Public Sector Energy guy

It would be helpful to disambiguate these two claims, both true imo: 1. BAAJA treats new data much centers worse than other grid users, making them pay the full cost of the upgrades they trigger *and* a full share of the existing grid (and states can the elect to charge them even more on top). This redounds to the benefit of all other grid users. 2. BAAJA makes it easier to build about anything that needs a federal permit and/or new power, and data centers benefit from that the same way factories, housing, transit projects etc do.

Podesta's reading of BAAJA is incorrect. BAAJA’s project certainty title, Title IV, would not stop courts from reversing permits issued illegally under the substantive laws that authorize the permitted conduct. Nor does BAAJA prevent courts from setting aside permits that violate substantive environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, etc. (Or any other provision of law! Labor law, the Constitution, etc etc etc). And BAAJA Section 1401(b)(1)(A) expressly allows an agency to revoke a permit when "required to take such action by order of a court of competent jurisdiction." BAAJA would limit remedies under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Under BAAJA, if an agency’s environmental or historic preservation review was inadequate, a court could order it fixed but could not "set aside" the underlying permit while the agency made the fix. But as important as NEPA and NHPA may be to some, they simply are not the entirety of federal law, nor the only basis to challenge federal action.