Congress has a narrow window this fall to fix how America permits energy infrastructure, and the West has more riding on it than any other region. The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) is the strongest transmission and permitting package Congress has considered since 2005. The Western Way urges the Senate to pass it when it returns in November.
Consider SunZia. The wind and transmission project in New Mexico took 17 years to permit and build, and Sen. Martin Heinrich has noted most of that time was spent on permits. Pattern Energy says its 500 miles of transmission for New Mexico wind farms took more than a decade. Those delays are not unusual in our region. They are the norm.
Meanwhile, electricity demand is climbing across Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. Data centers, manufacturing, and population growth are all pulling on a grid that was not built for this load. Western families and businesses need more power, delivered reliably and affordably, on timelines that match the investments coming our way.
BAAJA was introduced on September 30 by Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Mike Lee (R-UT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM). Two of its four authors represent western states, and it shows. The bill is built around three goals we share: build more, build smarter, and build faster.
Build more: unlocking the West's public lands and power lines
In the West, the federal government owns much of the land that new energy projects must cross. That makes federal permitting reform a western issue first. BAAJA addresses it directly.
Faster decisions on federal land. The Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service must deem solar, wind, geothermal, and storage applications complete within 30 days. New categorical exclusions cover power lines in approved corridors, including the energy corridors designated across the West under Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Siting a line in one of those corridors could take months instead of years.
A real path for interstate transmission. Today, federal backstop siting authority only applies inside corridors the Department of Energy has never successfully designated. BAAJA removes that requirement, so FERC can permit interstate lines of 230 kV or more that serve the public interest, benefit consumers, and improve reliability. States keep a one-year window to act first.
Planning that looks beyond state lines. The bill requires regional and interregional transmission planning on common assumptions, and joint planning of generation and transmission over a 20-year horizon. Developers get fixed, upfront interconnection costs at published locations, which brings real price certainty.
A boost for geothermal. Geothermal is a western resource with bipartisan support. BAAJA sets drilling-permit deadlines, holds annual lease sales, and creates a categorical exclusion for observation wells.
Build smarter: getting more from what we already have
The fastest new capacity is often on wires that already exist. BAAJA treats it that way.
Reconductoring, voltage upgrades, added circuits, and advanced transmission technologies inside existing rights-of-way no longer need a new environmental review. Utilities must study technologies like dynamic line rating and high-performance conductors, and deploy them where benefits exceed costs. These upgrades can add capacity in two to four years, often for less than a new line.
The bill also stops agencies from redoing work that has already been done. Agencies can rely on credible state and Tribal environmental reviews, reuse programmatic analyses for up to ten years, and share categorical exclusions across government. A new public permitting tracker and digital permitting tools will show where projects stand and why they are delayed. That is accountability taxpayers can see.
Build faster: deadlines, coordination, and permits that hold
A project should get a clear yes or a clear no, and get it on time. BAAJA builds a process that delivers that answer.
One lead agency, one coordinated review. Federal agencies review projects at the same time instead of one after another. Environmental assessments are generally due within one year and environmental impact statements within two.
A clock that starts on time. Agencies have 60 days to decide whether an application is complete, and another 60 days to set the level of review.
Coordinated wildlife and historic reviews. Endangered Species Act consultation and historic preservation review now run alongside NEPA and finish when it does. Long lines like SunZia have spent years in these reviews after the main environmental work was done.
Timely resolution of lawsuits. Challenges must be filed within 150 days, and courts generally fix a procedural flaw rather than shut a project down.
Permits that hold. Once a permit is lawfully issued, agencies generally cannot pull it back. There are sensible exceptions for fraud, material violations, court orders, and urgent new harms.
That last point matters for everyone, whatever they think of a given technology. Projects take years and large sums of private capital to build. Investors will not commit if a permit can be reversed when administrations change. BAAJA also creates a technology-neutral standard, so wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, natural gas, pipelines, and transmission are all judged on the law and their merits.
Protecting ratepayers: those who benefit, pay
Building faster only helps families if it keeps bills in check. BAAJA pairs new infrastructure with clear rules on who pays for it.
Data centers cover their own costs. Data center growth is reshaping electricity demand in places like Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Under BAAJA, large new loads of 20 MW or more must pay the transmission costs of serving them. No incremental cost can be shifted to other customers, and data centers must post upfront financial assurance and pay exit fees if they leave. States can go further, for example by requiring data centers to bring their own generation.
Beneficiaries pay for new lines. Transmission costs go to the customers who benefit. Customers who get no benefit, or only a trivial one, pay nothing.
Competition and accountability lower costs. The bill opens regional lines to competitive bidding by banning a federal right of first refusal. It also lets a state refer a utility to federal regulators if its local transmission spending looks imprudent.
Flexible resources reduce the need to overbuild. Rooftop solar, batteries, and other distributed resources gain market access when aggregated into virtual power plants of 100 kW or more. That can cut the costly build-out driven by a few peak hours a year.
States stay in the driver's seat
Westerners are rightly wary of Washington overreach. BAAJA is not a federal takeover of energy decisions. It keeps states at the center while fixing problems no single state can solve alone.
States keep a one-year window to act on transmission applications before federal backstop authority applies.
Federal reviews can rely on qualifying state and Tribal environmental reviews instead of duplicating them.
Qualified states may take on certain Endangered Species Act consultation duties, and state scientific data must be used in listing and delisting decisions.
FERC gains no authority over retail rates or local distribution, and state right-of-first-refusal laws are untouched.
Tribes can grant rights-of-way across their own lands under their own regulations, without case-by-case federal sign-off.
Power lines cross state borders, and their benefits do too. BAAJA gives the West better coordination without taking decisions away from the people who live here.
The West can't afford to wait
The bill's authors aim to make BAAJA the Senate's first vote when it returns in mid-November. Bills like this rarely get a second chance. If it slips past the lame-duck session, the work starts over in a new Congress, and western projects keep waiting.
No bill of this size is perfect, and there will be pressure to trade away key pieces in the final weeks. Congress should hold the core together: enforceable deadlines and coordinated reviews, permits that hold, technology-neutral treatment, real transmission siting and planning, and protections that make data centers pay their own way.
The Western Way urges our members of Congress in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming to support BAAJA and see it through. The West has the land, the resources, and the workforce to power America's future. Now we need a permitting system that lets us build it.