At an oversight hearing on new nuclear capacity, the two parties touted recent bipartisan legislation as helping move things forward, but Democrats said Trump administration cuts and moves to curb the NRC's independence creates crosswinds.

The current debate in the U.S. electricity sector pitting efforts to increase renewables against the need for grid reliability in the face of growing demand could be unnecessary and counterproductive, according to one expert.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy looked into how to meet demand growth in its first hearing of the new Congress, which showed a clear partisan divide on how to meet it.