The prospects for bipartisan permitting reform could become more complicated following the midterm elections, as lawmakers grapple with competing priorities related to environmental protections, energy infrastructure and data center growth. While many stakeholders support accelerating project approvals, growing political scrutiny of data centers may reshape the debate around electric transmission and grid expansion.
“You’ve got environmental [nongovernmental organizations] who want concrete changes to the first section of the bill,” Bracewell’s Scott Segal told Law360.
“And then you’ve got an increasing realization that the second section of the bill is somewhat in service to data centers, and those are two issues that were at play in the midterm elections.”