2L at Michigan. Born and raised Michigander and soon-to-be litigator. I write and think a lot about energy, infrastructure, and the regulation of both. #GoBlue
Ann Arbor, MI
Joined October 2011
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The Senate votes Monday on taking up BAAJA, the bipartisan permitting bill. 18 senators are on record, none opposed, and 82 haven't said a word.
I built a tracker of every senator, House member, and outside group on the bill, with links to what each actually said. Link below!
In other words: we recognize the need for it, but that doesn't mean we'll ever be willing to do it!
NEW: @NRDC says BAAJA "still needs improvements" and opposes it despite changes. President Manish Bapna says "we recognize that meaningful permitting reform requires compromise" but the bill "goes too far in weakening essential environmental safeguards and public participation"
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
this is a perfect example of weaponizing NEPA, because there is zero evidence that this offshore wind project caused any issues for whales, but because NEPA is a procedural and not substantive environmental law, opponents were able to drag out the project in courts for years
To suggest they are merely engaged in “weaponizing NEPA” is simplifying the issue, no? They have sued under MMPA and the ESA due to concerns about the impact of these massive projects on the right whale population. There are 380 right whales left. Whatever you think of them, it’s at least worth portraying their activities accurately.
I understand the need to maintain discipline over your players, but there has to be something the @Lions can do other than benching the best guard in football. Frazier is completely out of his depth here.
It remains quite telling that opponents of BAAJA cannot write a bill that does the things Green Energy wants and that can get passed by Congress. "a clean transmission bill" would mean cutting out most of the things *we* want!
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
One key point against delaying on #BAAJA – @C2ES_org and Greenline analysis finds that delaying permitting reform by 4 years costs 800 million tons of climate pollution and $55 billion in electricity system savings through 2040.
greenlineinsights.com/interc…
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
Manager's does a good job of accounting for the stated concerns of anybody looking to get to yes. What's left is mostly grumbles of people who are not gettable and/or pushing for delay in order to kill the effort rather than improve it.
I will be interested to see if the amendment kills the "data center giveaway" narrative. The weakest part of the original text was that it grandfathered in data centers already built. The amendment fixes that.
Major changes to BAAJA in this amendment responding to Democrats' concerns; two highlight titles:
1. Permit Certainty title has lots of technical fixes:
-Requires proof of government bad faith before an energy project can get damages (easy to prove with Trump, hard to use against a future lawful admin)
-10-year baseline of past projects rather than 5 years (so Trump anti-wind actions aren't built into the baseline)
-Ability for the government to rebut with lawful reasons (helps a future admin could deny polluting projects lawfully)
2. Historic Preservation title has substantive changes:
-Feds can no longer take over a noncompliant Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO)
-Even if a THPO isn't compliant with deadlines, agencies still required to consult with Tribes
-Expanded requirements to consult and incorporate feedback from THPOs, Tribes, local govs, State Historic Preservation Offices
-Protections for Tribal historic database information to remain confidential to Tribes
-No more requirement for THPOs and SHPOs to spend 50% of their time on a project if they miss its deadline
-Extra more time to object to a historic preservation report
-Federal Highway projects always subject to historic preservation, even if only a formula grant
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
People are trying to get to a middle ground where a pattern of crazy actions (like Trump admin on wind) is stopped, but the government can still modify permits for all the normal reasons it usually does. This is a hard problem! Don't knock it til you try to write leg text on it
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
At first blush, it looks like Sens Capito/Heinrich/Lee/Whitehouse did a great job of making a good bill even better. They closed off the potential for unintended consequences in the project certainty section and they incorporated feedback from tribes on the NHPA section.
NEW: the BAAJA managers' amendment is out. “I’ve worked hard to incorporate the feedback we’ve heard from Tribes and New Mexicans into this Substitute Amendment, and I’m proud to join my colleagues in releasing it," Heinrich says. 494 pages heinrich.senate.gov/imo/medi…
Big deal! I'll have a piece analyzing the changes and how they try to accommodate critics of the bill out soon!
NEW: the BAAJA managers' amendment is out. “I’ve worked hard to incorporate the feedback we’ve heard from Tribes and New Mexicans into this Substitute Amendment, and I’m proud to join my colleagues in releasing it," Heinrich says. 494 pages heinrich.senate.gov/imo/medi…
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
The COLT tribes are ~half of all registered tribal members and 95% of all tribal land
Don't let anyone tell you "the tribes" oppose BAAJA! It's a lot more complicated than that (and we can help COLT pass the Tribal Abundance reforms they want) – at New York, NY
I think opponents of BAAJA would help the discourse by proposing another bill, one they claim will
1. Get the gop votes needed
2. Deliver the benefits of BAAJA
3. Reduce the downsides of BAAJA
I find it quite telling that nobody I've seen has even tried to do this.
For example here, SC simply identifies the things they don't like. They don't even try to say why these changes wont truly harm the bill's goals or how to keep republicans on board. It's silly "we can't support as is" and a list of dislikes. Unhelpful!
nitter.gq/sierraclub/status/2118…
This week’s overwhelming blue wave election sent a clear message: Americans are fed up with an administration that raises costs through chaotic energy policies and puts corporate polluters ahead of the public interest.
As the Senate considers a possible vote during the lame-duck session, Congressional Democrats have a mandate to deliver relief on energy bills and level the playing field for clean energy.
As written, this bill achieves critical wins on transmission and potential emissions reduction. But those wins do not justify abandoning Tribal consultation, clean water safeguards, and wildlife protections, nor further enabling a rogue president that is waging a war on clean energy.
The Sierra Club supports updating and expediting clean energy permitting. But Congress must demand fundamental changes to protect public health, Tribal sovereignty, the environment, and communities’ ability to challenge unlawful projects.
As Sierra Club Executive Director Loren Blackford said, “They can and must fight for a better deal.”
Read the full statement: bit.ly/4fa7IUv
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
Well, lets look how the IRA turned out.... Gutted. Big Green didnt mobilize voters to make a sustaining feedback loop of support after passage.
So, maybe not the best guy / group for this one?
Ride with the unions!
The Sierra Club is full of a self-selected litigators who fundamentally see development as inherently bad and in need of stopping. There is no bill that actually fixes litigation bloat that they will support. They are hammers and all they see is nails.
This week’s overwhelming blue wave election sent a clear message: Americans are fed up with an administration that raises costs through chaotic energy policies and puts corporate polluters ahead of the public interest.
As the Senate considers a possible vote during the lame-duck session, Congressional Democrats have a mandate to deliver relief on energy bills and level the playing field for clean energy.
As written, this bill achieves critical wins on transmission and potential emissions reduction. But those wins do not justify abandoning Tribal consultation, clean water safeguards, and wildlife protections, nor further enabling a rogue president that is waging a war on clean energy.
The Sierra Club supports updating and expediting clean energy permitting. But Congress must demand fundamental changes to protect public health, Tribal sovereignty, the environment, and communities’ ability to challenge unlawful projects.
As Sierra Club Executive Director Loren Blackford said, “They can and must fight for a better deal.”
Read the full statement: bit.ly/4fa7IUv
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
If Democrats are going to be serious at all about addressing affordability, it starts with helping to pass BAAJA. This is a very good pro-environment and pro-affordability bill.
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
The Sierra Club leads the pack in suing to block renewable energy projects. It cares much less about climate change than it does about the right to stop construction it dislikes.
thebreakthrough.org/issues/e…
This week’s overwhelming blue wave election sent a clear message: Americans are fed up with an administration that raises costs through chaotic energy policies and puts corporate polluters ahead of the public interest.
As the Senate considers a possible vote during the lame-duck session, Congressional Democrats have a mandate to deliver relief on energy bills and level the playing field for clean energy.
As written, this bill achieves critical wins on transmission and potential emissions reduction. But those wins do not justify abandoning Tribal consultation, clean water safeguards, and wildlife protections, nor further enabling a rogue president that is waging a war on clean energy.
The Sierra Club supports updating and expediting clean energy permitting. But Congress must demand fundamental changes to protect public health, Tribal sovereignty, the environment, and communities’ ability to challenge unlawful projects.
As Sierra Club Executive Director Loren Blackford said, “They can and must fight for a better deal.”
Read the full statement: bit.ly/4fa7IUv
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
“Opposing BAAJA because of its indirect effects on ICE facilities is therefore like opposing a reversal of Trump’s tariffs because they make construction of ICE facilities slightly cheaper.”
I litigated NEPA cases at DOJ for ~10 years. I saw highways, pipelines, & solar projects all grind to a halt under the same laws -- because they apply regardless of what's being built.
So are ICE detention centers a reason not to pass the bipartisan permitting bill, BAAJA?
BAAJA has nothing to do with immigration or ICE directly. It changes core permitting laws and transmission policy in ways that benefit *any project* that requires the most common federal permits, or uses electricity.
Opposing BAAJA because of its indirect effects on ICE facilities is therefore like opposing a reversal of Trump’s tariffs because they make construction of ICE facilities slightly cheaper.
The bigger point is that using permitting laws to target disfavored projects on policy grounds is part of what makes infrastructure -- particularly clean energy infrastructure -- so difficult and expensive to build in this country.
A Stanford study looked at 355 big federal projects; nearly two-thirds of solar projects, 38% of wind projects, and 31% of transmission lines were sued under these laws.
fsi.stanford.edu/publication…
My own research on NHPA has found clean energy and transmission review areas were about 10 times larger than fossil projects, and nearly half had an adverse effect finding, versus 6% of fossil projects.
nhpa-ape-stats.org/
Our permitting laws were not designed to be -- and should not be -- used as a tool to stop whatever policy someone doesn’t like.
Using permitting laws as a tool of obstruction is a double-edged sword that has stabbed our country’s ability to build anything -- especially the energy infrastructure we need to electrify the economy & have affordable electricity.
Detention policy should be for Congress to settle on its own terms, not through litigation over the environmental review and permitting process.
Collin ἐγὼ εἰμί retweeted
A cool piece of research and a timely piece of history given that Congress currently has the choice to make it easier to build--I very much hope they take it.
NEW PAPER w/ @_josephshapiro & @heidilwilliams_: In 1947, Congress gave feds power to override states blocking gas (not oil) pipelines.
Gas pipeline growth sped up 6x. Oil didn’t.
The Senate permitting bill does similar for power lines. History strongly suggests it'll work. 🧵
