this week's program.

28:01 - This ends the current season of PMA perspective.

28:04 - The program will resume in October, so until then, stay current on what's

28:09 - happening in your state government by visiting PA manufacturers.org.

28:14 - To all of you, thanks so much for watching and we'll see you again in the fall.

28:35 - This program has been paid

28:37 - for by the sponsor and does not reflect the views of PCN.