Lawmakers in both parties are scrambling to address the issues revealed by data centers. President Donald Trump, his administration officials, and several governors (including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro) signed on to a statement of principles that encourage data centers to bring their own power or pay for the power they need.
Congress is running short on time to pass a comprehensive permitting reform package before the lame duck this fall. On the table awaiting votes are bills reforming the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and Clean Air Act. The National Historic Preservation Act, which has recently gained traction as a permitting barrier to projects, has received comparatively little attention in Congress.
Building more is no substitute for building smarter. At times, this has been a challenge for America's energy infrastructure, particularly transmission. It is evident that the U.S. needs more transmission, but which transmission lines it builds matters for protecting ratepayers and keeping costs in check. An overwhelming number of House Members just reaffirmed this guiding principle for how America should approach the development of electric transmission.
As Americans crank up their air conditioning bills in the summer months, the importance of affordable, dependable power is critical but often taken for granted. Especially today, families are more acutely aware of how much they’re paying as electricity rates have risen at a pace more than double the rate of inflation over the past year.
The 50-year era of “don’t-touch” conservation may have ended three weeks ago, after the Trump administration narrowed the definition of harm under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Harming an endangered species used to encompass damage to the land the species lives on. Landowners with endangered species were limited in how they could steward their plots of land. After all, endangered species’ recoveries relied on proactive efforts by landowners, which will remain intact regardless of the changing incentive structure of the ESA. The unnecessary penalties landowners had to incur were lifted, and conservation efforts will be able to fit the needs of the land and life rather than keeping the overburdening punishments of the ESA.
Many American power plants are stuck in a dysfunctional express lane. Energy Resource Interconnection Service, or ERIS was created to give generating facilities a faster, leaner way to connect to the grid without waiting in the main queue. Instead, in many markets, ERIS today places fast-trackers on the same slow schedule as projects in the main line. When new, highly competitive generation cannot be connected to the grid in a timely way, a key affordability and efficiency opportunity is left on the table.
Here is a fact that should embarrass every climate activist: States with the most liberated energy markets in America are producing better environmental outcomes than the green mandators of Europe — and doing it without impoverishing their people in the process. Freedom, it turns out, is a remarkably effective environmental policy.
Electricity rates are rising faster than inflation and are felt by households across America. After decades of flat electricity demand, the country is experiencing significant load growth, driven by hyperscale AI data centers, resurgent domestic manufacturing, and the steady electrification of buildings and vehicles.
“The endangered species list is not a dean’s list,” Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said this week, standing near Big Sky, MT, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the governors of Montana and Idaho. “It's time this bear graduates.” After decades of federal control and an amazing tale of conservation success in America, the Interior Department has announced it will shift the daily management of the grizzly bear back to the states. Grizzly bears would, however, remain listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
America is betting on a nuclear comeback, driven by a new generation of advanced reactors with lower capital costs and significant potential for economies of scale. Many of these reactors, however, require specialized fuel that has led the government to pour billions into a domestic supply chain. To ensure these investments pay off, federal officials should proactively eliminate artificial procurement barriers and permitting hurdles which threaten to stall nuclear fuel independence.
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