A bipartisan group of senators says it has come closer than ever to a federal permitting reform bill, the legislation many analysts consider critical to meeting surging U.S. electricity demand driven partly by the tech industry's data center buildout. The highest-ranking members of both parties on the Senate's two energy-related committees are negotiating the bill's language, with Politico reporting that senators intend to finish the draft after the November midterms.

The draft's contents are not public. But stakeholders expect it would ease construction of energy projects by reducing the scope of environmental and social effects that agencies must weigh when issuing permits, loosening Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act requirements that slow transmission line and pipeline permits, and making issued permits less vulnerable to lawsuits.

The negotiating effort follows the failed Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, which cleared committee but never received a full Senate vote. Lawmakers from both parties say growing power demand has given the new attempt more momentum than any previous effort.

"America's energy demand is surging due to advanced technology and manufacturing, but our outdated federal permitting process remains a massive barrier to building the infrastructure we need to stay competitive," Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, said in an August press release.

The material stakes are concrete. Solar power and batteries account for almost 80 percent of the new generation expected to be built in the United States in 2026, while natural gas was the largest single source of electricity used in 2025, with projections for continued growth. Gas in particular has become a go-to power source for data centers, which are projected to consume large volumes of it over the next decade. Both the solar and gas industries back the bill. Tim Pawlenty, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, has said the country would be "constipated" without permitting reform.

One obstacle is political, not procedural. Data centers are a "toxic" subject for voters, according to Alex Lundry, president of D.C.-based polling firm Redbud Consulting. Recent surveys show Democrats, Republicans, and independents strongly oppose data centers being built in their communities.

"If you phrase permitting reform as serving data centers, the polling results get way worse," Lundry said. That puts legislators — many up for reelection in November — in a bind: they want to make it easier to build electrical infrastructure that facilitates the data center boom without voters connecting the two.

The other obstacle sits at the White House. President Donald Trump has signaled he would stop blocking renewable energy projects to entice Democrats into a deal. Democrats worry that even if renewable-friendly provisions become law, the administration could keep blocking wind and solar in practice, and some Democrats say those concerns have stalled the bill's progress.

"I appreciate very much what the Trump administration has done to move in this direction, but in order to brief colleagues on what this really means, we need just a bit more clarity on exactly what return to regular order for wind and solar projects looks like," Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told reporters this week. "So that's still to be done, but that I think can happen in fairly short order."

The demand pressure extends well beyond data centers. Americans are electrifying with heat pumps, appliances, and electric vehicles, and the efficiency gains from LED lighting and other fixtures that kept U.S. electricity use flat through the 2010s have largely been exhausted. Reshoring manufacturing would add further load. Data centers are accelerating and intensifying that spike, straining grids and supply chains, and developers like Google have joined the lobbying for reform.

Environmental groups are split from some Democratic legislators on how far to go. The Natural Resources Defense Council wants faster renewable development without weakening bedrock environmental laws, and its executives have called for land-use plans that ease renewable siting while protecting local ecosystems. Democratic legislators are weighing compromises on environmental protections to support renewables and grid reliability. Republicans, many of whom question the severity of climate change, want to power new economic growth.

Competitiveness framing is also in play. Trump administration officials, legislators from both parties, and energy industry leaders at the Clean Energy Week conference in Washington, D.C., in mid-September called for America to be "competitive" and "dominant" through energy buildout, citing anxiety that hobbling data centers and AI would let China gain economic and military ground.

"While Communist China cuts corners to get ahead, a mountain of red tape has America fighting the energy war with one hand tied behind our backs," Senator Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said in a statement last month.

Lundry warned that message is losing force with voters. "Being competitive with China used to be an effective message, but it isn't anymore," he said. His firm's September poll found 71 percent of respondents agreed that "making renewable energy a bigger part of the country's energy supply is the right move," and 70 percent said their energy bills rose in the past year — suggesting a clean-power and cost framing polls far better.

The House has already responded to ratepayer anxiety. Days before senators said their draft was nearly finished, the House passed a bill calling on states — but not requiring them — to force data centers to pay for their own electricity generation, aiming to shield households from rising bills. That bill is now stalled in the Senate, where some Democrats say it is too soft.

What happens next turns on two milestones: the Trump administration providing the "regular order" clarity on wind and solar permitting that Whitehouse demands, and the post-midterm legislative calendar — where, especially if Republicans lose control of Congress, the permitting bill will compete with everything else for floor time.