Republicans did something rare in Washington. They passed a bipartisan permitting reform bill through the House. The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 would speed up construction of the pipelines, power plants, and grid upgrades this country needs. It should be an easy win, but Senate Democrats have put in a poison pill where it’s most likely to be overlooked: the so-called “transmission title,” a section about the grid and electricity transmission.

The poison pill mandates that the federal government can override local opposition to sprawling energy generation and transmission land grabs. The Democrats’ purpose is to protect the wind industry, the same industry Democrats have subsidized since the Obama years and never stopped defending under former President Joe Biden. Wind power costs more to generate, produces inorganic, nonbiodegradable waste, and takes vastly more land than other power generation.