Streamlining permitting, and political wins (and blockers)

The big industry news this week came from the Biden administration, who announced two final rules to reform the federal permitting process. Under the new rules, which aim to clear the transmission queue, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will be the primary point of contact between developers and the federal government.

Permitting reform has long been the administration’s white whale, but Congress, which controls certain important elements like the laws governing environmental reviews, has thus far failed to get much done. Maeve Allsup and Lisa Martine Jenkins wrote about the implications of these latest rules.

And speaking of permitting reform...on the latest Political Climate — which officially relaunched today! — hosts Julia Pyper , Emily Domenech , and Brandon Hurlbut look at how the massive permitting backlog is impacting project buildout, and what the Inflation Reduction Act might be able to do to address it.

As Domenech puts it: "the IRA is never gonna be 'successful,' the Biden policies aren't going to be 'successful,' unless there's a bipartisan investment in moving those permitting policies forward." And elsewhere in the episode: what can we expect come November for the IRA depending on election results?

In other big news: Jeff Bezos donated $100 million to fight climate change, battery use is growing in California, and debt reigns supreme across the climate tech space.

And elsewhere on the site this week: Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) 's foray into "data center microgrids," the latest clean energy tax credit marketplace from LevelTen Energy , BlackRock 's complicated position on climate, and much more.

As always, for our full editorial coverage, subscribe to our email newsletter.