10 House Blue Dog Democrats endorse the Senate's bipartisan permitting bill as environmental groups organize to kill it

The House Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 10 moderate Democrats, endorsed the Senate's bipartisan permitting bill, which would speed federal approval of power lines, pipelines and other energy projects. The endorsement. "Congress must clear the logjam and move permitting reform forward, not punt the issue to a future Congress," the coalition wrote. The opposition. Environmental groups held a call to recruit undecided Democrats against the bill, according to a transcript Punchbowl News reporter Josh Siegel obtained. The data-center fight. Opponents call the bill a giveaway to data centers. Permitting advocate Thomas Hochman says the opposite: "This bill would enact far stricter, costlier rules for data centers in particular." Utility critic David Pomerantz says it means "more grid investment" but "structurally less control for the monopoly utilities."

How the last four permitting pushes ended:

• 2005: Congress let FERC override states that stall on power lines; a federal appeals court gutted that power in 2009, and FERC has never used it
• 2022: Joe Manchin's permitting deal was stripped from a September funding bill after it could not reach 60 votes
• 2024: The Barrasso-Manchin bill cleared committee 15-4 and died with no floor vote