Gas, solar, and tech companies all want this bill. Will Congress pass it?

A bipartisan group of senators is close to a deal on permitting reform, a long-stalled effort to speed up approval of new energy projects. The push has gained urgency because electricity demand is climbing fast, driven partly by the tech industry's massive build-out of data centers, which strain power grids. The draft bill isn't public yet, but it would likely make it easier to build both renewable and fossil fuel projects by cutting environmental review requirements, loosening rules under the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, and making permits harder to challenge in court once issued.

This mostly plays out far from any single house — it's about the power plants, pipelines, and transmission lines that feed the grid. But it matters to homeowners because it could shape how fast the country adds solar power (expected to be the biggest source of new electricity generation this year) versus natural gas, and how quickly the grid can handle rising demand from electric vehicles, heat pumps, and other electric appliances people are adding to their homes.

There's also a fight over who pays for data centers' huge power appetite. The House recently passed a bill encouraging states to require data centers to cover the cost of their own electricity supply, aiming to keep those costs off regular utility bills. That bill is currently stuck in the Senate. Meanwhile, negotiators say the permitting bill likely won't be finished until after the November midterms, and its final shape could shift depending on which party controls Congress afterward.