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The proposed bipartisan federal permitting bill is 417 pages filled with extremely consequential provisions that have left the climate community some mix of excited, infuriated, and confused. In an attempt to bring some clarity, I asked Daniel Palken of Arnold Ventures, a veteran of Senate permitting fights, to walk through what’s in it. We cover the blockbuster transmission reforms, the rule making data centers pay more than their share of grid costs, the wins for geothermal, and the fossil carve-outs. Then we get into NEPA reforms that render the act toothless, limits on state water permits, and the permit-certainty sections that have lawyers worried about “forever permits.” And finally: whether it restrains Trump, why Democrats shouldn’t wait for a better deal, what the modeling says about emissions impacts, and Daniel’s odds of passage. This is a long one, folks. Buckle up.
Chapters:
00:00 – Intro: the bipartisan permitting bill
04:15 – Why permitting reform matters
12:23 – Agency staffing and capacity
16:59 – Past permitting attempts
20:26 – Transmission 1: planning and federal backstop
28:28 – Transmission 2: who pays and grid upgrades
38:17 – Data centers 1: paying more for grid access
43:20 – Distributed energy and geothermal
49:06 – Oil, gas, and mining provisions
57:06 – Data centers 2: will they go off-grid?
1:00:19 – NEPA 1: courts can’t halt projects
1:08:57 – NEPA 2: the main objections
1:17:10 – State water permits
1:23:35 – Endangered species
1:27:37 – Permit certainty 1: limits on revoking permits
1:36:43 – Permit certainty 2: lawsuits and damages
1:48:12 – Politics 1: Trump’s wind blockades
1:52:57 – Politics 2: why not wait for a better deal?
1:58:33 – Politics 3: elections, courts, and modeling
2:10:57 – Politics 4: next steps and odds of passage
