The Permitting Bill Is Out. Senator Heinrich Walks Us Through It.

<p>Four senators introduced the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act on September 30. One of them recorded this episode with Jigar the day before.</p><p><br /></p><p>The bill puts deadlines on federal environmental reviews, gives opponents 150 days to sue instead of five years, hands the federal government a backstop for interstate transmission, and, as Heinrich describes it, bars utilities from putting a data center's grid costs on anyone else's bill.</p><p><br /></p><p>Martin Heinrich is the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and negotiated the deal with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Republican chairs Shelley Moore Capito and Mike Lee. </p><p><br /></p><p>In this episode:</p><ul><li>Why Heinrich didn't wait for a Democratic Senate: "why don't you just wait until you have the gavel?"</li></ul><p><br /></p><ul><li>The difference between a "sternly worded letter" and a law when a hyperscaler wants to plug in</li><p><br /></p></ul><ul><li>The one-year clock a state gets before a transmission route goes to FERC</li><p><br /></p></ul><ul><li>Why a geothermal well is harder to permit than an oil well on the same acre of federal land</li><p><br /></p></ul><ul><li>What got "a little rocky" with the White House the week before the deal</li></ul><p><br /></p><ul><li>"If you're calling people ratepayers, you're probably making some mistakes"</li><p><br /></p></ul><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Submit a question to Ask Jigar: <a href="https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigar</a><br />S2G Investments: <a href="https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowds" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowds</a><br />Octopus Energy: <a href="https://octopusenergy.com/faas" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://octopusenergy.com/faas</a><br />Our merch store: <a href="https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products</a></p>