"The sponsors of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act say it will improve energy infrastructure development. The truth is that it will fast-track environmental destruction."
"Washington has a gift for cloaking unpopular ideas in appealing names. One recent example is the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, or BAAJA, a sweeping “permitting reform” measure introduced this September by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, Mike Lee, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Martin Heinrich. Once stripped of its deceptive branding, the bill is an out-and-out assault on the National Environmental Policy Act, the bedrock environmental law that has for more than 50 years required the federal government to look before it leaps.
NEPA’s genius is its modesty. As the Supreme Court has repeatedly noted, it’s a purely procedural statute. It dictates no outcomes but requires agencies to stop and think — to generate, consider, and disclose the potential environmental consequences of their actions before shovels hit the ground. Often called the “Magna Carta” of environmental law, NEPA has been emulated worldwide.
BAAJA keeps NEPA’s title while hollowing out nearly everything that makes it work: detailed review of environmental risks, rigorous analysis of available alternatives with less harmful effects, meaningful public input before agencies commit to harmful actions, and — most dangerously — the ability of courts to enforce any of it.
The bill has a minor positive or two; it would restore some of the authority of the Council on Environmental Quality that two courts in 2024 appeared to strip away, allowing the Council to standardize federal agencies’ NEPA procedures. The deal, however, is terribly lopsided and devalues NEPA’s essential purposes."
Alejandro E. Camacho and Robert L. Glicksman report for the Revelator October 23, 2026.
