STATEMENT: Senator Blunt Rochester Opposes Senate Permitting Reform Bill

U.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) today released a statement in opposition to the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA):

"My goals for this bill were to create a strong economy with clean energy, lower costs, and protect our health and environment. While I commend the work Senators Heinrich and Whitehouse put into the negotiations of this updated permitting reform package, and I'm grateful two of my bills were included, this bill still falls short. I concur with 17 Attorneys General across the country, including Delaware's, that more time is needed to strengthen this bill. I'm especially concerned about provisions in this package that will actively weaken environmental protections. For these reasons, I can't support this iteration of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to negotiate a more comprehensive, far-reaching package in the new Congress."

Senator Blunt Rochester advocated for the inclusion of the following provisions in BAAJA:

• The bipartisan Data Center Community Empowerment Act, which would:
  • Establish a program at the Department of Energy to:
    • Provide technical assistance to State, local, and Tribal governments on the potential energy, water, infrastructure, economic, and other community impacts associated with data center development;
    • Develop a Data Center Community Toolkit with easy-to-understand information and resources specifically designed for nontechnical local officials;
    • Provide independent project analysis at a community's request, including an assessment of information voluntarily provided by a data center developer and the reliability of its data and reasonableness of its assumptions, projections, and conclusions; and
    • Preserve local decision-making by requiring DOE to remain neutral on individual data center projects and prohibiting the Department from recommending whether a particular project should be approved or rejected.
• The bipartisan Brownfields Reauthorization Act of 2025, which would reauthorize the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Brownfields program