The permitting deal collides with Trump’s war on offshore wind

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It’s been years in the making, but the U.S. Senate finally has a bipartisan permitting bill on the table that could speed up the construction of much-needed energy and grid projects. That is, if the Trump administration’s latest round of offshore wind attacks doesn’t tank the whole thing.

Three weeks ago, a bipartisan group of senators released a bill that could dramatically speed up energy construction timelines. According to a new interactive tool from Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, it takes nearly 18 years for a transmission project that faces delays and permit challenges to come into service. This legislation could shave as much as eight years off that timeline, in large part because it would allow federal regulators to grant permits when states don’t do so quickly enough.

Solar, wind, and geothermal projects would also get a faster track to completion under the bill — but so would gas pipelines, according to Columbia’s analysis. Pipelines’ speedier processing is one of many reasons some tribal and environmental groups are calling for revisions to the legislation. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) meanwhile raised concerns that it would allow for swifter data center construction.

Still, some clean energy advocates are taking the good with the bad. This week, Advanced Energy United, the Solar Energy Industries Association, and three other industry groups sent a letter to congressional leaders urging the legislation’s swift passage. A surprising coalition of former officials from the Trump, Biden, Obama, Clinton, and both Bush administrations shared their support for the bill in a letter, too.

But all that advocacy may not mean a thing now that the Trump administration has revived its war on offshore wind. On Tuesday, the Justice Department asked a court to let the federal government reconsider its permit for New England Wind, a 2-gigawatt development off Massachusetts. The administration similarly wants to reconsider a permit for Revolution Wind, which is already producing power, and a few other offshore projects.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), one of the bill’s sponsors, made it clear what the DOJ’s move means for the legislation’s chances: ​“This is how you blow up a permitting deal,” he told Politico.

The administration reportedly offered a concession on Thursday morning, with a White House official saying the Defense Department would allow a handful of long-delayed onshore wind projects to proceed. Whitehouse told Punchbowl News that it would only be ​“a start” to getting negotiations back on track.

The Senate isn’t set to vote on the bill until after the midterm elections. But with lobbying groups lining up to reshape the legislation, and the Trump administration showing it’s capable of upending the deal at a moment’s notice, it looks like the bill has a rocky few weeks ahead.

More big energy stories

Balcony solar mania reaches Capitol Hill

As balcony solar closes out its biggest year yet in the U.S., Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) is looking to extend its momentum at the federal level. On Monday, Menendez introduced a bill that would require states to consider rules to let Americans use plug-in solar, and that would create a program to help lower-income households access the tech. Congress probably won’t consider the bill before adjourning for the year, but it could be reintroduced in January, Alison F. Takemura reports.

So far, 10 states have passed laws that allow their residents to plug solar panels into conventional 120-volt outlets, with nine of those new laws coming this year. But while balcony solar generation hasn’t made much of a dent on the U.S. grid yet, the combined capacity of other small solar arrays is nothing to sniff at. According to the Energy Information Administration, solar arrays of less than 1 MW produced nearly 93,000 GWh of power in 2025, more than quadrupling their total capacity from a decade ago.

What’s up with the NextEra-Dominion merger?

The proposed merger between Florida’s NextEra Energy and Virginia’s Dominion Energy isn’t attracting many fans. 

This week, staff at the Virginia State Corporation Commission officially recommended that regulators reject the $67 billion deal as it stands. SCC staff, who are tasked with researching and making recommendations to the body’s three commissioners, have concluded that the NextEra-Dominion deal doesn’t go far enough to protect customers from reliability and financial risks. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) highlighted similar points when voicing her skepticism of the merger this week.

And late last week, The Washington Post revealed a detail that may impact the merger’s favorability with federal regulators appointed by the White House. NextEra donated $4 million to President Donald Trump’s ballroom project last year — a move that consumer advocates are calling ​“convenient” and ​“very problematic.”

Clean energy news to know this week

Gilded Age 2.0: Data centers have rolled past railroads to become the source of the largest investment boom in U.S. history, a Columbia University report finds. (Stateline)

Pushing through a pipeline: The DOE will use $42 million in Defense Production Act funding to revive plans for the Constitution Pipeline from Pennsylvania to New York — which the White House claims New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) allowed to move forward in exchange for offshore wind permissions. (The Hill, news release)

Build-a-VPP: Researchers are tasking roughly 200 California households with designing their own virtual power plant, in hopes of figuring out what motivates people to join these grid-boosting programs. (Canary Media)

Nuclear ambitions: The Nuclear Co. proposes constructing a nuclear energy campus in Kentucky totaling 6.6 GW of generation, while Indiana’s governor says his state is planning to build another 6 GW of nuclear generation. (news release, Indianapolis Star)

You can dig it: Developers Ormat and Invenergy dominated bids in this week’s federal geothermal lease sale, which brought in $4.5 million for parcels in Nevada and sold some plots slated for solar development. (Reuters)

Aluminum’s trashy solution: The U.S. aluminum market is feeling the burn of tariffs and supply shortages, but better sorting technologies and state policies could help keep the metal out of landfills and ready to recycle. (Canary Media)

Float on: The floating offshore wind industry, which has its U.S. roots in Maine, continues to push forward on research despite federal and financial challenges. (Inside Climate News)