Chad Zamarin doesn't mince words about where America stands in the global energy race.
"We haven't grown electricity production in the U.S. for 25 years," the Williams CEO told Standard & Works at the company's Clean Energy and Technology Expo in Washington, D.C.
"The world's electricity demand has doubled in the last 25 years. We haven't grown at all,” he said. "This has got to be a wake-up call for our country.”
The numbers land like body blows:
The U.S. accounted for a third of global manufacturing in 2000. Today it's 15%.
China was under 10%. Now it's a third – and has grown its electricity production nearly tenfold in that same window.
Pipeline capacity has lagged demand growth by roughly half. By 2035, Williams projects gas demand will double.
With data centers and advanced manufacturing driving an unprecedented surge in electricity demand, Zamarin sees a generational opportunity to close that gap – fast.
“The next generation of prosperity will absolutely be defined by who can get access to clean, reliable, affordable, but fast energy," he said.
Zamarin, who took the helm at Williams in July 2025, sees the opportunity and is steering the Tulsa-based infrastructure giant into a new chapter.
The Fortune 500 company – which handles a third of all U.S. natural gas volumes – is now positioning itself not just as a pipeline operator but as a direct power provider to data centers, leveraging their core pipeline infrastructure business.
The company says it can get to market in under 18 months. Socrates, its first power project to come online, is set for the second half of this year.
Where Williams is Building (and Where It Isn't)
When asked what signals Williams looks for when deciding where to invest, Zamarin drew a sharp line.
"The reality is, there are going to be states that are attractive for investment. And there are other states that are not."
An Analyst Day presentation Williams released this week drove home the point:
Natural gas prices in Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut have been 230–250% higher than in Northeast Pennsylvania.
During Winter Storm Fern in late January, the gap spiked to 16 times.
The culprit isn't just geology. It's permitting and regulatory speed.
The company is finally set to begin construction on its Northeast Supply Enhancement project serving Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island – a decade after the project was first announced.
Where is Williams investing?
Zamarin cited Ohio and Utah are home to $5 billion in new power projects the company announced in 2025.
"Those states where we can build, that's where we're focused right now,” he said. “We've got to be able to build to our full potential in every state across the country.”
The Strategy: Pipes and Power
New data centers overlaid on the nation’s natural gas pipeline system | Williams Investor Presentation
Last fall, JLL's Sean Farney – who built and ran data centers for 15 years at Microsoft –told Standard & Works the map of America's next data center hubs would be shaped by one thing above all: natural gas pipelines.
"Twenty-four-inch-plus supply lines drive site selection," Farney said.
Williams' Analyst Day presentation included a slide that could have been drawn to illustrate his point: the company's 32,000-mile pipeline footprint overlaid with announced data centers.
The clusters line up.
Columbus, where Williams is building its Socrates projects, has seen 1,800% data center growth since 2020.
The Virginia corridor, where Williams has announced its Transco Power Express expansion, is the world's largest data center market.
When asked what to expect from Williams in 2026, Zamarin's answer was characteristically direct.
"You're gonna hear a lot about pipes and power."
