Taxpayer Watchdog Welcomes Bipartisan Permitting Deal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) welcomed the unveiling of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, a wide-ranging energy and permitting reform proposal released today after lengthy negotiations. The proposal would accelerate environmental reviews— including introducing a two-year deadline for Environmental Impact Statement reviews and a one-year deadline for Environmental Assessment reviews. It would also impose a 150-day deadline for legal challenges under the Clean Water Act (CWA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). While the proposal represents significant progress toward modernizing the nation’s permitting system, provisions affecting data centers may subject these innovative digital infrastructure projects to difficult-to-enforce cost allocation requirements.

TPA Executive Director Ross Marchand issued the following statement:

“America desperately needs permitting reform, and this bipartisan proposal contains plenty of promising ideas for taxpayers and consumers to welcome. Projects should not spend years or even decades navigating duplicative reviews and regulatory uncertainty before construction can begin. Yet, under the status quo dictated by costly statutes such as CWA, ESA, NEPA, and NHPA, compliance has become far too difficult, and projects are simply not getting done in time to meet growing demand. Establishing clearer timelines for environmental reviews, limiting unnecessary litigation delays, and creating greater regulatory certainty will unleash investment in energy and infrastructure and lower costs for taxpayers and consumers.

“However, lawmakers should improve and clarify the proposal’s provisions requiring data centers to cover their associated transmission costs. Policymakers are right to protect residential and small-business ratepayers from inappropriate cost shifting, but that goal should be accomplished through transparent and technology-neutral cost allocation rather than special rules targeting industries that politicians don’t like. Data centers should pay the costs they directly cause, but they should not be treated as scapegoats for rising power bills or piggy banks for investments that benefit a wide array of consumers.

“TPA applauds lawmakers for working across the aisle to tackle a permitting system that has gotten in the way of affordable energy and economic growth. Congress should build on this bipartisan breakthrough and pave the way for the energy infrastructure America needs.”

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The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis, and dissemination of information on the government’s impact on the economy.