For energy wonks, this year’s lame duck session will be anything but lame.
Time is ticking for Congress to seal the fate of one of the country’s most consequential energy bills in years: the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA). If BAAJA fails to pass the Senate and House after the midterms—and before the next session kicks off in January—the historic deal will end up dead in the water.
The beefy bill: This 417-page piece of legislation (unveiled in the Senate last month) aims to fast-track federal permitting for generation, transmission, and other key infrastructure projects. BAAJA has drawn praise from across the energy industry as a grid buildout gamechanger—but not all utility pros are on board.
Plus, the bill has sparked criticism from some Indigenous groups and environmental organizations, who say it restricts community feedback and legal recourse when projects land in people’s backyards.
So, which BAAJA bits matter most to utility pros? “Really, everything,” Xan Fishman, executive VP of energy at the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank, told Energy Central. It includes provisions to:
Streamline project reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act…and curb associated court challenges that can delay projects for years.
Expand federal authority over interstate transmission lines—the bill would enable FERC to skirt state opposition to certain projects.
Reshape the transmission buildout by 1) requiring regional and interregional planning 2) banning federal rules that give incumbent utilities first grabs on certain projects 3) adding state checks on utilities’ transmission planning and 4) pushing advanced transmission tech.
Require data centers to pay for their grid impacts. The bill also directs RTOs and ISOs to streamline their generator interconnection processes.
The power sector takeaway: BAAJA shifts more control over energy permitting to the federal level, Craig Heilman, COO of energy regulation analytics firm Arbo, told us.
BAAJA’s odds: “I am optimistic that this bill passes the Senate, somehow passes the House, and gets signed by the President before the end of this year,” Fishman said. “But it’s not a sure thing.”
The hurdle: BAAJA has run into resistance in both Congressional chambers. Prominent Senate Dems want to see the White House halt its clean energy attacks before they vote for the bill. And some House members—most notably Jared Huffman (D-CA)—have opposed BAAJA, claiming it could restrict public input, encourage environmental harms, and accelerate data center expansion.
If Democrats can snag a House majority after the midterms, Rep. Huffman hopes they can negotiate a new bill—but “that’s highly unlikely to succeed,” Fishman said.
The stakes: Politics move slowly—but grid demand sure doesn’t. 📈
If BAAJA falls flat, it’s unlikely that officials can pull off another massive permitting deal over the next few years, Heilman said. “It’s hard for Congress to act in a bipartisan way in this era—there was an awful lot of work that was done to create this bill,” he told us.