Why green groups won't endorse the Senate permitting deal

OCTOBER 23, 2026 | This week on the site: Why green groups won't endorse the Senate permitting deal, a grid flexibility check-in, and how Google gets power.

In recent weeks, both have published lengthy blog posts outlining the pros and cons of the legislation, named the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, or BAAJA. For my feature this week, I reached out to many green groups to hear how they’re thinking about the legislation.

They argue that changing how transmission infrastructure is planned and permitted would be a clear win for clean energy, and likely to slash U.S. climate-warming pollution over the next decade. But sections on “project certainty” — aimed at stopping presidents from attacking specific energy sectors — as well as those limiting the ability of states and courts to block projects, risk being too great a gift to the oil and gas industry that’s already in high-demand from new data centers.

“While NRDC is encouraged by the transmission provisions, other elements of the bill are deeply flawed,” the group wrote earlier this week. “We will be seeking improvements in the coming weeks and will take a position on the bill before a floor vote.”

The bipartisan group of four senators who negotiated BAAJA are considering technical changes to the bill, according to an aide. If any are agreed to, they would be incorporated in a so-called managers amendment ahead of a final floor vote. But the odds any changes on the margins would be enough to sway green groups may be small, considering the already uphill battle to appease both Democrats and Republicans in a polarized Congress.

Green groups’ refusal to endorse permitting reform might’ve been a death knell for the legislation in the past. But their hold on leftist politics has begun to falter, as clean energy developers and supporters of the pro-growth “abundance” movement like Third Way and the Searchlight Institute rally in support of BAAJA.

These more centrist groups argue that making it easier to build projects like solar, wind, battery storage, and transmission lines is the quickest and most politically viable way to decarbonize the economy — even if that means making concessions to the oil and gas industry.

A lot of the debate is rooted in a potential worst-case scenario for environmental groups’ priorities. What’s missing, however, is independent analyses on BAAJA’s projected impacts.

But not for long. Nonpartisan think tanks including the Rhodium Group and Resources for the Future are working on their respective modeling of the legislation’s emissions and economic implications. Their work isn’t yet public, but Kevin Rennert, director of RFF’s federal climate policy, gave me an early summary.

He said the deal would deliver a net benefit for clean energy over fossil fuels, which in turn would reduce emissions through 2041 compared to the status quo policy baseline. That’s due to the buildout of more long-distance transmission lines and faster interconnection queues — both major bottlenecks to bringing clean energy on the grid — and greater certainty that federal permits are upheld after being issued. More gas infrastructure will come online, just not as much compared to a world without BAAJA.

The road ahead is murky, and the coming weeks will be tense. It’s not just environmental groups demanding changes to the permitting deal. Attorney generals from nine Democratic-led states sent a letter to Senate leaders this week requesting a meeting, stating that without amendment, BAAJA would intrude upon states' rights and harm critical resources.

However, the deal did get a boon from House Speaker Mike Johnson today. He told Punchbowl News that he supports the legislation, increasing the chances of a vote in the House as well, no matter what happens in the midterms.

(For more on the wide range of responses to the permitting bill, I'd recommend a listen of this recent episode of Open Circuit, featuring Jane Flegal, senior fellow at Searchlight Institute.)

Storylines of the week

A grid flexibility check-in

🎧 A new era for grid flexibility?

OPEN CIRCUIT | Live from Flex Summit: Two VPP champions and a utility executive debate how to harvest the grid’s hidden capacity.

The data center flexibility debate

LISA MARTINE JENKINS | The industry’s progress is being hampered by the table stakes definition: What do we mean when we say “flexible”?

How Google gets power

Untangling the accounting fight reshaping Google’s Arkansas power deal

MAEVE ALLSUP | Entergy Arkansas said this week it is updating the contract for powering the hyperscaler's West Memphis campus.

Google is purchasing a gigawatt of distributed capacity in PJM

MAEVE ALLSUP | The hyperscaler’s latest deal with Voltus attempts to prove VPPs can reach the speed and scale needed to serve the AI boom.

The case for combining lithium-ion and LDES

BIANCA GIACOBONE | An MN8 project with Google as an offtaker pairs lithium-ion and a more novel chemistry.