Senate leaders release text of bipartisan energy permitting reform bill

Mixed · 2Senate leaders released the text of a bipartisan energy permitting reform deal in the week of 7 October 2026. 1 2 Left · 1The bill, known as BAAJA, is a roughly 400-page Senate measure meant to enable construction of more power plants, transmission lines and gas pipelines. 2 Left · 1It was negotiated by four senators on the energy and environment committees: Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, and Republicans Mike Lee of Utah and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. 2

Left · 1According to Grist, the bill speeds up agency permit timelines, makes it harder to cancel projects already federally approved, and weakens some bedrock environmental laws. Lawsuits under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) would have to be filed within 150 days of the end of review rather than six years, and plaintiffs would have to have raised the issue during public comment. 2 Left · 1Under the bill a court could order an agency to redo its analysis while a project proceeds, rather than pausing it, and permits could be revoked only in limited circumstances such as a legal violation or risk of immediate or substantial harm to "life, property, national security, or defense." One provision would help developers seek compensation if the government is shown to have discriminated against a project type, such as offshore wind. 2 Right · 1Ten state chambers of commerce, in an op-ed in the Washington Examiner, endorsed the deal. They say it sets concrete timelines, designates lead agencies, limits litigation and is technology-neutral, speeding gas pipelines and nuclear as well as wind, solar and geothermal, while keeping safety and environmental standards. 1

Right · 1The chambers say federal environmental review takes an average of four to seven years for major infrastructure projects, and that frivolous litigation and overlapping jurisdictions stall projects. 1 Left · 1Grist reports that the bill has split the climate movement. Clean-energy companies and some policy experts back it as a way to build more clean power, such as Ray Long of the renewables trade group ACORE, who called it "a great bill." Opponents call it a "Faustian bargain" that endangers tribal nations, marginalised communities and endangered species. 2 Left · 1The bill has not yet cleared committee and faces an uncertain fate in the House. Grist says the Senate will not return to it until after the midterm elections, and that lobbying by supporters and opponents is expected in the meantime. 2