The chairman of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee said on Sunday the entire United States was likely to face rolling blackouts like those already plaguing California unless swift action was taken to build new power plants and increase natural gas production. "This country is very close (to), if not beginning to be in, an energy crisis," Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican, told the annual meeting in New Orleans of the Edison Electric Institute, an association of investor-owned electric utilities.