Will the lame duck Congress take on permitting reform?
Hot on the heels of the Nov. 3 election is the Congressional lame-duck legislative session. One of the big issues expected to come up is a compromise what’s known as the Permitting Bill.
The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (BAAJA) represents years of negotiation on federal permitting reform. But while environmental advocates praise its grid-modernization provisions, major concerns remain over weakened environmental protections. Senate cosponsors are Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM). The House already has passed several bills that serve as companion legislation.
The tension: The bill combines long-awaited reforms to accelerate electric transmission construction with significant rollbacks of core environmental laws, judicial remedies, and public oversight.
Compromise possible? The Senate bill will require 60 votes to pass. Industry supports the bill, but environmental groups are split. Senate Democrats also said that they were still waiting for key assurances that the Trump administration would end its blockade against permits for wind farms and some other forms of clean energy.
Why transmission matters
The principal strength of the bill lies in updating an aging power grid struggling under extreme weather and surging power demand from data centers.
Faster builds: It establishes procedures to cut the timeline for building major interstate transmission lines down to 5–6 years, compared to 10+ years today.
Technology upgrades: Requires utilities to deploy advanced transmission technologies when cost-effective, which could unlock over 100 gigawatts of capacity—enough to power 75 million homes—at a fraction of the cost of new lines.
Federal authority: Gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) expanded authority to approve interstate lines if state regulators stall or reject eligible projects within one year.
Cost allocation: Directs neighboring grid regions to jointly plan interstate transmission and fairly allocate costs, addressing a bottleneck that has stalled cross-regional lines since 2011.
The data center & geothermal wins
Two targeted areas gain specific regulatory updates under the proposed bill:
Data center accountability: Protects regular utility ratepayers by requiring data centers (typically 20 MW+) to pay for their direct impact on the grid and provide financial guarantees to prevent cost-shifting.
Geothermal expansion: Streamlines permitting to boost geothermal energy deployment, though critics point out it expands categorical exclusions to allow drilling on public lands without full environmental reviews.
The drawbacks
There are several red flags that could restrict legal remedies and advantage fossil fuels:
"Project certainty" loop-holes: Provisions designed to stop arbitrary permit cancellations could inadvertently lock in fossil fuel, mining, and industrial projects, while limiting agencies' ability to address newly discovered environmental harms.
Taxpayer risks: Developers could sue the government over permit modifications or delayed approvals, potentially forcing taxpayers to pay 25% to 50% of total project costs in damages.
Weakened environmental review: Constraints on the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, NEPA, and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) limit judicial power—preventing courts from stopping project construction while unlawful permits are under review.
Diminished Tribal authority: The bill narrows Tribal participation and rights under Section 106 of the NHPA to protect culturally significant lands. Leading Tribal groups are strongly opposed.
What to watch
This lame-duck session could be the most active in years. Must pass legislation includes keeping the government open (Dec 11 deadline), defense authorization, and a raft of extensions (transportation, healthcare and farm program renewals, to name a few.) The mid-term election outcome could scramble the incentives for each party and shape what legislation will get across the line.