The bipartisan Senate energy permitting bill unveiled Wednesday would order regional grid operators and utilities to streamline transmission planning and permitting — reforms that modeling shows could unlock nearly 100 GW of additional wind, solar and battery capacity and roughly 40 GW of new interregional transfer capability by 2035.

The analysis, conducted by Greenline Insights for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), covered four major grid regions stretching from the mid-Atlantic coast to the California border that together serve more than half the country's electricity demand. It found the bill's reforms could reduce the cost of delivering electricity by roughly $7 billion by 2035 compared with a business-as-usual trajectory — a net figure that already accounts for $1.9 billion in new transmission investment. Residential electricity bills would fall by about $1.1 billion under the modeled scenario.

"If Congress wanted to expand and de-congest the nation's transmission grid, these are the policy changes that can get that done," said Rob Gramlich, president of consultancy Grid Strategies and a longtime proponent of transmission reform. "It is very likely that this bill, if passed, would reduce consumer utility bills over time as the transmission system expands and access to low-cost generation improves."

What the bill actually mandates

The legislation would require grid operators and utilities to coordinate buildouts so that new power plants — solar and wind farms, batteries and other resources — can connect to serve growing demand. It would mandate the use of advanced transmission technologies that expand capacity on both new and existing lines. State and federal regulators would gain tighter oversight over less efficient local transmission planning.

Many of the transmission provisions were previously proposed under a 2024 bill, C2ES President Nathaniel Keohane said at a Wednesday press conference. The new package strengthens previously mandated interconnection and transmission planning reforms and adds measures that will "make it more predictable, easier for new energy generation to connect to the grid," he said.

That matters because interconnection queues are the binding constraint on the clean energy buildout. Transmission bottlenecks currently prevent hundreds of gigawatts of solar, wind and battery projects from connecting across the country, and only a fraction of potential clean energy capacity is reaching construction while demand from data centers, electric vehicles and broader economic growth accelerates.

"Really simply, we need to build more energy infrastructure in this country," Keohane said. "We need to do that faster, and these reforms will help."

Ashna Aggarwal, director of analysis at Greenline Insights, said the modeling indicated the nearly 40 GW of increased interregional capacity could carry power to distant regions hit by extreme weather events — a reliability function that has become central to grid planning after successive regional emergencies.

The fuel-neutral catch

The reforms would equally ease permitting and interconnection for the wave of fossil gas plants now proposed nationwide. "This is not a world in which natural gas disappears completely," Aggarwal said. "It does remain the largest source of electricity generation in 2035."

The Electric Power Supply Association, whose members skew heavily toward gas-fired generation, backed the package. "Demand for electricity is rising, and the energy infrastructure, including power plants, transmission lines, and natural gas pipelines, required to supply that demand needs a more efficient and predictable path for investment," CEO Todd Snitchler said in a Wednesday statement.

Clean energy groups — Advanced Energy United, the American Clean Power Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association — also support the bill. Their argument is straightforward: solar, batteries and wind are cheaper and faster to build than thermal plants, so they win on a grid that can actually absorb new capacity.

"Across categories, this tries to rein in delays and uncertainties that add time and cost to building new infrastructure in this country," said Caitlin Marquis, managing director of Advanced Energy United.

The fault lines ahead

The bill's path in the House is uncertain. Speaker Mike Johnson (R) has adjourned the chamber until after the November midterm elections. Republicans and Democrats remain at odds over environmental regulation reforms, with Republicans pushing changes favorable to the fossil fuel industry and Democrats demanding the Trump administration halt what they call attacks on clean energy.

Some environmental groups oppose provisions that would limit the time and scope of challenges to energy projects under federal environmental law, arguing the streamlining would unleash a harmful expansion of fossil infrastructure.

The stakes for the generation mix are explicit. If the grid cannot grow fast enough, Keohane warned, data centers may proceed with plans for tens of gigawatts of behind-the-meter gas-fired plants despite their costs and environmental burdens.

"We all see the enormous booming energy demand that's happening right now. That demand is going to be met," he said. "Whether it's met with clean energy that can compete on the economics on a level playing field, or whether it's met behind the meter with all sorts of other kinds of technologies that don't serve the communities they're in, that's really what's at issue."

The milestone to watch: whether the Senate package survives a House vote after the November midterms — the decision point that determines whether the modeled 100 GW and $7 billion in delivery savings materialize or stay on paper.