Senate tees up bipartisan permitting bill as greens warn of data center rush

The Senate could vote to move a sweeping bipartisan permitting bill forward as early as next week, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, teeing it up for possible passage before the year runs out. The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) would push energy projects onto the grid faster and, its backers argue, take a bite out of utility bills. Environmental advocates say it does that by bulldozing the public's say.

The mechanics are blunt. Once a project clears its National Environmental Policy Act review, the lead agency gets 45 days to decide. Anyone wanting to sue over alleged violations of NEPA, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act or the National Historic Preservation Act gets 150 days — a hard cap. And if a court does find an agency broke NEPA, BAAJA removes its ability to stop the project; the agency simply has to fix the issue.

BAAJA also narrows which projects trigger NEPA at all, carving out exclusions for transmission upgrades and certain pipeline expansions. Projects that land federal loans or grants, or that already cleared a similar state environmental assessment, would skip the review. The bill could additionally make it easier for large projects — data centers among them — to qualify for general Clean Water Act permits, which the Army Corps of Engineers issues when discharges are deemed to have 'minimal adverse environmental effects.'

That's where the fight gets loud. Christy Goldfuss, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, told The Verge that under the legislation data centers 'would not need to answer to the concerns of local communities.' Earthjustice Action president Abigail Dillen called it 'a precision strike for developers of dirty data centers.' The US Oil & Gas Association had a shorter pitch: 'Pass the frickin' bill so we can start building things again.'

The four sponsors — Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), who call themselves the 'four corners' — introduced the bill on September 30th. Whitehouse, a climate hawk, said it would 'flood the grid with clean, affordable energy and make data centers start paying their fair share.' Xan Fishman of the Bipartisan Policy Center tells The Verge the White House has been 'very involved' in negotiations and he expects President Trump would sign the bill.

Then there's the midterm wild card. Newly empowered Democrats could drag out debate into next year and squeeze out more concessions rather than cut a deal. Wood Mackenzie's Siddhant Warrier says the bill doesn't pick winners — it 'clears the way for all technologies to get onto the grid a little quicker,' which matters for data center developers racing to power AI. Fishman's diagnosis of the old rules: processes built with good intentions that 'kind of spiral out of control.'