Timothy B. Lee

Very glad to see the NYT editorial board endorse BAAJA, the bipartisan permitting reform bill. Key points from the article: 1. "Democrats who call climate change an emergency should not defend a permitting system too slow to build the clean energy that would address it." 2. "[BAAJA] would make it easier to build solar energy farms, battery storage, power lines and more. As a result, it would reduce energy prices. The status quo is expensive, dirty and unstable. The country needs to build a lot of big, new things to make its future cheaper and cleaner." 3. "The bill’s Democratic skeptics are making a mistake. President Trump would almost certainly veto a follow-up bill next year. And time matters, especially for the climate. Congress should pass this bill now. It can then return next year and pass other bills that would do even more good." 4. "Today, it typically takes between 5 and 13 years to build a long-distance power line, like the one that transports clean hydropower from Quebec to New England. That line took about a decade to finish, and opened in January. It has enough capacity to meet about one-fifth of Massachusetts’s electricity demand, and it’s projected to save consumers $50 million a year." 5. "A more robust, cleaner grid would make American energy more reliable and less dependent on hostile foreign nations. No country can embargo the wind." 6. "[BAAJA] would force data center operators to pay the full costs of the electricity they use, protecting the average electricity consumer." 7. "On net, the bill would cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by as much as 18 percent by 2040. It would do so in part by nearly tripling the construction of high-voltage transmission lines." 8. "Anyone who cares about climate change should cheer this bill. And a party that just won an election on affordability should not pass up a chance to start delivering immediately."