Many MindedSenate permitting bill gets a rewrite aimed at winning over holdouts
Senators released a reworked version of the Bipartisan Affordability and American Jobs Act, their bipartisan permitting bill, on a Saturday morning. The text is a manager's amendment, meaning it would become the official language voted on in the Senate. It is meant to answer concerns raised by environmentalists, tribes and utilities.
The transmission core is unchanged. Each grid region must run a long-term planning process with its neighbors, overseen by FERC, aimed at more interregional lines. Customers who benefit from new lines still pay for them, and the federal government can still approve a route if a state has refused. The amendment strengthens that backstop and lets developers use some of the bill's expedited powers without taking all of them. It also ends one, but not all, of the mandates on vertically integrated monopoly utilities, which are concentrated in the Southeast, and exempts such utilities outside an electricity market from the new mandatory planning process.
One change cuts against speed. The original let developers seek state permits and the federal backstop permit at once. Now they must go through the states for one year before applying federally. Former FERC Commissioner Mark Christie, a Republican, had criticized simultaneous filing as making the state proceeding meaningless. Rob Gramlich of Grid Strategies called the changes good improvements that give more types of projects flexibility.
Why it matters: transmission and permitting delays are the main bottleneck on cheaper clean power. Faster, more certain approval for lines and generation would cut build times and costs. Whether the amendment keeps that promise depends on the final text.
Watch the Senate vote. It is unclear whether the amended bill has enough support to pass. The source lists only some key changes, and its excerpt cuts off before covering the environmental and tribal provisions, so reviewers have weeks of work ahead.
Source: Heatmap